Walker Percy's The Moviegoer
Walker Percy is the author of The Moviegoer, which is written about a young man named John Binkerson Bolling otherwise known as Binx. He is the main character who grows up in New Orleans. He is a moviegoer who is on a search but the object of his search is not clear. The people he encounters help him along the way, especially his stepbrother Lonnie and an African American man. The Moviegoer takes place during Mardi Gras when Binx discovers that something more is needed in his life.
The story begins with Binx receiving a letter from his Aunt Emily saying that they need to have a talk. This talk is about his cousin Kate who Aunt Emily is worried about. She has been “moping around the house” ever since her fiancé’s death and Aunt Emily wants Binx to cheer her up (28). She wants him to treat Kate as he did before and joke around with her to make her laugh and smile. She has been staying inside and has not interacted with people in a while.
On Binx’s way to his aunt’s house, “the idea of a search occurs to” him (13). “The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something” (13). But what exactly is Binx onto? Binx doesn’t know and doesn’t reveal the purpose of his search because he fears “exposing (his) own ignorance” (14). Is this search about God? Binx “hesitates to answer, since all other Americans have settled the matter for themselves and to give such an answer would amount to setting himself a goal which everyone else has reached – and therefore raising a question in which no one has the slightest interest. For, as everyone knows, the polls report that 98% of Americans believe in God and the remaining 2% are atheists and agnostics – which leaves not a single percentage point for a seeker” (13, 14).
Binx’s search continues through his attraction to the movies that “are onto the search, but throw him further from the truth. The search always ends in despair” (13). The movies are a way for him to fill the emptiness in his life. They give him incite into others lives and into his own life. “Before I see a movie it is necessary for me to learn about something about the theater or the people who operate it, to touch base before going inside” (74). This helps him learn more about how others live and lear...
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... wants with his life. He does not need to be as religious as Lonnie but he has choices. Lonnie is willing to fast even though he is very sick and this gives Binx faith that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Even on Lonnie’s deathbed, he is content. After his “half-brother Lonnie Smith died of a massive virus infection which was never positively identified,” he is asked what will happen to Lonnie (237). The children ask Binx, “When Our Lord raises us up on the last day, will Lonnie still be in a wheelchair or will he be like us?” and he responds with, “he’ll be like you” (240). This he may not act in a religious way but at least he does not deny the Lord. So even though he is not all religious, he has taken the faith of Lonnie and directed it into his life. Lonnie’s belief in the long run affects Binx and helps him so many times in his search.
He started as a moviegoer, living his life through the movies and now he realizes he can live his life through his actions. He was inspired by one he knew very well and by others everyday actions. He was inspired for the better and hopefully his new profession and wife will fill the void that he’s been feeling for so long.
[2] Missing is a rather confusing film to follow at first. Admittedly, I had to view it a few times to understand what was happening. Perhaps the initial feeling after seeing this film is confusion. However, after having watched it a second, fourth, eighth time, what I really felt was anger. Each time I watched the film, the anger and disgust would grow, so much so that it pained me to watch it again. However, in identifying the cause of my anger, I began to realize many things.
In Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature” he attempts to portray the idea that perspective can be skewed by another’s story, personal experience, and other factors that lead people to have these expectations of a sight or study that lessen the experience. He demonstrates this when he makes mention of the tourists at the Grand Canyon, and the Biology student getting compared to the Falkland Islander. The facts he presents are true, but Percy does not go into detail about individual cases leading to a generalized essay that does not show that each individual account is different, and not all expectations are changed from other information given to people will taint the learning environment or the experience, and because of this the points that are not mentioned as well as Percy’s thoughts will be explained and expanded on.
The most important person in Binx’s search is his half-brother Lonnie. Lonnie drags Binx out of his self-induced isolation with his approach to life. Binx doubts his individualistic life by seeing Lonnie’s resilience and insistence on love. For Lonnie, living with illness, everyday is authentic; everyday is a fight against mortality. Lonnie mirrors the completion of all the goals of Binx’s search. He is the only character who has successfully found the meaning that Binx searches for and therefore only requires Binx to be
...ng everything he will leave behind. He is no longer thinking about himself instead he is worrying about the families he has hurt and his own family that he is leaving behind. However, now that it is his time, he has found love and the true meaning behind it.
Sluyter, Dean 1st ed., ‘Cinema nirvana enlightenment lessons from the movies’ (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005).
...k he’s rich and he’s happy because he can have everything he ever wanted was perception. (15-16). But the reality he put a bullet to his head maybe from depression or unhappiness, but it shows this perception and imagination we build on someone and then BAM! People wake up to see the real world and it’s not all they thought it would be.
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
.... He uses his work as a form of therapy and puts his heart and soul into anything he touches. The pain from being unaccepted by his peers and family is put into his work. His nightmares from the past come out on paper. Without the judgment and pain thrown at him, he could have never been as great as he is today. Every aspect of his work has been affected by his life, whether it be relationships, being pushed down, or feeling alone. He has rose from the ashes of his past, taken all of the pain and turned it into something truly beautiful.
Any generic film hero is a model of their community and culture. They help to clearly define and outline the community’s values and cultural conflicts by embodying prime characteristics in their persona. The western hero, like Ethan in The Searchers, is always a figure for civilization amongst the savagery of the wild west. By portraying the roles of a civilization, the hero ...
Charles, T. (n.d.). A Response to HJ McCloskey’s “On Being An Atheist”. Retrieved from Carry your cross: http://charlestinsley.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/a-response-to-hj-mccloskeys-on-being-an-atheist/
First, in the beginning of the story someone was on the phone that cared for Emily, told her mother “I wish you would manage the time to come in and talk with me about your daught...
Congratulations on being admitted to State College! I am glad that you have made your decision to come here. State College has numerous great opportunities to offer its students. You also told me that you are enrolled in English Composition 101. One of the pieces of literature you will encounter in this class will be "The Loss of the Creature", by Walker Percy. For your preparation to the class I can summarize and give you my explanation of "The Loss of the Creature". Throughout the essay Percy tries to get across how any person with expectations or "packages" will not be able to fully accept and learn from any experience.
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
5. Smith, J. M. (2011). Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from
...s you to get lost in a completely different world; it takes you to the future, a place where things are supposed to be better and brighter but instead it is darker and gloomier than ever before. It opens your eyes to something so much bigger and you don’t even realise until you have left the cinema.