High Expectations in “The Moviegoer”

Recently in my reading, a new theme has come up in “The Moviegoer”. This theme revolves around the main character, Binx and his relationship and expectations with his father. In the book Binx’s father was a renowned doctor and the clear leader in the city and family. But with the death of him in WW1 it leaves a gap in the family and some of these huge expectations have been put upon Binx. Even though Binx as a 30 year old is successful in his own right having been deployed to the Korean War and now is a successful stockbroker his family still looks for more. This is shown by his Aunt pushing him to go back to school to be a doctor like his father. Throughout the book the family tries to compare Binx and his father and look down upon him for not following in his footsteps. Binx tries to brush this off but has quotes in the book like “My mother and my Aunt think I’m smart because I am quiet and absent-minded, and because my Father and Grandfather were smart.” His family thinks he has the same passions and talents as his father and push him to go back to school and often tell him he is wasting his skills by not going into the sciences or research. This pressure to fill there shoes pushes Binx to have trouble finding what he really wants to do in the world. And in the second half of the book it seems will be around that topic of him minding his path and himself.