The Moviegoer

“Once I thought of going into law or medicine. I even dreamed of doing something great. But there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable…” 

“Once I thought of going into law or medicine. I even dreamed of doing something great. But there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable…” 

“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life […] To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” 

Binx mentions his “search” at several points throughout the novel, but he never explicitly explains for what he is searching. He has a deep longing for something that perhaps he cannot name himself, and the experience of this longing is just as important to him as the object or experience he desires. In this passage, Binx’s critique or fear of the “everydayness” of life contradicts his desire stated elsewhere in the novel for an ordinary life, implying that Binx is perhaps not as reliable a narrator as his articulate way with words suggests he might be.

“But my father is not one of them. His feet are planted wide apart; the katy is pushed back releasing a forelock. His eyes are alight with an expression I can’t identify; it is not far from what his elders might have called smart-alecky.”

Binx is observing a photograph of his father in his Aunt Emily’s house. In this photograph, Binx’s father is standing with two of his brothers, and Binx carefully notes that his father is separate from his siblings, despite the closeness of their posture. As well, Binx projects onto this image of his father a “smart-alecky” persona. Because Binx’s father died when Binx was an infant, he must rely on his impressions of his father to feel he knows him at all.