Fight Club's Criticism of the American Dream

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Dystopia- A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control, Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about, when given the definition of a dystopia famous literary works such as 1984 or A Brave New World seem to flutter the mind, but we don’t think of popular books of today that can make just as big of a dystopian impact. Chuck Palahniuk’s gruesomely truthful novel, Fight Club, gives readers a raw look on just how miserable and monotonous the “American Dream” can become. In the generic definition of dystopia it is stated that a dystopia is a futuristic universe, Fight Club is not a futuristic universe, it is a mirror on how society is today. Dystopian authors usually are writing their novel as a warning on how society is going to become, but Palahniuk didn’t write any predictions, he wrote a novel on how society exactly was when he wrote the novel. The narrator of this aggressive tale is trapped in his own life and trying to find absolutely anything to fill the hole of self petty that he created himself because he chose to follow the “American Dream” which ultimately makes his life even more horrible than it was before. Fight Club is based off of real life events that actually happened to Palahniuk himself. In an interview with DVD talk the question, “How much of this was based on real things?” is asked and Palahniuk answers with the startling answer “Everything except for the clubs themselves.” By making the novel almost 100 percent accurate, Palahniuk is showing readers that this is exactly how society is, the world is actually this bad and it is on...

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...nline Encyclopedia. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

"Fight Club's Criticism of the American Dream - Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog." Critics and Builders. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

Bradford, Wade. "Themes from "Death of a Salesman" - The American Dream in "Death of a Salesman"" Plays / Drama. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

"How Fight Club Relates to Men's Struggles with Masculinity and Violence in Contemporary Culture." HubPages. Web. 22 Feb. 2011. .

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