splendor. Behind the façade Summary lurks a paradoxical confidence man/pilgrim who does nol believe A feminisl dose reading of himself lo be the soul of financial WalkerPercy's The moviegoer. integrily andstability thalheadver- tises but who does yearn for Resumo psychological integrily. Encum- bered In his search for spiritual Leitura feminista e minuciosa meaning and self-knowledge bythe do livro The moviegoer do very jumble of cultural fragmenis escritor americano contem projecied on the façade. Binx does porâneo wish ironically on a more profound and idealistic levei to plan people"s Walker lives. and he waits to plan lives — Gesture and Style Percy. his own and olhers. But like his lilerary forbearers. lhe unreliable Myfirst narrators Miles Coverdale. Jake idea was lhe buãding itself. It Barnes. and Nick Carraway. and lookslikea min Melville's Pierre and the failed iature bank Southern searcher Quentin Com- in The Moviegoer with ils Corin- pson. Binx may be unable lo escape ihian pilasters. lhe double-bond of narcissism and pórtico and iron self-deceplion which makes him a scrolls over tlie windows. Tl\e self-righteous crilic ofhis world who Gesto e Estilo em The firm's name. Cutrer, Klosier- employs irony to deny the implica- matin & Lejier is leilercd in lions of his own partlcipaiion and Moviegoer Golhic and below in smallcr responsibility. Or likeanolher set of lellers. the names of lhe Bos lilerary predecessors. Huck Finn. ton mutual funds we repre Ike McCaslin. Warren*s Jack Bur- Geste und Stil in The sent. Il looksfar more conser- den, and Ellison*s Invisible Man. he valive lhan lhe modem baitks may be able lo cast off some of lhe Moviegoer in Genlilly. Il announces to l/u? layers of the façade of the Purilan. world: modem mcthods are rio Enlighlenmenl. Euro-American doubt excellcnl bul here is Soulhem self to discover some rem- good oldfashioncd stability. nanl of a human soul worlhy of a Emory ELLIOTT* bul stability with imaginalion. fulure. A liille bit ofold New England with a CrcoleJlavor. The Par- This comic passage points lo thenon jaçade cosi iwclve lhe conllicl belween the public and lliousand dollars bul commis- privaie man which is ai lhe themalic sions have doublcd. Tlie young cenler of 7Vte moviegoer and of the man uou see insidc is clcarly criticai controversies surrounding tliesoul ojintegrily: lie asks no lhe texl. The problem of the book as more llian lo beallowed loplan il is usually posed is whal sort of yourfuture. Tlxis is true.This is resolulion does Binx achieve ai lhe j ali l as/c. end of the novel? Afler ali his high- minded talk of malaise. everyday- ness. cultural collapse. and the In the midst of lhe exisicniial la- need lo search for new values and a menl of John-Jack-Binx-Rollo- personal spirilual calling. Üinx*s Bolling. the humor of this pas- silualiun at the conclusion is am sage may not ai first be apparcnl. biguous at besl or is at worsl a Like an image out of a novel by sentimental acceplance of his Aunt Fenimore Cooper depicting the Emily's imposcd mission. Of his comic amalgam ofslyles in America, spirilual sceking. Binx says in the the façade blends elements of Epilogue. "I have nol the inclinalion European and American regional lo say much on lhe subject" (187). architecture lo convey a permanenl. ambiguous advertising slogan of • Dcparlnu-nl of Knulish. UiiívitmIv oi purilanical auslerily and classical Califórnia. Klvvrsfüi'. USA. Estudos Germânicos Belo Horizonte V.9 N" 1 p.30-37 DEZ. 1988 30 Revista de Estudos Gcrnutnicos and he retreals behind the hard- Noting the obvious aulobio- emptiness. Instead. style and ges- boiled language of a Hemingway graphical elements in the novel, ture are an integral part ofthe work anti-hero: "much too late to edify or critics often assume that Binx's as a whole. and call attention to the do much of anything except plant a resolution parallels Percy's own sublle forms of communication. fool in the right place as the oppor- quest for answers. Like Percy. Binx bolh verbal and non-verbal. that tunity presents itself — if indeed is a young man who sees through operate between the characters. asskicking is properly distinguished the sham of public rhetoric and Body movement. physical man- from edification" (187-88). He seems discovers the meaning of alienation, nerisms. silences, and shifts in tone to have advanced only slightly from malaise. and náusea. Turning aside often impart coded messages be lhe soldier his aunt told him to be from the false values ofmaterialism tween characters and may suggest whenhe was elght to the rankof drill and empiricism, Binx. like Percy. to the readerotherpossible explana- sergeant. After seeming to prepare was led by European philosophy to tions ofthe noveVs resolution. his heart, and the reader, for his discover a new sense of purpose Close attention to the functions spiritual conversion. he is now "shy" upon which to base a radically new of style andgesture inThe moviegoer on the subject of religion. He ap- plan for life.3 not only provldes a key to the novel's pears embarrassed and awkward ending, but it also can help us ac- about ali that has gone before and The problem with this reading. count for the intricacy of Binx's quick lo complete his manuscripl: however, is that it is not bome out by the text. especially that of the relationships wilh Kate and Aunt "Reticence. therefore. hardly having Emiry and explain the meaning of a place in a document of this kind. final chapter and epilogue. It also overlooks another dimension of his comment in the Epilogue that it seems as good a time as any lo Percy's work thal he himself some- "bolh women And me comical and make an end" (188). A reader may times mentions but that criticism laugh a good deal at my expense" well feel that Binx's Celestial Rail- has tended to slight — his debt to (187). Percy himself has beenac- road ride from New Orleans to cused by several critics of sexlsm. Chicago has merely come full circle American writers. At various times. Percy has said that he admires the and he does admit that his female to bring its pilgrim-seeker to an un- characters do not fare too well.4 expected but hardly transformed works of Poe. Hawlhome, Melville. Twain. Hemingway. Faulkner. O'- However. the women In The station in life. Such ambiguity has Connor. Welty. Ellison and Wright. moviegoermay fare better than it at led many critics to seek out lhe real and he dois his works with literary first may appear. Walker Percy himself to ask him alluslons and wilh references lo In orderto see the roles of Emily what this ali means.2 American hislory and popular cul- and Kate in the novel clearly. it is lure. In fact, alerlness to the many necessary to make distinction be alluslons to American predecessors When critics prepare for these tween the narratorand the narrative can reveal some quite delightful interviews. lhey learn the essenlial audience he addresses and the parodies of the styles of other biographical facts. Percy had a author and his authorial audience. writers. The moviegoer opens wilh tragic childhood. His falher com- Binx makes certain assumptions alluslons lo the opening ofAbsalom. mitted suicide when Walker was about social and cultural attitudes Absalom! where Quentin is sum- eleven. and his mother died in an that he believes he shares with his automobile accident when he was moned by a note to visit his Aunt projected narrative audience. For fifleen. He was raised by a second Rosa. and Mr. Sarlalamaccia's story example. Binx assumes that his of the hunting party at Roaring cousln. William Alexander Percy. a readers share his liberal attitudes "bachelor-poet-lawyer-planter"who Camp recalls Faulkner's The bear. on race and social class and are imparted to Walker the Greek- including the breaking of Binx's dismayed, with him. at the raclst Roman Sloic vision expressed by watch. which alludes to bolh works. and aristocratic attitudes Aunt Aunt Emily in The moviegoer. When he tells of how Judge Anse Emily exhibits in her final outburst Walker went lo the Universily of (rememberAnse Bundren in As 1lay about the decline of the old South. North Carolina to study chemistry dying) ordered him. like Thomas While it is possible that Percy may and to Columbia Universily medicai Sutpen. to build him a lodge. Mr. also make that assumplion about school. During two bouts with Sartalamaccla "walts until the his authorial audience. he makes tuberculosis. he read extensivery in words. the very words. speak them- olher assumptions of which Binx is French and Russian lileralure and selves" (177). And, of course. when never aware. Percy's literary al philosophy. In the late 1940s he they speak. they appear in italics. luslons and parodies of the style of These humorous evocations of married. converted to Roman otherAmericanwriters. for example. Catholicism. settled permanently in America and American literary are signals to the author's audience traditlons are not merely pari of a Covington. Louisiana. and began to ofanotherlevei ofcommunication at wrile essays about alienation. exls- veneer of Americanism that Percy work to which Binx is not privileged. tentialism. malaise. and the failure lays over the philosophical. ofChristlanity In the modem world. European core of his work. in the Once the reader begins to dis- He published his first novel The way that Binx employs the gestures tinguish between these two narra moviegoer In 1961. of movie aclors to mask his inner tive voices.