The Moviegoer: Chapter 5, Section 1 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Wednesday, Binx and Aunt Emily have a talk. Aunt Emily tells Binx that she believes he’s discovered something new. She is darkly civil and humorous, filled with restrained emotion; her smile is menacing. She asks Binx to verify her hypothesis. Isn’t it true that, in the past, people have always behaved according to certain conventions—they may have behaved with courage or cowardice, but nevertheless behaved in ways that were recognizable to everyone? Binx, she says, seems to have found a new option—to simply pass on one’s obligations and do as one likes.

Binx apologizes for not telling Aunt Emily about Kate’s plans to come along to Chicago; it was simple thoughtlessness on his part. But Aunt Emily denies that she is angry with him. Rather, she has discovered that the hopes she’d placed in Binx were without foundation. Binx is a stranger to her. She should have noticed it sooner. Anyway, she now believes that Binx is incapable of caring for anyone, Kate included. If he had, he would never have taken such a sick young girl on such a trip, thereby betraying a sacred trust. Binx doesn’t know how to reply.

Aunt Emily asks Binx if he and Kate were intimate during the trip. Binx replies that “intimate” isn’t really the word for it. Aunt Emily seems somewhat amused by this. She had also wrongly assumed, she says, that people of a certain class use words to mean roughly the same things. She doesn’t mind saying this or even admitting that people of her class are superior to others. That superiority comes from their refusal to shirk their obligations.

This contrasts with today’s society, which elevates the “common,” mediocre person. Today’s society might not be filled with obvious, vile forms of corruption, but people are kinder, more sentimental, and more sincere than ever. Aunt Emily gestures to a man walking down the street and says that if such a person is today considered to be the pinnacle of humanity, then she’s glad to be in her last years.

Aunt Emily looks at Binx and tells him she did the best she could for him. Her goal was to pass on the very best of the Southern heritage and the Bolling heritage: a sense of duty, nobility, and gentleness. She can’t understand how none of this meant anything to Binx. Binx considers for a while and replies that Emily is incorrect; he has always carefully pondered what she taught him. Binx doesn’t have anything else to say in defense of his behavior regarding Kate.

Aunt Emily asks a last question. She wants to know what was in Binx’s mind over the years when they listened to music, read literature, and talked together about goodness, truth, and beauty. Doesn’t Binx love and live by these things? When he says no, she presses him, “What do you love? What do you live by?” Binx is again silent, though he denies that Aunt Emily has failed him in any way. Aunt Emily gives him a dismissive smile, offers her hand, and ushers him out.

As Binx is about to drive off, Kate flags him down and leans into his car. She overheard the whole conversation with Aunt Emily and thinks Binx handled himself stupidly. She tells him to wait for her at his house.