Binx

1.What is Binx's philosophy of life? List his categories/elements and elucidate their importance.

I agree that Binx’s story is based in existentialism and I believe the event which catalyzed it was his near death experience during the Korean War. Afterword he is often stuck searching for himself in an “absurd and meaningless world.” Binx tends to try and make himself feel more human in order to escape the absurdity of his life. He doesn’t feel he fits in so he tries to make himself more like everyone else. For example, he begins a search, not for a certain object, but just to have a search like everyone else. Binx is just looking for something to start making sense for him in the world due to the fact that he finds it so hard to re-immerse himself into society.

2. What does Binx get out of going to the movies? Use an example to illustrate your point.

Binx uses the movies as a remedy for his problems in the real world. While watching a movie he is able to enter what he calls, a heightened sense of the world, where he actually feels free. Binx is always combating “everydayness” or normalcy. He is always seeking to step outside an average day in order to fully experience it. The movies are somewhat of a coping mechanism as they allow him to not feel overwhelmed with daily life. For example Binx takes his dying half-brother to the movies in order to deal with the situation of his condition (spinal problem) and at the same time, escape to his own world, the world where he feels a heightened sense of self. In a way it allows him to deal with the pain and accept it as it seems only half real.