While I think an opinion on a book or piece of art can change with time spent thinking on it, I definitely think that first impressions really have an effect on how people view something or someone for a long time. That being said, our discussion in class about the differences between The Awakening, A Streetcar Named Desire, and The Moviegoer really made me want to look back and compare the openings of these three pieces to see what about them may be so polarizing.
The Awakening begins with a parrot speaking in a different language, not only that, but it’s written in third-person and starts discussing the protagonist’s husband. That does a few things in retrospect, it sets up the society that Edna was living in, and it shows how (within the functioning of that society) Edna comes secondary to her husband. While she doesn’t ever really go on and on about the injustices women face, how she’s seen lesser than him, and so on- she does begin to do things for the sheer pleasure of it later on. So, from that perspective, seeing her as an outsider, speaking another language in a manner of speaking, and living pretty much solely in relation to her place as a wife and mother the beginning sets up a lot of the future conflicts and issues she’ll have to sit and mull on.
A Streetcar Named Desire begins mainly with a description of the set, but more specifically the first person to legitimately say anything ends up being Stanley. He’s calling out for Stella, and she mildly calls back telling him not to yell at her. It’s established very quickly that there’s this almost codependent relationship between the married couple, and at first it doesn’t seem like anything is amiss with them. Blanche isn’t even introduced until after the pair leave to go bowling either. Looking at this opening in relationship to the ending of the play is extremely interesting because it’s almost the exact reverse. Blanche leaves, taken away to a mental asylum, with Stella sitting inconsolably crying while Stanley tries to “calm her down”, and it ends up being that he even has the last words and actions in the play before it finishes. It’s almost an entire reversal of the order of events while Stanley still retains his agency and power as a character.
With The Moviegoer, it begins with Binx getting an invitation to have lunch with his aunt. He asserts that he knows what this means, that it’s going to be another predictable lunch, and it introduces one of the main characters, Kate. He then goes on to bluntly explain that his older brother died of pneumonia when he was eight, how his aunt told him that he had to act like a soldier, and how he wondered if that was all he was going to do. It’s interesting because, despite his analytical internal monologue about himself and his family, he never mentions once how it affects him emotionally. There’s even lack of mentioning how strange his apathy towards that situation itself is. So within two paragraphs he has outed himself as being emotionally inept, apathetic, and as someone who likely views themselves as an unapologetic pragmatist. It’s also in first-person which means we as the readers get a first-hand look into his thoughts, actions, and rationale behind it without any sort of outside perspective skewing it. (Yes, first-person is arguably the most biased perspective, but the issue is how removed from the internal thoughts The Awakening and A Streetcar Named Desire are.) The ending scene is dialogue heavy between Binx and Kate, with him sending her on a little errand, her asking for reassurance, and him watching her walk off. The main thing that I personally noticed was his lack of trying to analyze every little thought and action of hers, he just took her how she was, offered her some comfort, took care of the things she needed reassurance for, and waved her off. While he isn’t overly sappy, he doesn’t seem to be as caught up in his own mind, and I got the impression that he felt more settled by this point. Especially compared to the beginning he seemed more at ease.
So, while the Moviegoer wasn’t my personal favorite out of the three books, the first impression that it left with me was definitely a factor in why I wasn’t personally enthralled with him compared to the more general scene-setting openings of the first novel and play we read.