The Moviegoer: Chapter 1, Section 1 Summary & Analysis

One Wednesday morning, Binx Bolling receives an invitation from his aunt to have lunch together. He knows this means she wants to discuss something serious, probably Binx’s future, or her stepdaughter Kate. Binx is reminded of his brother Scott’s death; Binx was eight at the time. As Binx walked behind the hospital with Aunt Emily, his neck prickled with anticipation. Finally, Aunt Emily told Binx that Scotty had died, and that now “it’s all up to you.” She tells Binx he’ll have to “act like a soldier.”

This memory reminds Binx of going to see a movie with Linda last month at Lake Pontchartrain. The suburb where the theater is located has stopped growing, and the theater sits in the middle of an empty field. In the movie, a man had lost his memory and his connection to everything he knew, having to make a fresh start in a strange city. To Binx, this didn’t seem like a complete tragedy.

After the movie, Binx had enjoyed chatting with the theater manager in the dark night, with the lake’s waves splashing over the seawall. Linda, however, was unhappy because Binx didn’t have a car in which to drive them home (he prefers buses and streetcars). She would rather have been taken out for dinner and dancing at a city hotel. At any rate, however, Binx and Linda are no longer dating—he has a new secretary, named Sharon Kincaid.

For the past few years, Binx has lived in a New Orleans suburb called Gentilly. It is not very distinctive-looking; most of its houses are built in a California or Florida style. Binx hasn’t minded this, however. He has tried living with his aunt and uncle in their beautiful house in the historic French Quarter, but somehow the environment alternately enrages and depresses him.

Gentilly, by contrast, is peaceful. There, Binx manages a branch of his uncle’s brokerage firm. He lives in a basement apartment belonging to Mrs. Schexnaydre, a widow. Binx takes pride in being a good tenant and citizen. He stores his important documents in a strongbox. He follows the advice he reads in Consumer Reports and carefully heeds public service announcements on the radio.

One of Binx’s favorite evening activities is going to the movies. While other people treasure the memories of special events in their lives, Binx remembers key moments in movies. His secretary usually accompanies him to the movies. He has dated his last three secretaries—Marcia, Linda, and now Sharon. These relationships usually start off as love affairs, complete with romantic weekends on the Gulf Coast, but Marcia and Linda both broke up with him right when Binx believed they were truly happy. Marcia or Linda would grow more and more silent, and soon Binx and his girlfriend would be tired of each other.

Binx’s job is selling stocks and bonds. Once, he had thought about going into law, medicine, or science, even achieving something great; but he now thinks it’s best to give up big dreams and live an ordinary life, perhaps getting married and having kids. For now, he lives on the main street of Gentilly, called Elysian Fields. Elysian Fields was supposed to be a grand boulevard, but it’s lined by shopping centers and ordinary homes. Next door to Mrs. Schexnaydre’s is a new school building. Binx enjoys strolling on the playground after work.

Suddenly, however, Binx’s quiet life in Gentilly has changed. This morning, for the first time in years, Binx woke up thinking about “a search.” He had dreamed of the war, which was the first time he thought of the search—it came to him while he was injured in a ditch. His shoulder was pressed to the ground, and he couldn’t get up. For Binx, his best times are also his worst times, and this particular “worst” was one of his very best. As he watched a dung beetle scratching in the dirt, Binx realized he was “onto something,” and he promised himself that if he ever got out of this ditch, he would pursue a search. But after the war, Binx forgot about his search.

This morning, however, as Binx got dressed and filled his pockets with the usual things (like a notebook, pencil, and slide rule), it’s as if he saw these objects for the first time. At that moment, his search became possible. He thinks about the search again as he travels to his Aunt Emily’s house on the bus. (Binx doesn’t enjoy cars because he feels invisible in them.) He takes a route through the French Quarter because he read in the newspaper that William Holden is in town, shooting scenes for a movie.

It’s a gray, gloomy day in March. Binx sits on a bus that’s mostly crowded with women shoppers; five Black women sit together in the back. Next to Binx sits an especially beautiful woman who appears to be smiling flirtatiously at him. Binx imagines that if this were a movie, it would be so easy for them to meet. But then he gets distracted again by the idea of the search.

The search is what anyone would pursue if they weren’t absorbed by the “everydayness” of life. This morning, Binx awoke feeling like a “castaway” on a strange island. Any castaway explores the environment carefully for clues. If someone becomes aware of the idea of a search, that person is “onto something.” But if someone fails to be “onto something,” then that person is inevitably “in despair.”

The movies are aware of the search, but they never get it right—they always end with despair. The main character always starts out as a castaway, but he ends up falling in love and settling down, eventually sinking into everydayness until “he might just as well be dead.”

Binx isn’t sure about the object of his search. He’s heard, for example, that 98% of Americans believe in God. Have those people already found what Binx is seeking—or has the idea of a search never even occurred to them? Binx sincerely doesn’t know.

Lost in thought, Binx has been staring at the beautiful passenger’s calf, sometimes frowning. Before she gets off the bus, Binx tries smiling at the woman, but he gets no response. A little later, he gets off the bus at the French Quarter and walks through neighborhoods of old ironwork and overgrown gardens. It turns out he’s having a lucky day—he spots William Holden. Binx follows, watching as a young couple gets between him and the movie star. Binx quickly surmises that the young couple are Northerners on their honeymoon. The couple looks unhappy. But when William Holden asks the young man for a match and then chats with him in a friendly way, the young man’s whole demeanor changes; Binx thinks the fellow now feels validated in his existence.

It’s lunchtime, and a parade, put on by a women’s krewe, is going down the street. Binx thinks the current krewe includes Linda; he had promised to come and watch her in the parade. However, because of the women’s masks, he isn’t sure if she’s among them. Binx senses a despair in the atmosphere that he cannot explain.

Binx spends 10 minutes talking with a friend, Eddie Lovell, and then cannot remember what they discussed. As Binx listens to Eddie talk about his marriage and business and admires the man’s self-confident stance, he wonders if his own life in Gentilly is a joke and if Eddie is really living. A few years ago, Kate was engaged to Eddie’s brother Lyell. The night before their wedding, Lyell was killed in a car accident, which Kate survived. When Eddie asks how Kate is doing nowadays, Binx assures him that Kate seems well and happy.