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Fight Club Analysis

Decent Essays

Do you find yourself lost, searching for self-worth in modern Society? The Narrator in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club struggles with insomnia due to his repetitive nine to five office-job. He longs to feel alive, thinking that purchasing materialistic objects and conforming to what modern society considers the norm will fill his void. Tyler Durden, The Narrators alter ego states, “the first step to eternal life is you have to die” (Palahniuk 11). His extreme statement represents that one must let go and forget everything they have come to know in order to truly be free from the pressures society places on them. The conflict in Fight Club is the internal battle to find purpose and one’s role in modern day America. The Narrator’s …show more content…

His sense of helplessness allows him to realize that at some point everyone will die and soon be forgotten. This idea supports the fact that The Narrator is searching for purpose and is unhappy with his life up to this point. The Narrator is beginning to believe in the thought that intimate experiences have more internal satisfaction than the materialistic objects that occupy his home. During what The Narrator calls dreams, the readers get introduced to his alter ego, Tyler Durden. Tyler is everything The Narrator desires to be. He is flamboyant and carefree. The Narrator has a jealous obsession with Tyler, unknown to his conscious mind, that Tyler and himself are the same person. The sex driven relationship Tyler has with Martha Singer proves this thought correct. Martha is infatuated with Tyler. The Narrator cannot stand that Martha gets more attention from Tyler than he does. The Narrator is still unaware to the fact that Tyler is actually himself and they share the same woman. The story often portrays Tyler as some sort of holy like symbol. In Fight Club Tyler often recites its rules, “The first rule about fight club is you don’t talk about fight club” (Palahniuk 48). The members of Fight Club will then recite the rules back as if Tyler is a preacher or a god leading a congregation. Justin Garrison writes in his article God's Middle Children' Metaphysical Rebellion in Chuck Palahniuk's

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