FIGHT CLUB COMPLETE ESSAY

Fight Club As A Whole

Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk is a story told through violence and pain. Throughout the novel, this violence and pain is used to display the most important aspect of the novel, the theme. The theme is explained by the setting, plot development and the inner struggle that the protagonist experiences through the duration of the novel.

Although the novel Fight Club has many underlining themes there is one that is predominantly evident. As made clear by the antagonist, Tyler Durden, every person has the power to make history.

At the beginning of the novel, Tyler begins his quest for violence. This quest begins small but slowly escalates into chaotic mass of pain. He begins with the creation of “Fight Club”. As time progresses; he yearns for more power which leads him to the creation of “Project Mayhem”. This new group acts as a force that wreaks havoc on the city and takes the violence seen at “Fight Club” to a whole new level. Within a short period of time, Tyler and his followers begin murdering innocent people and as this continues, Tyler only gains more and more support. With this support, “Fight Club” and “Project Mayhem” spread across the nation.

Tyler makes it clear to his followers that they must obey his command and that they are part of a great cause. He pounds these ideas into their minds until these ideas are all that they know. However, Tyler makes the idea that everyone has the power to make history especially clear. Tyler both verbally and physically shows his followers that this is possible. He shows them verbally by speaking it to them, but physically by taking his ideas and making them understood on a global perspective through “Project Mayhem”.

Throughout time, a single man or women has had the power to make many differences in the world. For example, Napoleon, Hitler and Gandhi were each only one man but found the power to create great. The novel Fight Club displayed this idea through the timeline of Tyler’s quest for violence and showed that every person has the power to make history, just like Tyler.

In the novel Fight Club the protagonist is a nameless narrator who is explains the story of his experiences. He is an average man of average height and body size in his mid-thirties. He has a complex mind and goes through a great inner struggle through the development of the novel

The narrator of this novel is an intelligent man who over thinks many situations. Throughout the novel, the thoughts of the narrator are revealed and it is made clear that the narrator shows a great amount of negative thought towards almost all aspects of the world through his sarcasm and cynicism. From his dissatisfaction with life, the narrator is depressed.

The depression of the narrator is crucial in understanding the journey that he goes through from the beginning of the story to the end. The narrator is bored with his life, and because of this, his mind creates an alter ego. This alter ego takes control of the narrator’s mind and body and has experiences that the narrator would have never dreamed of. He is the polar opposite of the narrator. Since this alter ego is the opposite of the narrator, and the narrator is generally a good member of society, the alter ego is quite villainous and tries to wreak havoc on the city that they live in. The narrator’s alter ego acts as the force against him. Thus the protagonist is his own antagonist.

Since the protagonist of this novel is also in a way the antagonist, he undergoes a great inner struggle as to which personality will win for full control of him. The most important thing the narrator must do to take back full control is to truly understand what is going on. It takes a great amount of time for him to understand that the man terrorizing the city is really his alter ego. Once he has this he realization, he decides that he must kill himself in order to truly destroy the threat to society that is his alter ego. In this suicide attempt his alter ego believes that both the narrator and the alter ego have died so the alter ego is destroyed creating the resolution of conflict in the novel.

Somehow the narrator survives his suicide attempt and has a new understanding of the world. Through his journey in the novel, he learns that what led him to the creation of his alter ego was the monotony of his life. From his experience he learns that he must appreciate his life and not allow it to slip into the rut of sameness that it was at the start of the novel.

The journey that the narrator of Fight Club takes is one that leads him from monotony to happiness. He does this through the inner struggle he goes through with his alter ego. This leads him to understanding what is truly important in life.

The novel Fight Club is based on an internal struggle within one man. The development of the plot is the key to understanding the book.

The novel begins with this nameless narrator. He wakes up, goes to the same job, and has the same experiences every day. He is unsatisfied with life which leads him to develop insomnia. The antidote to this is going to support groups for people with terminal illness and listening to their issues. This drowns away the monotony of his life but there is another person who attends these meetings for the same reason named Marla Singer who disgusts and ruins the experience for him.

The narrator meets a man named Tyler Durden, and they become close and begin a group called “Fight Club” where men come to fight and release their aggression. The narrator finds his sanctum within “Fight club” and can again sleep. Tyler begins to have sex with a woman who disgusts the narrator. This woman is Marla. However the narrator starts having dreams that he is having sex with Marla. (Is this part an essential aspect of the plot?)

Tyler wants power and begins a group called “Project Mayhem”. He recruits members of “Fight Club” and creates army of people under his control which spreads across the nation. However when the narrator finds that people are calling him sir and Mr. Durden which confuses him. Consequently, he realizes that Tyler Durden is his alter ego and that he has been living as the narrator sleeps. The narrator is terrified but decides Tyler must die and decides to shoot himself in the head. Tyler believes that he is dead so his presence in the narrator’s mind is lost but somehow the narrator survives.

The development of the plot in the novel Fight Club is crucial in understanding the inner struggle the narrator experiences.

The book Fight Club is primarily set in the modern city somewhere in the United States where the narrator lives. However, when the events of this book happen holds much more importance than where they occur.

Fight Club takes place over approximately three to four months and is set in modern time. The places within the city that the book mostly takes place are at “Fight Club” in the basement of a bar, at the house that Tyler lives in, and in the streets of the city. Although the places in which the novel takes place are important, when they happen is crucial because of the fact that the narrator has two personalities. One of these is himself and has full control during the day, and the other is Tyler Durden, who takes action during the night while the narrator is said to be sleeping. Therefore, it is important for the reader to pay close attention to what time of day it is in the novel while reading. For example if it is mid-day, then the narrator is awake and has full control over his mind. Thus if Tyler is a scene during the day, then he is a hallucination of the narrator, but if the narrator is said to be sleeping which is usually at night, then Tyler has full control and can reek havoc on the city. This creates a dark association with night in the novel that becomes more intense as the plot develops. This creates suspense and anticipation for the upcoming events.

From the beginning of the novel, Fight Club indulges in feelings of darkness and suspense. As the plot unfolds, it becomes apparent that the time in which events are happening is crucial in understanding the novel and only adds to the feelings of darkness and suspense.

The world of Fight Club is filled with violence and pain. These violent experiences cause the protagonist to go through a great inner struggle through the duration of the novel. His journey through the events and places in this book teaches him the underlining theme behind the story that every person has the power to make history.