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Chapter 1, Section 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Moviegoer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Value Systems
Women, Love, and Sex
Modern Life and the Search for Meaning
Loss, Suffering, and Death
Summary
Analysis
Binx is still at his aunt’s house; the rain has stopped. Kate calls him. She is working on renovating a section of the house and is in good spirits. Binx understands—it seems that if only Kate could find the right place, then she could live her life. But when Binx brings up the parade again, Kate grows nervous and picks at her thumb, her breathing shallow. But when Binx asks, she says it isn’t that bad this time.
Places and external environments are important to both Binx and Kate. Because of his own search, Binx grasps that Kate’s anxiety stems, at least partly, from not knowing where she belongs in the world. Though the precise nature of Kate’s mental illness isn’t explained, she appears to suffer symptoms consistent with panic attacks. The prospect of being around people triggers them.
Themes
They chat about Walter. Kate says she isn’t sure if she’s going to marry him—even though he’s already going around the Cutrers’ house measuring the walls. Kate tells Binx that although she lets Aunt Emily believe that the car accident is what bothers her, the truth is that the accident “gave [her] life.” It’s her secret, sort of like the war is Binx’s secret: after someone endures an experience like that, everyone says they’re impressed by how well you survived and how well you’re doing now.
Even though they’re not married yet, Walter already shows an attitude of ownership about Kate’s family home, suggesting that he takes a similarly domineering attitude toward Kate herself, which she finds oppressive. Kate also implies that she felt stifled by her previous engagement—that’s why its abrupt ending via a tragic car accident felt liberating to her. She has discovered that surviving a tragedy earns people’s respect, yet this admiration blinds people to a survivor’s ongoing suffering.
Themes
Kate tells Binx about the happiest moment of her life. It happened in the fall of 1955. She was 19 and about to marry Lyell, who was a good man. While they were driving home from a football game in the fog, Lyell passed a car and collided head-on with a truck of Black cotton-pickers. Kate doesn’t remember what happened to her during the crash, but she later woke up on the front porch of a shack, uninjured. She heard someone say that the white man had been killed. All Kate could think about was that she didn’t want to face Lyell’s family, so she refused offers of a ride. Instead she got on a passing bus, rode to Natchez, checked into a hotel, and enjoyed a bath and a big breakfast. When her bloodstained clothes came back from the cleaner’s, she caught a train back to New Orleans and walked home in the early evening.
Kate describes the accident that killed Lyell, derailed her intended marriage, and changed the course of her life. Because Kate seems to have genuinely liked Lyell, her overwhelming relief at his sudden death is all the more startling. This suggests that Kate never really wanted to get married and that when she was given an unexpected way out, relief overwhelmed all other emotions, giving her a chance to experience freedom and independence for the first time (the luxurious breakfast, the solo trip home without telling anyone). However, this implies that Kate has never fully dealt with her other emotions—like grief and fear—resulting in depression and anxiety.
Themes
Kate’s happiest moment came during the bus ride. She remembers the bus traveling through the bright morning and cool valleys. But after telling the story, Kate’s mood darkens. Binx asks if Kate is going to marry Walter now. She says she probably won’t. She also declines Binx’s offer to go out tonight.
In the novel, vehicle travel symbolizes various stages of a person’s journey through life. Kate’s bus ride was her happiest moment because she experienced freedom for the first time. Being reminded of her engagement to Walter pulls her out of that happy memory. This passage also recalls how Binx prefers traveling by bus.
Themes
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