I don’t think that Binx has resolved his search successfully. I think that he doesn’t really know what he is searching for. I think that he is trying to find something different in his world and he is not sure how to go about changing his normal day-to-day life. I think that he is feeling that he should be doing something meaningful with his life but he is unsure what he should be doing. I think that he is unsatisfied with his life choices and he wants to try to not be like everyone else. He doesn’t want to be “so sunk in everydayness that he might just as well be dead”. (p13)
I think that Binx is very intimidated by the thought of being responsible for someone else. He seems to go along with his aunt whenever she wants him to talk to or check on his step-cousin Kate to make sure that she is alright. It’s almost like Binx is still a child when he visits his aunt. He mainly sits and observes things that are going on in the house. He doesn’t really fit in with the other family members. He doesn’t particularly care for Mardi Gras and the activities that go along with the Carnival celebrations like his uncles.
Binx’s mother and aunt both tell him that he is just like his father. He says he doesn’t remember much about his father but he has the impression that his father didn’t fit in with the family either. When he is looking at a picture of his uncles and his father (p25) he describes “my father is not one of them”. He doesn’t quite know what sets his father apart from his brothers but he feels connected to his father because they are both different.
Walker Percy seems to make turning 30 a big turning point for Binx. By the time most people turn 30, they have a family, a career, and some inkling of where their life is headed. Most people seem content with following that path. Binx is not one of those people. He is still flirting with his secretaries and his step-cousin, Kate, and he has no desire to settle down and get married. He seems to enjoy managing the small branch of his uncle’s brokerage firm but he doesn’t seem to have any aspirations beyond that. He says that “it is not a bad life at all.” (p9) But he still is on this “search”.
By the end of the book, Binx and Kate have gotten married. He seems content to look after her and direct her life. She is looking for someone to tell her exactly what to do and when to do it. “What I want is to believe in someone completely and then do what he wants me to do.” Kate wants someone else to lead her. Binx has been a follower also in his life and he seems to be ok with leading Kate in their future. He has become comfortable with his life and it seems that his aunt has accepted that he is just “a very ordinary fellow”. (p237)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree that Binx does not know what he is searching for. The search is almost a game that he plays to contemplate life. Binx's life has very little meaning, and his relationships are shallow which do not require hardly any effort on his part.
ReplyDeleteI don't have the feeling he is intimidated by the idea of being responsible for Kate. He seems to take it in stride that he will just deal with her as he has in the past. As he points out, she has money so he is not worried about taking care of her financially. However, Binx is out of touch with reality of what a real relationship requires of a husband.
Binx certainly is childlike in his dealings with Aunt Emily. He is very much a pawn to simply be moved about the chess board by Aunt Emily in any way she desires. After he returns from Chicago he meets with his aunt and she lays it on the line that he has not lived up to her standards. Binx responds like a child admitting his hand was in the cookie jar and really not standing up for himself at all.
You bring up a good point about Percy making a big deal re: Binx turning 30 years old. I am reminded that Jesus began his ministry at the age of 30. Percy was a deeply religious man, and he may have been contrasting the difference in maturity between the two (not that it is fair to be compared to God).
I believe that it is a relief to Binx for his aunt to finally accept him as "a very ordinary fellow". He no longer has to pretend otherwise. Also, this allows him to accept his own ordinariness.