Value Systems
Part of Binx’s personal search for meaning includes assessing the moral codes others live by, and the ways other people find meaning in their lives. Two of the most prominent codes that Binx encounters are religion (specifically his mother Anna Smith’s Catholicism) and the Southern American commitment to honor and duty (exemplified by his Aunt Emily). But for Binx, neither honor nor religion are, by themselves, fitting solutions to the problem of…
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Women, Love, and Sex
Through much of The Moviegoer, Binx appears to be, at best, a superficial philanderer who shows little consideration for women as individuals. In particular, Binx serially dates his secretaries, seeming not to regard them as distinct individuals but as almost interchangeable exemplars of feminine beauty. Through the (mainly physical) delight of such relationships, Binx hopes he will somehow find a shortcut to lasting happiness. However, his attempts inevitably founder because he doesn’t really know…
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Modern Life and the Search for Meaning
Binx Bolling is an ordinary, even archetypal, 1950s American man. A New Orleans stock and bonds broker, Binx is “a model tenant and a model citizen […] [who takes] pleasure in doing all that is expected.” He also enjoys aspects of burgeoning consumerism, like regular moviegoing and trendy new cars, that characterize an increasingly mass-produced, generic American culture. However, deep down, Binx is dissatisfied with this shallow world and yearns to find transcendent meaning and…
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Loss, Suffering, and Death
Many characters in The Moviegoer experience tragedy firsthand and spend their lives trying to come to terms with it. Binx’s step-cousin, Kate, survives a car accident that kills her fiancé and spares her from a marriage she didn’t want, but also plunges her into an ongoing struggle with anxiety and depression. Binx, meanwhile, loses his older brother in childhood and narrowly escapes death himself in the Korean conflict, struggling through each of these…
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