The Theme Of Fatherlessness In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

There are over 20 million children living in fatherless homes (Fathers.com, n.d.). Henceforth, the recurring theme of absent fathers in fiction - resulting from divorce, bereavement or personal choice - is expected. The question of how that issue is being captured and translated onto paper arises - Are authors providing readers of different age brackets relatable or comprehensible content for this issue? Seeing that in reality, these children suffer substantially from the consequences; behavioural problems, substance abuse, child obesity, etc (Fatherhood.org, n.d.). The purpose of this essay is to explore the impact of fatherlessness on a character and overall plot of a story. By doing so, I hope to distinguish the various approaches, techniques

In this case, the Narrator has taken to consumer culture. In order to carry out his role as a man, he purchases ‘Njurunda coffee tables in the shape of a lime green yin and an orange yang that fit together to make a circle’, ‘Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stripe pattern’ and a ‘set of hand-blown green glass dishes with the tiny bubbles and imperfections, little bits of sand, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous aboriginal peoples of wherever’. The way in which he describes these pieces of furniture suggest his obsession in perfecting his role otherwise he feels a strong sense of emptiness. This can be seen in the way he says, ‘Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own

However, this extreme prospect can also be seen in books for early readers, only less sadistic. It’s similar in that it plays with the idea of reality even though it could potentially lack logic - it doesn’t cross the line to fantasy. The purpose is to provide readers with an alternate lifestyle that is somewhat idealistic. Early readers (ages 5 -7) enjoy reading about the things they wish they could do or the way the world should be. Fight Club uses the same approach by providing readers (adults) with a world where men are violently fighting the system and are getting away with it. Their anger towards society is especially understandable and relatable when taken from this context: ‘We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.’

However, if we were to look into a world where a war is under way, would Tyler’s philosophy change? In How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, the importance of finding meaning for life, now that a father isn’t entirely in the picture, is trivial. Daisy doesn’t have a longing to return to her father, and neither does she have a perpetuating resentment towards him.