[posted on behalf of a student]
In Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer the main character, Binx, has a very close relationship with his half-brother, Lonnie, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair. Binx says, “He is my favorite, to tell the truth. Like me, he is a moviegoer. He will go see anything. But we are good friends because he knows I do not feel sorry for him. For one thing, he has the gift of believing that he can offer his sufferings in reparation for men’s indifference to the pierced heart of Jesus Christ. For another thing, I would not mind so much trading places with him. His life is a serene business” (Percy 137). They are close because of their shared love of movies, which they feel others don’t fully understand, as well as Binx does not pity Lonnie, which is important to both of them. Binx feels that Lonnie doesn’t need to be pitied because his life is actually pretty good with his faith in God, and Lonnie doesn’t want to be pitied because he feels that his suffering draws him closer to God.
Binx talks about how he feels Sharon thinks he is just being nice to Lonnie by taking him to the movies and is being unselfish, but in reality he isn’t just doing it for Lonnie; he wants to go too. It is this shared love of movies that helps to make their relationship so strong. After the movie Binx says, “A good night: Lonnie happy (he looks around at me with the liveliest sense of the secret between us; the secret is that Sharon is not and never will be onto the little touches we see in the movie and, in the seeing, know that the other sees–as when Clint Walker tells the saddle tramp in the softest easiest old Virginian voice: ‘Mister, I don’t believe I’d do that if I was you’ – Lonnie is beside himself, doesn’t know whether to watch Clint Walker or me), this ghost of a theater, a warm Southern night, the Western Desert and this fine big sweet piece, Sharon” (Percy 144). Lonnie is thrilled not just with the movie but with the shared connection that he and Binx have when watching movies together as devoted moviegoers. This is what brings the two so close together as it is something only the two of them understand.
One of the other things that brings the two so close together are the serious talks that the two of them have. Binx says, “For Lonnie our Sundays together have a program. First we talk, usually on a religious subject; then we take a ride; then he asks me to do him like Akim” (Percy 164). The talks that they have are important to both of them even though Binx is not religious. By having these talks, Lonnie feels like he is understood by Binx with not just movies as most people would not think that a child of Lonnie’s age could be so serious about religion. Binx, on the other hand, recognizes the importance of religion to Lonnie and is willing to talk about it even if he doesn’t agree or believe in religion or God. This creates an even closer bond between the two of them.