[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_moviegoer.png]]
->''"What is the nature of the search? you ask. Really it is very simple; at least for a fellow like me. So simple that it is easily overlooked. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life."''

Published in [[TheSixties 1961]], ''The Moviegoer'' by Walker Percy is an [[UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}} existentialist]] novel about [[TheEveryman Binx]], a humdrum stockbroker who drifts through life going to movies and dating girls.

It's notable for {{subvert|edTrope}}ing a lot of tropes, and refuting DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife.

!!This novel contains examples of:
* AllMenArePerverts: In Kate's salacious comic books, men are different kinds of perverts, from hulking brute to southern gentleman.
* TheBigEasy: Where Binx is from and the book takes place. Binx actually hates the [[UsefulNotes/NewOrleans French Quarter]] and the book averts most of the tropes expected from the setting. Largely it's used to show that "The South" is dying, and comes down on the side of 'it never really was that great'.
* TheDandy: Binx meets one on the train to New Orleans, and [[DeconstructedTrope points out exactly why he'll never be happy]]. Funnily enough, he is also a "moviegoer", which means he's an existentialist like Binx but is too caught up in feelings and finding the deeper meaning in things.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Averted; Binx is really ambivalent to anything resembling life goals and is all around ambitionless, he spends his time making money, [[TitleDrop going to the movies]], and dating his secretaries. It's actually his family that thinks this must be true, and they more or less bully him into trying to get personal growth. The page quote is Binx's view on the subject.
* TheEveryman: Nothing sets Binx apart from the average man on the street, something he is totally okay with.
* {{Foil}}: How Percy uses Binx to make social commentary.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Kate's demeanor is a toned-down version of this until we find out that she's a pill-popper, then she goes into SadClown.
* ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans: Subverted. The one-week timeframe of the books is before, during and after the party, but Binx goes to a business trip while it's on and nothing comes from it.
* KissingCousins: Binx and Kate, which almost gets him in trouble.
* PhraseCatcher: Binx and his dad are repeatedly told they "should go into (medical) research".
* TitleDrop: Binx calls himself a moviegoer, and uses the phrase to describe his cousin and TheDandy. Both of them are in on "The Search".
* UnbuiltTrope: Percy makes a lot of valid criticisms of TheSixties before they actually got under way.
* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: {{Inverted|Trope}}; Kate tells Binx that she made a pass at their black butler, but he refused her.
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