NOVEL:
Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk
SYNOPSIS
Fight Club centers on an
anonymous Narrator, who works as a product recall specialist for an unnamed car
company. Because of the stress of his job and the jet lag brought upon by
frequent business trips, he begins to suffer from recurring insomnia. When he
seeks treatment, the Narrator's doctor advises him to visit a support group for
testicular cancer victims to "see what real suffering is like". The
Narrator finds that sharing the problems of others—despite not actually having
testicular cancer himself—alleviates his insomnia.
The narrator's unique treatment
works until he meets Marla Singer, another "tourist" who visits the
support group under false pretenses. The possibly disturbed Marla reminds the
Narrator that he is a faker who does not belong there. He begins to hate Marla
for keeping him from crying, and, therefore, from sleeping. After a
confrontation, the two agree to attend separate support group meetings to avoid
each other. The truce is uneasy, however, and the Narrator's insomnia returns.
Whilst on a nude beach, the
Narrator meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic extremist of mysterious means. After
an explosion destroys the narrator's condominium, he asks to stay at Tyler's
house. Tyler agrees, but asks for something in return: "I want you to hit
me as hard as you can."[10] Both men find that they enjoy the ensuing
fistfight. They subsequently move in together and establish a "fight
club", drawing countless men with similar temperaments into bare-knuckle
fighting matches, set to the following rules:
·
You don't talk about fight club.
·
You don't talk about fight club.[note 2]
·
When someone says stop, or goes limp, the fight
is over.[note 3]
·
Only two guys to a fight.
·
One fight at a time.
·
They fight without shirts or shoes.
·
The fights go on as long as they have to.
·
If this is your first night at fight club, you
have to fight.
— Fight Club, pages 48–50[11]
Later in the book, a mechanic
tells the Narrator about two new rules of the fight club: that nobody is the
center of the fight club except for the two men fighting, and that the fight
club will always be free.
Marla, noticing that the Narrator
hasn't recently attended his support groups, calls him to claim that she has
overdosed on Xanax in a half-hearted suicide attempt. Tyler returns from work,
picks up the phone to Marla's drug-induced rambling, and rescues her. Tyler and
Marla embark on an uneasy affair that confounds the Narrator and confuses
Marla. Throughout this affair, Marla is unaware both of fight club's existence
and the interaction between Tyler and the Narrator. Because Tyler and Marla are
never seen at the same time, the Narrator wonders if Tyler and Marla are the
same person.
As fight club attains a
nationwide presence, Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas,
recruiting fight club's members to participate in increasingly elaborate pranks
on corporate America. He eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members
and forms "Project Mayhem," a cult-like organization that trains
itself as an army to bring down modern civilization. This organization, like
fight club, is controlled by a set of rules:
You don't ask questions.
You don't ask questions.
No excuses.
No lies.
You have to trust Tyler.
— Fight Club, pages 119, 122,
125[12]
While initially a loyal
participant in Project Mayhem, the Narrator becomes uncomfortable with the
increasing destructiveness of its activities. He resolves to stop Tyler and his
followers when Bob, a friend of his from the testicular cancer support group,
is killed during one of Project Mayhem's sabotage operations. However, the
Narrator learns that he himself is Tyler;[note 4] Tyler is not a separate person,
but a separate personality.
As the Narrator's mental state
deteriorated, his mind formed a new personality that was able to escape from
the problems of his life. Marla inadvertently reveals to the Narrator that he
and Tyler are the same person. Tyler's affair with Marla—whom the Narrator
professes to dislike—was actually his own affair with Marla. The Narrator's
bouts of insomnia had actually been Tyler's personality surfacing. Tyler would
be active whenever the Narrator was "sleeping." The Tyler personality
not only created fight club, but also blew up the Narrator's condo.
Tyler plans to blow up a
skyscraper using homemade bombs created by Project Mayhem; the actual target of
the explosion, however, is the nearby national museum. Tyler plans to die as a
martyr during this event, taking the Narrator's life as well. Realizing this,
the Narrator sets out to stop Tyler, although Tyler is always thinking ahead of
him. The Narrator makes his way to the roof of the building, where he is held
at gunpoint by Tyler. However, when Marla comes to the roof with one of the
support groups, Tyler vanishes, as he "was his hallucination, not
hers."[13]
With Tyler gone, the Narrator
waits for the bomb to explode and kill him. However, the bomb malfunctions
because Tyler mixed paraffin into the explosives. Still alive and holding
Tyler's gun, the narrator makes the first decision that is truly his own: he
puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself. Some time later, he awakens in a
mental hospital, believing that he is in Heaven and imagines an argument with
God over human nature. The book ends with the Narrator being approached by
hospital employees who reveal themselves to be Project members. They tell him
that their plans still continue, and that they are expecting Tyler to come back
CRITICISM:
CRITICISM:
The movie and
book both focus on existentialism- which is the philosophy that an individual
must make meaning from a chaotic and empty universe- and this individual is
often the object of suffering. Throughout the movie, there are scenes where
there is clear cut evidence of this. For instance, Tyler claims, "Only
after disaster can we be resurrected" [1]. Another piece of evidence of
existentialism comes when Tyler states, "It's only after we've lost
everything that we are free to do anything." At one point, Tyler inflicts
a chemical burn onto Jack, which is a lesson that tries to explain the sole
fact that you will never get anywhere in life until hitting rock bottom.
Existentialism defines the need for one to make decisions to better one's life-
and that a person is who they are determined to be. Clearly, the movie focuses
on this philosophy throughout the entire movie- as several main themes and
subtexts are based from it.
Also, there is
the matter of gender identity confusion to take into effect. Although Jack
shouldn't be considered feminine, there is a definite difference between Jack
and Tyler in regards to masculinity. For instance, Jack collects furniture for
a hobby. This is far from masculine, and far from the gender identity of Tyler.
It would seem that the gender identity confusion adds to the correct balance of
id and superego and ultimately helps Jack achieve things he otherwise
could not. For instance, Jack gets into his first fight, albeit with himself.
He defies his boss, in an act of rebellion against conformity. He also finds an
attractive woman to date off and on, depending on the state of his identity.
This lack of masculinity could be attributed to Jack's lack of a father figure
in early childhood- but either way, it ends up causing catastrophic
consequences in his personality.
Finally, it is
important to relate psychosis and sleep deprivation to the film. Jack suffers
from a bad case of insomnia- which can have detrimental effects. These effects
can lead to forms of psychosis- which makes schizophrenia a very viable
effect as a result. When Jack is denied medication, he instead finds release in
another form. Because of this he experiences schizophrenia less than he was
before, although he might not have known it. It would seem that everything
follows a massive chain reaction- which eventually leads to schizophrenia and
an eventual internal conflict.Fight Club is
incredibly accurate in terms of validity. This comes to no surprise, as the
author is both very qualified and very knowledgeable. Everything that could be
explained in medical terms can likewise be explained through several theories
or ideas. The effects of these health afflictions are very real- such as the
insomnia or schizophrenia. Interesting psychological terms such as
self-actualization and gender identity come into play- and with amazing
accuracy.
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