The Moviegoer

This is my first blog...so... sorry if it makes no sense

Does Binx find what he was looking for?
I believe the search was really just Binx looking for an identity- some kind of fulfillment and validation in the world. When he says he doesn’t want to talk about the search, I saw it in two ways: one, hilarious- it simply struck me as very amusing- and two, as if the search was no longer relevant. Early on in the book, Binx discusses the search:

"Truthfully, it is the fear of exposing my own ignorance which constrains me from mentioning the object of my search. For, to begin with, I cannot even answer this, the simplest and most basic of all questions: Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind them? That is to say" Have 98% of Americans already found what I seek or are they suck in everydayness that not even the possibility of a search has occurred to them?" (14)

And so on and so on do we hear about this search… sporadically and mysteriously throughout the book until, at one point-and without realizing it- the reader seems to finally understand what the search is for Binx. Towards the end of the book when Binx seems to have either a) found the conclusion to his search or b) given up, the reader knows a few things: he decides to go to medical school and had married Kate. Personally, I think Binx found an answer he didn’t realize he was looking for and that he is satisfied with ending the search.

It seems he has found validation, or at least a sturdy ground to stand on…

I’d like to argue more that perhaps he has just been so distracted from his search that when he says he doesn’t wish to talk about it- because maybe he forgot all about it. When Binx said that in the epilogue, I laughed out loud. It seemed typical… if you’ve ever known a child who is determined to run away to the circus- they have every intention to do so. He or she will pack a suitcase, a snack and head out the front door and then will become distracted by some friends playing kickball down the street or something else as equally promising. Ask “How was the circus?” and that child will blush and murmur “fine…” and then won’t mention it again. To me, the search is irrelevant to Binx at the end of the book, but not because it was irrelevant during the entirety of the book. I apologize if I don’t make sense… Another example I could use would be travelling for vacation- typically, one remembers the vacation, not the awful car-ride to get there.

I’ll end with applause to Percy. No writer has ever made me this confused and not made me hate him or her. I will not deny that for the majority of the book I was scratching my head but at the same time I thought I was getting the gist (like reading a foreign language with only a bit of the vocabulary). At the same time, I grew to like Kate and Binx and Aunt Emily.