The Moviegoer

If someone today were to ask me what I felt about The Moviegoer, I’m not sure if I could give him or her a straight answer. Part of me wants to like Binx and in turn, the book while another part wants to denounce everything about it. Binx’s desperate need to feel validated and important is a universal trait that everyone can relate to somehow. However any deeper that, I can’t connect with Binx in a way I would want to connect with the main character of a novel. In the beginning, I saw Binx as a womanizer, arrogant, and headstrong. The first time I remember saying “I don’t really like Binx” is when he is talking about his car and how he disliked driving it because he became invisible, and my dislike was deepened through his relationships with his secretaries.

Though he said he hated the war, it made him feel validated and animated. Through his combat experience, he learned a lot about himself and decided to start his search when he noticed the dung beetle crawling on the battlefield. After all, he says that people are most alive in times of catastrophe or chaos. Kate feels the same way Binx does about tragedy and connects to him much better than Sharon. Binx talks with both Sharon and Kate about the war and his feelings surrounding it. Where Kate thrives in the idea that she would do well in war, Sharon says she would hate to be involved. Kate, in-turn becomes Binx's alter-ego in the story.

The way he interacts with other characters tells the reader how multifaceted Binx is. He is addressed by many names (John "Jack" "Binx" Bolling), and with each name comes a different personality. As Binx, he is more true to himself (as he is with Kate). Binx is a dreamer and introspective. However, Jack (who he is with Sharon and others) is slightly more outgoing and superficial. Jack is the classic story of wanting what he cannot have, but when he gets what he wants, he loses interest quickly. Looking at it this way, I begin to dislike Jack much more than I dislike Binx.

“The search” Binx is on is never clearly defined. He isn’t on a quest looking for one specific thing. He desperately searches for certification in which he typically finds watching movies (because movies that take place in your neighborhood makes you someone, somewhere and not anyone, anywhere). Binx’s life is full of complete uncertainty from religion to politics to love interests.

Towards the end of the book, Binx starts to grow on me. I begin to understand where he is coming from as I get to know him through the pages. His interactions with Kate and Lonnie save him as a character and the first time I remember actually liking Binx was in first interactions with Lonnie. Yet, I am highly disappointed with the ending of the book. It seems as if Binx gives up his search and falls into an ordinary lifestyle. He has everything that he would have earlier described as malaise or dead. Nonetheless, the more I think about it, the more I question if he finds what he is searching for all along. Perhaps Binx’s search for validity and certification truly ends when he finds his niche in life that he saw in a negative light towards the beginning of the book.