Fight Club: Analysis of Novel and Film
Fight Club: Analysis of Novel and film
Fight Club is a potent, diabolically sharp, and nerve chafing satire that was beautifully written by Chuck Palahniuk and adapted to the silver screen by David Fincher. A story masterfully brought together by mischief, mayhem, and ironically, soap. Fight Club is the definition of a cult classic because the issues dealt within the novel touched so close to home to the generation this novel was intended for, generation X. The novel was written in 1996 and quickly made it to the silver screen in 1999. The novel and film are remarkably similar, but at the same time focus on different themes. The character and plot of both the novel and movie are also very much the same, but in ways different.
Theme is the most important element in Fight Club mainly because there are so many themes taking place in both the movie and novel. Palahniuk chooses to focus more on the male masculinity issues of the characters in the story. The novel reflects on the suffering of the average man, the “generation X” male who feels suffocated and condemned in a world of gray-collared working class, a world controlled by consumerism and materialism. A generation suffering from the Oedipus Complex, men raised by women often devoid of a male role model. After the narrator’s first fight with Tyler Durden, the narrator asks who he was really fighting and Tyler replies, “my father”. This line is very crucial to the underlying theme of Tyler’s masculinity issue, his own Oedipus Complex. Tyler shows a sense of anger towards his father for abandoning his family, and shows even greater implications that men raised by women have been forced to subdue their natural aggressive behavior and become more passive, this being the reason Fight Club is invented, to release the pent up emotions brought on by the generation X lifestyle.
Fincher portrays the male masculinity issue phenomenally in his film, but focuses more on Tyler Durden’s philosophy on life that, “ It’s only
Fight Club is a potent, diabolically sharp, and nerve chafing satire that was beautifully written by Chuck Palahniuk and adapted to the silver screen by David Fincher. A story masterfully brought together by mischief, mayhem, and ironically, soap. Fight Club is the definition of a cult classic because the issues dealt within the novel touched so close to home to the generation this novel was intended for, generation X. The novel was written in 1996 and quickly made it to the silver screen in 1999. The novel and film are remarkably similar, but at the same time focus on different themes. The character and plot of both the novel and movie are also very much the same, but in ways different.
Theme is the most important element in Fight Club mainly because there are so many themes taking place in both the movie and novel. Palahniuk chooses to focus more on the male masculinity issues of the characters in the story. The novel reflects on the suffering of the average man, the “generation X” male who feels suffocated and condemned in a world of gray-collared working class, a world controlled by consumerism and materialism. A generation suffering from the Oedipus Complex, men raised by women often devoid of a male role model. After the narrator’s first fight with Tyler Durden, the narrator asks who he was really fighting and Tyler replies, “my father”. This line is very crucial to the underlying theme of Tyler’s masculinity issue, his own Oedipus Complex. Tyler shows a sense of anger towards his father for abandoning his family, and shows even greater implications that men raised by women have been forced to subdue their natural aggressive behavior and become more passive, this being the reason Fight Club is invented, to release the pent up emotions brought on by the generation X lifestyle.
Fincher portrays the male masculinity issue phenomenally in his film, but focuses more on Tyler Durden’s philosophy on life that, “ It’s only
Cited: Kilmanis, Gints. Fight Club Draws Techies for Underground Beatdowns. New York: Associated Press Ruddel, Caroline. Virility and Vulnerability, Splitting Masculinity in Fight Club Brownsville, Texas: Extrapolation Smith, William E. The Use of Value Fight Club in Teaching Theories of Religion New York: Black well Publishing Ta, Lynn M. Hurt So Good: Fight Club, Masculine Violence, and the Crisis of Capitalism. New York: Blackwell Publishing