Binx's Outlook and Movie Importance

1. Binx certainly has a very existential outlook to life at times. Existentialists focus most of there attention to the concrete and less to the abstract or supernatural realm. Binx fits the part on many occassions but one in particular stands out where he shows of his angst and malaise. "On its way home the MG becomes infested with malaise...Thousands of cars are strung out along the Gulf Coast, whole families,and all with the same vacant headachy look... A beautiful boulevard, ten thousand handsome cars, fifty thousand handsome, well fed and kind-hearted people, and the malaise settles on us like a fall-out"(Percy 166). The Korean War more than likely played a large part in fueling this outlook, as well the loss of his older brother Scott and eventually, his half-brother Lonnie . The author's vernacular and syntax and imaging also ensures existential feel to the book. Binx's search also plays a role in his existential mindset. Binx states, " The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not stuck in the everydayness of his own life... To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair". Ultimately, Binx's fascination with all that he can be concretely aware of is finite and will be appeased, focusing his search back to the supernatural answers, or in his mind, questions.
2. Binx's infatuation with the movies is his drug, escape, and coping mechanism. It enables him to see past the visible, touchable, thinkable part of his life and dream a little. The movie's give Binx a reason to dream in a entirely existential world he has created for himself. It allows him to have hope despite a somewhat hopeless outlook on life. By relating his own life to the movies he can help realize his dreams, or at least fantasize. His dreaming is very evident on page four when he talks of a movie about a man who lost everything including his memory and had to make a "fresh start" in a "strange city".