Lynn M. Ta's, Hurt So Good: Fight Club

In the novel, Project Mayhem can be compared to the Manson Family of the 1960s. Project Mayhem first began with a group of white collar workers who never fought publically for any reason, so they started a club called Fight

The masculine lens aims to see how men impact societies or works as a whole they're in. It also aims to see how societies will impact men, how women will impact men, or even how men will impact other men. Fight Club, (the 1999 film adaptation of the book by Chuck Palahniuk) was directed by David Fincher, who is well known for psychological thrillers such as Seven and Zodiac. Fincher is known to heavily research before writing his scripts, and for his attention to detail. This should be considered while viewing Fight Club as most everything is done on purpose and with a more than surface level meaning.

In this film, Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden is seen as the cool guy that the average joe wishes he could be. This photo shows Brad Pitt shirtless while he is at their nightly fight club. As seen in this photo, he is quite muscular and wears his pants low to show of the top of his underwear. This image that is given of him is very typical of what is conceived to be a masculine man. We can compare him, too what is socially agreed to be a masculine man, with the Marlboro man.

Traditional roles of masculinity play a significant role in how many men experience their diagnosis with cancer. Pudrovska writes that “cancer poses a threat to the masculine identity because it entails lack of control over one's body and other consequences incompatible with traditional masculinity (Pudrovska 535) Arthur Frank’s narrative of his battle with colon cancer enforces the idea of cancer threatening traditional ideas of masculinity, particularly a lack of control over his body. Frank writes in great detail about death, and his fear of loosing control over his body within the narrative. Specifically, Frank describes the feeling of loosing control when he writes “my body had become a kind of quicksand, and I was sinking into myself,

However, despite being “unsure of their futures, with nowhere to direct their anger and no one to assuage their fears” (GEN X – SITE SOURCE), the characteristic of Generation X which really draws parallels to Palahniuk’s novel is the high divorce rate of the time. The impact of an influential feminized society is yet again bolstered by the norm of a woman being in complete control as a result of fathers leaving the household. In the novel, Jack mentions his absent father, and thus begins seeing a father figure in Tyler after having lacked strong male models whilst growing up. To the cohort of members in Fight Club feeling effeminate as a result, Tyler concludes that they are a “generation of men raised by women” (PAGE), further nourishing the men’s desire to fight and express their wrath to regain their identities. Due to their upbringing, the men in Fight Club lack a masculine portrayal, and hence idealize Tyler as the sole example of what masculinity should be.

Today, many of our perceptions are deceived by systemic stereotypes, often fogging our own ability understand ourselves. This is what suppresses the main character, and a group of other members, in David Fincher’s Fight Club. In the film, both male and female characters are stereotypical and overly sexualized. The film is extremely generalized and Fincher accomplishes this by presenting the characters with no desire to come against the reality of gender norms. The conventions that are held as a standard in the film are the orthodox characteristics of how men are supposed to appear.

This complex topic will be approached by shortly presenting a specific scene followed by an analysis for each, respectively. Eventually this paper will assist the reader to get a deeper insight and understanding of the depiction of the development of individualism within the movie. It aims to help the reader to get a better picture of the American idea of an individual human being by means of analyzing and interpreting different situations in Fight Club (1999).  2.

Jack makes it sound a bit excessively emotional however enough for us, making it impossible to comprehend what he is

Tyler Durden and the narrator want to better a society they think is flawed. By breaking down today’s materialistic culture and destroying the concept of racism obviously goes against US values, but true equality and personal freedom are both US values Tyler Durden harps on. All in all “Fight Club” showes viewers that if you strip everybody down and take away our overly priced goods, and focused on our true biological beings that our society would be better of. Us as human beings have urges but the social contract theory keeps us in line “Fight Club” make viewer wonder what would happen if we could be absolutely free, and is personal freedom the basis of the US values actually

Within the novel, “The Outsiders”, written by S.E Hinton, it conveys the rivalry between the two gangs, the Socs and the Greasers. They constantly encounter conflict since the Socs are wealthy, living on the West side of town unlike the Greasers who are lower class, living on the opposite side of town. Each gang consists of multiple members, however, for the Greasers, particularly one member stands out from the crowd, Sodapop. His personality reveals that he is someone who endlessly provides comfort while keeping the peace but still maintaining a happy-go-lucky attitude.

So, the narrator’s idea of a tough person is dressing like rebels and doing drugs. Latter, the narrator also mentions that “We drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunder-bird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We were Bad” then

The use of manipulation enables an easier understanding of the meaning behind Tyler’s word usage within Fight Club. Such as the way that Tyler manages to guide the main characters conscious after he was burned with nothing but a kiss and some basic guided meditation ( Palahniuk 75) this allows Tyler to alter the main characters way of thinking and push him closer to Tyler way of thinking. As well as the first two rules of fight club: The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. The second rule is you do not talk about fight club this restatement of the first rule within the second (Palahniuk 48).

He eventually meets Tyler Durden, together they form a secret club known as "Fight Club". Later on they start to make more and more drastic actions such as blowing up credit card companie's buildings. Unbeknownst to the audience the narrator suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. At the end of the film the audience finds out Tyler Durden isn't real and is actually his alter ego that he created " You wanted a way to change your life. You could not do this on your own.

There are two parts to the superego. The first is the ego ideal, which includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. The other is the conscience which comprises data about things that are regarded as bad by parentages and civilization. The superego performs to perfect and enlighten behavior. In the case of Fight Club, the narrator’s conscience represents his superego.

Through his psychoanalytic theory the writer respectfully expounds males identify with masculinity by not behaving as their female caretakers act. Mr. Carter based