In: Social Issues
...Interpretation of Consumerism’s Grasp on Identity “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy stuff we don't need.” This quote directly from David Fincher’s film The Fight Club perfectly sums up the message of the film. In Fincher’s film, the main character, played by Edward Norton, is an automobile company employee who suffers from insomnia. His life seems to be controlled by material goods and he works a white collar job in American society. This nameless character is meant to represent the average male who leads a boring life and is obsessed with his own material possessions. As the movie progresses this character, the narrator, seeks a more exciting life after meeting Tyler Durden and having his apartment destroyed. Together Tyler and the narrator create the fight club which seems to give them an identity that they never before had. As the fight club grows it becomes Project Mayhem; a rogue project with a goal to erase debt by destroying buildings that records of credit card companys. In his film, The Fight Club, David Fincher attempts to send many different underlying messages to his viewers. However, the main purpose of the film is to encourage the audience to break free from the hold of consumerism and to develop their own identity. In particular, this message is geared towards middle aged men living a sedentary life trying to be something that they aren’t; men whose identity is formed by possessions such as......
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...Fight Club the movie, 1999, is based upon the book with the same title. It is a unique look into the mind of an individual, the narrator, played by Edward Norton, who throughout the movie is not named. He is referred to as Jack, but it is not clear if that is really his name. The other main character in the movie, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, is the opposite of the Narrator/Jack, in personality, demeanor, charm, and attraction. We find out that they are two personalities, within the same body. I had never seen Fight Club before, assuming it was just another movie about an underground fight club. Despite being such a huge fan of both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, I avoided the movie. I was way off the mark! Per the advice of his doctor, the narrator/Jack goes to a cancer support group for men with testicular cancer, where he meets Bob. Bob, aka Robert Pulson, once a body builder, but since developing cancer, has become bankrupt, divorced, and now has female looking breast; double D’s by the size of them. He and Jack find comfort with each other, and Jack cuddles into Bob’s breast. Jack considers the therapy sessions as vacation. Jack also finds relief of his insomnia; or so we think. While at one of these sessions, Jack meets Marla Singer, who is like him, for she too attends various group therapies for comfort and they agree to alternate between sessions as neither of them are cancer victims. When asked why she does it, she says “when people think you......
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...job is a liability consultant for an automotive company that requires him to take frequent trips to different time zones which often leave him jet lagged. He goes to the doctor to get a prescription to help him sleep, but the doctor prescribes support groups for cancer patients, so that Jack could see what real suffering was. During one of his business trips he meets Tyler Durden, a nihilist soap salesman who is disgruntled with common culture. Eventually in the movie Tyler takes the fight club and turns it into Project Mayhem, which organizes increasingly serious anti-capitalism vandalism ventures. During one of these missions, a fight club member dies, and Jack tries to shut down the operation in Tyler’s absence. He retraces Tyler’s steps and learns that fight clubs have been started in every major city. It is in one of these cities that someone calls him Tyler. Jack calls Marla and begins to realize that Tyler is a split personality of his own personality. The Jack/Tyler character in Fight Club can’t but be considered mentally unbalanced when a proper comparison is made to the characteristics of those said to be in good mental health. Jack/Tyler simply doesn’t feel good about himself; which is seen in the beginning of the movie when he’s attending a series of support groups for people suffering from a variety of health problems. His ambition is to feel something; to escape the numbness of what he is beginning to view as an empty existence. Jack/Tyler has no meaningful......
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...Hunter Davis-Interpersonal Communication Fight Club Fight Club, a 1999 American film, is a brilliantly constructed film of escaping reality and dealing with pain in the famous art form of fighting. Director David Flincher adapted the film from the 1996 novel. Main actors, Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden and Edward Norton as the narrator, act excellently as they deal with their reality by celebrating violence in underground fight clubs. The narrator becomes involved in a relationship triangle between Durden and a self-indulgent woman, Helena Bonham-Carter as Marla Singer. This Rated R action/drama film takes you on a psychological twist as you learn about how a soap maker and a white collar employee seek out freedom and restoration of masculinity. I would rate this movie 4 out of 5 brains because although it gets confusing, it makes you think and as long as you pay attention you will be able to grasp the concept. On top of making you think, I believe it has educational value, such as for a psychology or English class, it is great to pick apart and analyze many of its aspects. This is a film you’ll be talking and thinking about for days. Edward Norton plays an unnamed narrator who is an everyman and a chronic insomniac. With an unfulfilling white collar job, his only dream is to own all of the contents in an IKEA catalogue. To deal with his pain, he seeks 12-step meetings where he can find comfort in people less fortunate than him and find relief in their distress. These......
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...To what extent do you agree that Fight Club is an updated version of The Great Gatsby that captures the zeitgeist of modernism? The extent to which Palahniuk’s Fight Club bears resemblance to Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is debatable despite the fact that there are numerous similarities between the two texts in terms of its narrative structure dominant themes and the presentation of characters thus their respective zeitgeist of modernism, both texts have clearly their own mark that make them truly unique. Clearly the extent of the similarities between the two texts cannot be overlooked when Palahniuk stated himself in the Afterword that ‘’Gatsby’s updated a little’’, as both novels have apostolic narratives it can be seen that both reveal the hollow superficial nature that existed within society in both the 1920’s and 1990’s. Fight Club and The Great Gatsby can be contrasted as, Fitzgerald describes Gatsby’s lavish parties, flamboyant suits and mansion to be a template for the narrator’s own existence in ‘Fight Club’. His life is dominated by his IKEA ‘’condo’’ and his own job, which he then finds that he has nothing to live for and is empty inside. He is someone who has ‘’ lost everything’’ and is ‘’ Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete.’’, which also illustrates the impossibility of the American Dream of both novels. ‘’Fight Club’’ thrusts the idea of conspicuous consumption even further as the narrator describes the destruction of material possessions no......
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...2013 Fight Club and Reservoir Dogs Fight Club and Reservoir Dogs portray similar themes. The primary characters in both films are disconnected from themselves and therefore have trouble functioning in their own lives. These characters also have differing beliefs on the nature of their own realities and are disconnected from them. Similarly, David Fincher and Quinton Tarantino use thematic and stylistic devices to disconnect the viewer from the reality of the films’ narratives. In Reservoir Dogs, the characters are disconnected from themselves; they do not even have names. Instead, they are each assigned a color and are referred to by their colleagues as Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, Mr. White, Mr. Brown, etc. The men are selected to do a job for a criminal organization that involves stealing precious jewels. What makes this organization so odd, however, is the fact that none of the men selected are allowed to use their real names. The head of the organization, Joe, assigns these color names to the criminals, creating an air of disconnect, as neither the characters in the film nor the viewers know their true identities. This removal of identity not only creates disconnection among the characters, but also causes disconnection in the characters’ own selves, negatively effecting their ability to be the “professionals” that they so often pride themselves on being. This adverse affect on their lives ultimately causes the deaths of each character. At the beginning of Fight Club,......
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...Comparisson of Masculinity and the Psychoanalytic theories using the example of the Fight Club. Introduction. Fight club is an interesting film to be reflected through psychoanalytic and masculinity theories. In this essay I will attempt to present the number of elements of narrative that can be explained by these theories. I intend to use citations from Marc A. Price's essay The Fight for Self: The Language of the Unconscious in Fight club regarding psychoanalytical concepts such as ego, super-ego and the id as well as Lynn M. Ta's dissertation Hurt So Good: Fight Club, Masculine Violence, and the Crisis of Capitalism (regarding masulinity in the film), as these works were the main sources of my research. Then I'll try to come to the conclusion on which of two theories have more strength at being applied to films (primarily Fight Club). Application of theories and analysis. The connection that we shall draw between psychoanalytic theory and the film Fight Club is simple and is this; the narrator is a representation of the ego, for Tyler Durden we can substitute the id. In the Freudian psychic model the ego is the civilized part of consciousness. The ego is that part of the psychic apparatus that is modified so that a being can interact safely with other beings and thus remain accepted within the social group. It is important for identity formation that the individual is accepted by the group (that is wider society) therefore, a controlled id......
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...Fight Club is a story of the narrator’s struggle to gain control over his life. He is in search for an identity in the form of manhood. His masculinity is so repressed because of the absence of a father figure in his life. Because of this he creates Tyler, his alternate personality. Tyler is nothing like anyone the narrator has met, he is self assured and completely free. The narrators alternate personality Tyler Durden is the ultimate alpha-male. Tyler becomes the narrator’s hero and he envied him. After creating Tyler the narrator’s view on the world is adjusted. Tyler ends up changing the narrators life and has him doing things he never thought he would do. Both the narrator and Tyler bond over the fact that both their fathers were not major factors in their lives. The narrator says “ Me, I knew my dad for about six years, but I don’t remember anything”(50). Tyler goes to say that his father was distant and he would only speak to him once a year. Being raised mainly by woman, they both feel they never had a man around to teach them what being a man is. Tyler and the narrator and the generation of men they represent have been trying for years to regain their masculinity and at the same time find a sense of direction. At the support group for men with testicular cancer the narrator meets Bob. Bob later enters fight club and shows he is one of the better fighters that is there. He is seen as a “true man” for his physical abilities. Later on in the book Bob also joins......
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...Fight Club In “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk we follow The Narrator in his problem-riddled everyday life, and his attempt to escape it by fabricating an alternate identity. The essay focuses on themes such as masculinity vs. emasculation, violence and the connection inbetween. Secondly, the essay includes references to the theoretical text “The Crisis of Manliness”. In the text “Fight Club” we follow the unnamed narrator or The Narrator in his daily life at Microsoft. Suffering from relationship problems, self-esteems problems and an insufferable boss, The Narrator has a hard time suffering from insomnia because of this. To handle his problems, he starts a fight club with his alter ego, also known as Tyler Durden. The text uses first person narration, as we see through The Narrators eyes, but also the thought of Tyler Durden, as they are the same person, even though he is written as an independent character in chapter 6. The Narrator and Tyler Durden start fight club as a way to regain their masculinity. This violence begins in the parking lot behind a bar, where Tyler tells the Narrator to hit him. The Narrator is reluctant at first, but gives in. In return he receives a punch to the chest by Tyler. This is the beginning of The Narrators self-realization. The Narrator agrees with Tyler that self-destruction is the way to self-improvement. The Narrator mentions the fight club as not being a solution to his problem, but rather a way to escape from the problems, as......
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...his boss who’ll do the presentation. While he does that, the narrator tells us about fight club and its eight rules. The first and second rule is that you don’t talk about fight club. The following rules are that when someone says stop, or goes limp, the fight is over, two men per fight, one fight at a time and no shoes or shirts are allowed during fights. The fights go on as long as they have to, and if it’s your first night at fight club, you have to fight. Fight club used to be just Tyler and himself, pounding each other, but it grows and is now held every Saturday. The story takes place at an office at the narrator’s work. It’s not directly written that it takes place there, but the reader can assume so by the fact that the narrator and his boss are doing a presentation for their client Microsoft. The narrator describes the location of fight club as well, which is set in the basement of a bar, after the bar closes on Saturday night. The basement is portrayed as dark with a single lamp. The lamp is placed in the middle of the room where the fights take place. That contributes towards creating an atmosphere where it’s the fight that’s in focus. The narrator of the story is also the protagonist. He lives two lives, “Who I am in fight club is not someone my boss knows” ; one as a recall campaign coordinator and one as a member of fight club. Before starting fight club, he was bored with his life and he felt that his “life just seemed too complete” . He...
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...Introduction Mass culture would have most readers and viewers believing that the Post-modern American male is a simple creature. Common stereotypes margin male satisfaction in a minimal setting – a Lazyboy armchair in a lounge with a flat screen TV playing ‘the game’ along with primal banter regarding women. More often than not, this is washed down with a beer. With this array of comfort and leisure we are inclined to believe that male lifestyle has reached its peak on the timeline of satisfaction. This was until David Fincher took Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club and made it into a big budget Hollywood blockbuster. With the male demographic being the hardest to pinpoint in the literature sense, David Fincher’s adaptation helpfully put Palahniuk’s thoughts into the cinematic forefront. This increased the popularity of Palahniuk’s other works and placed him in the cannon of Post-modern American fiction. It is the issues of modern masculinity that grasps critics’ attention more so than any other Palahniuk themes. It is very apparent that masculinity has changed as a natural progression of modernisation. This dissertation will analyse masculinity as it is depicted in Palahniuk’s writings and explore Palahniuk’s intentions and beliefs. I will interpret the responses of select critics in order to gain some understanding of what Palahniuk deems to be the ideal model of masculinity in the modern world, beneath his post-modern twists, transgressive characterization and...
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..."To Fight For What We Are Or What We Need?" People have always had a deep violent nature in their roots as human beings. Although modern American culture tends to suppress this trait, under the right conditions this aggression can be harnessed with positive results. However, before this can happen, eyes must be opened to the realization that life, core values, and everything society has conditioned us to believe is not necessarily the best way to take on the world in which we live. Though its content is both graphic and highly controversial, the film Fight Club is a film that every American man and woman should see. The film tells the story of how “a ticking-time bomb insomniac... and a slippery soap salesman... channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy.” (FIGHT CLUB) The film is arguably one of the best examples of masterful film making coupled with deep philosophical content and key concepts which analyze modern American society giving new insight to ways of finding purpose and meaning in everyday life. Without a doubt, Fight Club’s name can easily be misinterpreted to many who hear or read it. While it is easy to assume that the film has nothing more to it than men simply fighting each other, in reality “Fight Club presents an overload of thought-provoking material that works on so many levels as to offer grist for the mills of thousands of reviews, feature articles, and post-screening conversations.” (Review: Fight Club) The film was......
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...Konstantina INQ 101 Fight Club is a film with a setting that is bleak and degraded. The unnamed main character lives in a city that is dark and rundown. The film makes has a strong message about the effects of society norms and the pursuit of happiness and it uses the main character suffering from insomnia and identify disorder to do so. The main character, like many others in the world, is seeking fulfillment in life, but tries to obtain it in unusual obsessions. He has an obsession with his furniture collection, as it helps him deal with his meaningless life and stale job position. His second obsession is going to therapy sessions to find acceptance from others, by lying about having cancer. He later on meets a guy named Tyler on an airplane, who becomes a huge influence on his life but viewers later learn is only a character of the main characters imagination. Tyler introduces “fight club,” which evolves around individuals determined to dismantle society and self-destruction. They start random fights with strangers to get a reaction out of them and blow up credit card companies, with the main idea that it would set everyone’s debt to zero to create global chaos. They fight with members of the fight club, with the idea that self made scars and inflicted pain is a form of healing. His three major obsessions I believe classifies him as having an identity disorder, as he has insomnia, memory loss and blackouts. This film I believe gives a message that......
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...Student's Name Instructor's Name Course Date The movie fight club Different peevish acts may accompany specific cultures that may at one point result to both good and bard aspects of the society. In addition, different authors and scholars have made it real to discuss such aspects of life in their productions to enhance a pass of information to the general public. David Fincher in his work on Fight Club film touches on social commentary as well as consumerist culture on feminization and how it influences masculinity as demonstrated hereinafter. Consumer culture provides the source to the grief and fight in the society. This political rebellion facilitates anger and fight among the characters. The values of advertisement are highly critiqued in the film with consideration of aspects such as wealth, power, beauty, and youth. As much as people could do jobs in the society to attain physical sustainability, they are no longer satisfied spiritually. The society continues to buy marketed goods to provide better feeling since they do not feel like there is sensible person to talk to about their grievances. Class isolation is another important aspect as per Fincher’s argument in the film. The character Jack suffers from lack of satisfaction as well as insomnia since he has no friend whom he can share his problems with. He could not get someone to share with openly the sad and dark-natured feelings. In addition, jack could not find reasons why he experience difficulties...
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...Fight Club Themes 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. In the beginning, the narrator obeyed everything Tyler told him to do. The narrator conformed to every aspect of society and did everything that was socially acceptable no matter how much it ate away at him inside. Tyler was created as someone the narrator always wanted to be. Tyler was the narrator’s hero and the narrator envied everything......
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