Summary

‘Fight Club’ is about an unnamed narrator who is struggling with insomnia. In order for him to cope with this, he decides to join several support groups for he feels that looking at people who are at the stage of near-death helps him with his insomnia. While on a business trip, he meets  Tyler Durden, a charismatic and charming men whom he later lives with after understanding that his apartment has been burned down. During one of their moments together at a bar restaurant, outside at the parking lot of the bar, Tyler tells the narrator to punch him. Willingly, the narrator agrees to do it and there, “Fight Club” was established. ‘Fight Club’ became a huge hit. It was an underground fighting scene where people specifically men would come and fight other men. It was a place where these men can escape their unexciting life in the outside world and basically let out their emotions. As ‘Fight Club’ evolved, Tyler without the involvement of the narrator uses this to give birth to ‘Project Mayhem’, an anarchistic organization operated to destroy the American social structure. The members of this group are recruited fight club members. However, the narrator is not too amused at this and tries to put an end to all of this after realizing the destruction Project Mayhem had produced throughout the country. As well, Bob, a friend whom he had met at one of the several support groups and now apart of Project Mayhem dies during one of the operations instructed by Tyler. Confused and distraught from everything, the narrator calls Marla Singer, a woman who is having a sexual relationship with Tyler and one whom the narrator had met in one of the support groups is shocked to find out from her that him himself is actually...Tyler Durden.

Writing Style

The novel is organized in a way where once realizing the huge plot twist that the narrator was actually Tyler Durden himself, you look at the previous events that have occurred and recognize that their are many clues that show that Tyler and the narrator are the same person. Once understanding the whole story, it makes the reader desire to reread the story again. The writing style of the book is full of dark humor; it engages the reader to continue reading even without the feel of suspense. The whole story is looked at in the eyes of the narrator and not anyone else meaning it is expressed from the first-person view of the narrator. This is a good thing because it puts us in a perspective where we never expect Tyler to be all in his head.

Literary Devices

Allegory: “You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” (p. 44)

Imagery: "Last week, I tapped a guy and he and I got on the list for a fight. This guy must've had a bad week, got both my arms behind my head in a full nelson and rammed my face into the concrete floor until my teeth bit open the inside of my cheek and my eye was swollen shut and was bleeding, and after I said, stop, I could look down and there was a print of half my face in blood on the floor" (p. 51)

Metaphor: “Everyone smiles with that invisible gun to their head.” (p. 19)

Repetition: “Everything is so far away, a copy of a copy of a copy.” (p. 21).

Symbolism: Tyler Durden: Represents someone/something that we all aspire to become but don’t have the courage to run with it.

The impact that these devices have within the novel is that it created the mood; the atmosphere of how the story will develop. By using these literary devices, the author is able to make the reader really grasp what the story is all about by actually making the audience think about a certain sentence and questioning whether or not there is a meaning behind what is displayed.

Effectiveness

In my opinion, the book is somewhat believable although I find it true that someone could have made in a way their “alter-ego” and for it to have some control over someones life, for it to have complete dominance over someone without them even knowing about it like in the case with  Tyler Durden did over the narrator, I find it skeptical. Maybe it was his insomnia kicking in, but for it to do the things like he did like establish an organized anarchistic group in Project Mayhem, I find that almost hard to believe. To the reader, the book is really engaging because although the book might be hard to comprehend the first time around, as you continue to read the book, each chapter gives us something to look forward to and draws in wanting to read more.

Rating

I would rate this book a 5/5 for being great and would recommend it to another reader of my age group because although from the title itself, the first thing that comes to mind is basically fighting. Yes, that’s part of the story, however, this book has a deeper meaning behind it from someone losing control over his true identity and the conflict between the middle-people and the higher-ranking class. As well, since this book is written in the first person point of view, we can easily put ourselves in the narrator’s shoes and if related to the things that the narrator was going through, have the connection between each other.

Personal Bias

After reading this book, I realized that I do relate to the narrator although we might have not have the similarities in regards to our physical health. Like the narrator, sometimes, we want to be someone in life; something that can be defined as the best person that we can possibly be and what we see as successful. However, there might be obstacles and things that we still hold onto in our lives that block it from happening. In the novel, Tyler says to the narrator that he is free compared to him (the narrator) is not. In connection to the narrator, sometimes we feel trapped in our lives; feeling consumed by the things that surround us and because of that, become overwhelmed giving us less confidence to move forward in reaching our potential.

Author Influences

Author of ‘Fight Club’, Chuck Palahniuk’s writing style have been influenced by authors such as Tom Spanbauer who taught Palahniuk in the years of 1991 to 1996 and from authors ranging from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Edgar Allan Poe. His own background and experiences have always influenced his writing of work. One example of this is in his novel, ‘Lullaby’. It was written to help him cope with the lost of his father, who was murdered. Chuck even said that this book was inspired by sitting in the courtroom watching the man who had killed his father.

Connections to the world/humanity

The larger themes or “real world” issues that are raised through this book are the themes of social equality and the masculinity of men. Even in our society today, there is still this constant battle between the middle-class and the high-class and the need of change where the middle-class is not looked down upon due to their social status but more rather treated the same way. Furthermore, in regards to the theme of masculinity within men, I believe even in today’s world, some men still deal with their issues through violence. Rather than talking it out, they would rather express their emotions in the means of fighting someone else.  

References

Chaplinsky, Joshua. "Strange But True: A Short Biography of Chuck Palahniuk." N.p., n.d. Web.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Fight Club Themes." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web.

"Chuck Palahniuk." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

"Frequently Asked Questions About Chuck Palahniuk." The Cult. N.p., n.d. Web.