Doubles in Fight Club and Cofer's The Other
In the current age of technology and capitalism, many people get caught up in trying to define their individuality with mass produced goods. In David Fincher's movie Fight Club, the narrator, who is commonly referred to as Jack, invents an alter ego to serve as a source of substance in the hallow world of corporate America. This alter ego, named Tyler Durden, is portrayed as a completely psychologically and physically separate being throughout the movie. The inherent polarity in personality between these two personas proves to be a crucial point of interaction between the two characters, and is the basis for most of the action in the movie. Thus, Fight Club depicts the necessity for a balance between the passive and aggressive aspects of the human psyche, which parallels the main theme and insights that are illustrated in Judith Cofer's "The Other."
Jack is "a twentysomething wage slave" of the late 20th century who bases his identity in his material possessions (Smith 58). The scene in his apartment where he discusses the type of things that he owns illustrates this point, and shows that he thinks he can find happiness and identity in these items. As he walks through the apartment it is portrayed as an Ikea catalog with his possessions having product descriptions and prices underneath them. This illustrates the fact that Jack is trying to find happiness through materialism, which proves to be a very hollow lifestyle to partake in and serves as the main catalyst for the creation of Tyler.
Although not as apparently driven by materialism to the extent that Jack is, but equally as conventional, the narrator of "The Other" is ver...
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...er into a life less constrained by professionalism and decorum. However, in both instances, a balance is needed between the two personas. In Fight Club, the struggle is resolved when Jack beats Tyler at his own game by learning to not fear death and to live life to the fullest; however, there is no such ending in "The Other" and the struggle is left for us to resolve.
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Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Digital Video Disc. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2000.
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Even though Skinner made a name for himself through his scientific endeavors, his novel Walden Two displays his literary training and knowledge. By using the metaphor of the sheep to further explain the lives of Walden Two members in an enriching and scholarly way, Skinner manages to weave science and art together. His ability to enforce the ideas of positive reinforcement, acceptance of roles, and the politics of the Walden Code through the simplicity of a flock of sheep shows his literary merit. Skinner proves that he is not only a scientist, but a writer as well.
“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
Ed Norton is the main character in the beginning. He has a meaningless job and he has to go to support groups to feel anything. There he meets Marla, a woman who does the same as him; they are both addicted to support groups. He then meets Brad Pitt. Pitts character forces Norton's character to see that life is meaningless and they begin the fight club. It starts in the basement; it is in confines and is completely regulated. It then shifts to cultural anarchy of vandalism and attacks. Then the members have to pick a fight and lose. The idea of the fight club spreads and becomes like an army and the members become militant. The members no longer "take it out" on each other, they take it out on everyone. The idea of the fight club becomes facist and Tyler becomes like Hitler.
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After reading and evaluating the works of T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, there are various discussion points pertaining to the connection between tragedy and human conditions. Herein, tragedy is the result of a specific human condition, disengagement. This essay aims to identify and explain the behavioural traits between characters in two literary works which leads to a disengagement by the characters from a typical social environment.
The narrator is emasculated in many ways from; his addiction to consumer products, work life, spirit animal, and Tyler Durden. In the novel the Narrator is a consumerist and has the common issue of his things owning him. “The addictions and afflictions of the male characters in Fight Club are directly connected to the film 's interest and investment in the 'disenfranchising ' and 'emasculating ' effects of late capitalist consumer society on masculine identities” (Iocco, Melissa). His insomnia turns out to control his life, causing him to turn to the support group “Remaining Men Together” where he copes with these terminal victims. The Narrator is shown by Tyler Durden that his job is an emasculating factor that he does the same thing over and over again, and that his job sucks. “The men who participate are, apparently, attracted to Fight Club because it allows them to get away from the drudgery and repetition of work life, satisfying a desire to experience something ‘real’ ”(Iocco, Michelle). In the Narrator’s power trips he witnesses his spirit animal is a Penguin. His power animal states his weakness of masculinity, puny and harmless. His power animal explains the Narrator’s life before Tyler and Fight Club. Tyler Durden shows up and the narrator is still overshadowed by him, belittling him more and more through Marla Singer, because Marla is turned on
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