Fight Club

518 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Today's society and consumerism

Throughout the 1999 movie Fight Club post modernistic ideas are displayed and societal norms are challenged by Tyler Durden’s refusal to follow the conventions of today’s culture. The main character in the film is never named and we only know of him as the “Narrator”. Having an unnamed main character represents the postmodern idea of not using labels. This idea of not using labels is also present in Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Grenade”, as the solider that jumps on the grenade is never actually named. The poem also highlights the fact that the speaker views his life as not only his own because of the sacrifice his fellow soldier makes. The film also challenges the usual idea of the American Dream ideology by showing Tyler’s unique lifestyle that the Narrator grows to accept as normal. Today’s consumerist culture is additionally challenged in the movie.
Labeling plays a considerable role in the movie Fight Club. It is significant that the Narrator’s name is not revealed throughout the movie. The fact that he is unnamed allows the audience to picture anyone in his place. Labeling also re...

Show More
Related

  • Fried Green Tomatoes

    1543 Words  | 4 Pages

    "HER ORIGINAL NAME was Patricia Neal"(Reynolds1), but the author of Fried Green Tomatoes is better known under the alias: Fannie Flagg. In the novel Fried Green Tomatoes she uniquely compares the modern day world to the world in the early and the middle 1900’s. As the novel shifts from the 1930’s to the 1980’s the significance of life is seen through two of the main characters, Mrs. Cleo Threadgoode and Evelyn Couch, as life ends and begins. Fannie Flagg shows that living life to its fullest indeed has its consequences, but is the only way to live a happy life without regrets.

    Read More

  • Blade Runner

    731 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plot of the movie “Blade Runner” becomes unrevealed till the end of the movie. Many assumptions about the plot and the final of the movie appear in the spectator’s mind, but not one of these assumptions lasts long. Numerous deceptions in the plot grip the interest of the audience and contribute for the continuing interest to the movie eighteen years after its creation. The main character in the movie is Deckard- the Blade Runner. He is called for a special mission after his retirement, to “air up” four replicants who have shown flaws and have killed people. There are many arguments and deceptions in the plot that reveal the possibility Deckard to be a replicant. Roy is the other leading character of the movie. He appears to be the leader of the replicants- the strongest and the smartest. Roy kills his creator Tyrell. The effect of his actions fulfils the expectation of the spectator for a ruthless machine.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between 1984 And Fight Club

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    “In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four” (Orwell 250). Winston lives in a time where a set of rules preventing him to be free are imposed on him – the Party defines what freedom is and is not. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows (Orwell 103)”.   Winston expresses his views on The Party within his diary even though he knows it is not accepted by The Party or the Thought Police.  The narrator in Fight Club uses fighting as a form of escapism from his anti-consumerist ideologies revealed by his alter-ego, Tyler Durden. “Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns. I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve—let the chips fall where they may. (Fight Club)” Tyler urges the narrator to stop conforming to consumerist-imposed views of perfection and break barriers to evolve. Tyler and the narrator create a medium for people in similar positions to escape from societal bound norms; it is aptly named “Fight Club”. In comparison, both Tyler Durden and the narrator from Fight Club and Winston Smith from 1984 share

    Read More

  • Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    “I had to know what Tyler was doing while I was asleep. If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?” (Palahniuk 32). When Tyler is in action, narrator is not contemporaneous in a sense that he is Tyler now. Tyler is someone who doesn’t give any importance to money-oriented world but he indeed believes in the willpower of constructing a classless society. The narrator is insomniac, depressed, and stuck with unexciting job. Chuck’s prominent, pessimistic, radical work, Fight Club, investigates inner self deeper and deeper into personality, identity, and temperament as a chapter goes by. Through his writing, Chuck Palahniuk comments on the inner conflicts, the psychoanalysis of narrator and Tyler Durden, and the Marxist impression of classicism. By not giving any name to a narrator, author wants readers to engage in the novel and associate oneself with the storyline of narrator. The primary subject and focus of the novel, Fight Club, is to comment socially on the seizing of manhood in the simultaneous world. This novel is, collectively, a male representation where only a single woman, Marla Singer, is exemplified. “Tyler said, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can” (46). This phrase is a mere representation of how to start a manly fight club. However, in the novel this scene is written as if two people are physically fighting and splashing blood all over the parking lot, in reality it’s just an initiation of fight club which resides in narrator’s inner self. The concept of this club is that the more one fights, the more one gets sturdier and tougher. It is also a place where one gets to confront his weaknesses and inner deterioration.

    Read More

  • Raging Bull

    1895 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Raging Bull” (1980) is not a so much a film about boxing but more of a story about a psychotically jealous, sexually insecure borderline homosexual, caged animal of a man, who encourages pain and suffering in his life as almost a form of reparation. Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of a film drags you down into the seedy filth stenched world of former middleweight boxing champion Jake “The Bronx Bull” LaMotta. Masterfully he paints the picture of a beast whose sole drive is not boxing but an insatiable obsessive jealously over his wife and his fear of his own underling sexuality. The movie broke new ground with its brutal unadulterated no-holds-bard look at the vicious sport of boxing by bringing the camera into the ring, giving the viewer the most realistic, primal, and brutal boxing scenes ever filmed. With blood and sweat spraying, flashbulbs’ bursting at every blow Scorsese gives the common man an invitation into the square circle where only the hardest trained gladiators dare to venture.

    Read More

  • Fight Club

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society becomes so rationalized that one must push himself to the extreme in order to feel anything or accomplish anything. The more you fight in the fight club, the tougher and stronger you become. Getting into a fight tests who you are. No one helps you, so you are forced to see your weaknesses. The film celebrates self-destruction and the idea that being on the edge allows you to be beaten because nothing really matters in your life.

    Read More

  • Fight Club and I

    1815 Words  | 4 Pages

    "What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women . . .. I'm a thirty-year-old boy, and I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer I need." These words are from Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club. Tyler Durden is the alter ego, and only known name of the fictional narrator of the novel. Tyler suffers from Dissociative Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Primary Insomnia, and probably a host of other disorders that I am not qualified to properly diagnose.

    Read More

  • Masculinity in "Fight Club"

    2237 Words  | 5 Pages

    Others often use masculinity, most often associated with strength, confidence and self-sufficiency to define a man’s identity. The narrator perceives Tyler Durden as a fearless young man who is independent and living life by his own rules. So is Tyler Durden masculine because of his no nonsense attitude or are his law breaking antics and unusual lifestyle seen as a failure because he is a man with neither family, money nor a well respected job? These typical aspirations are commonly defined as the male American dream, but does following life by the rulebook placed on males by society really make a male masculine? Fight Club specifically debunks the male American dream. It challenges’ the idea that the masculine identity is defined by material items and instead embraces the idea that masculine identity can be found in liberation from conformity and the ability to endure pain.

    Read More

  • 12 Angry Men

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    Juror #1 originally thought that the boy was guilty. He was convinced that the evidence was concrete enough to convict the boy. He continued to think this until the jury voted the first time and saw that one of the jurors thought that the boy was innocent. Then throughout the movie, all of the jurors were slowly convinced that the boy was no guilty.

    Read More

  • Blade Runner

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    Directors use various techniques to create a compelling and memorable motion picture film for the audience. In 1982`s Blade Runner, Ridley Scott portrays various themes of mortality, memory and identity through various film techniques such as editing, cinematography, and mise-en-scène.

    Read More

  • One’s True Identity in Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    One’s identity is established at birth when given a name. Often times, one’s identity can change throughout one’s lifetime. During adolescence, identity can be linked to playing a sport, an instrument, being involved in art, acting, singing, or some other hobby. As adulthood approaches, identity can be described as, but not limited to, the career path someone has chosen, or the family they may or may not have. In the novel Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, the narrator has a difficult time finding his true identity. In the novel the theme identity is discussed as the narrator discovers the truth about himself and who the real Tyler Durden is.

    Read More

  • Fight Club

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main themes of the story are loneliness, materialism, and freedom from society. Tyler was created because of the lack of connection the narrator had with the people around him. The narrator was lonely and attended so many support groups because of it. He was not rejected at the support groups because the members thought he was sick just like they were. Materialism is a reoccurring theme as the narrator mentions how he has worked his entire life for the Ikea items in his apartment. He tried to fill the void in his life by buying worthless, meaningless stuff. People spend too much time working for things they do not need. The narrator comes to the conclusion that, “You are not your job or your possessions.” Only once a person realizes that can he or she finally let go and start living. “It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, “that you’re free to do anything.” In order to be free, we must not care about the stuff we own. Our whole lives are spent working to pay for stuff. If we did not have stuff to pay for, we would not have to work as hard and our time could be spent doing something more meaningful.

    Read More

  • Marxism In Fight Club

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tyler Durden encourages the narrator to give up his consumerist, meaningless life to fight the exploitation inherent in corporate society. Similarly, Marx believed that the capitalist system inherently exploited workers, arguing that the interests of the capitalist class conflicted with that of the working class. Additionally, Marx’s core concept of historical materialism is realized in Fight Club. The narrator in this film strives to express himself through the items he possesses, searching for meaning in his life through physical objects. He looks for release in buying more and more things he does not need. This illustrates historical materialism, in which Marx argues that people are what they have. Additionally, Marx argues that the flow of ideas is also controlled by the capitalist class. The narrator in Fight Club is forced to come to terms with these ideas. He learns that buying and consuming more material objects does not make him happy, and is forced to confront the destruction of his consumerist identity when his apartment is suddenly destroyed. Additionally, the narrator’s thoughts are never completely his own, suggesting that he is grappling with the controlled flow of ideas inherent in capitalist society. All of these factors combine to force the narrator to look for life fulfillment elsewhere, hence the formation of fight club and the friendship of the dangerous Tyler

    Read More

  • Gattaca

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Provide examples of how labels are used in the film and their effects on people. Be specific with your examples.

    Read More

  • Setting Analysis – “Fight Club”

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrator is changed by his experience with fight club; his life becomes all about fight club. Fight club becomes the reason for the narrators existence. The narrator experiences a shift in consciousness; in that, he is able to understand more of who he is and what really matters in life through fight clubs trial by fire. Through battle and a mindset of counterculture and a complete expulsion of ...

    Read More

More about Fight Club

Open Document