Fight Club: A Battle Between Humanity and Capitalism Essay -- Palahniu

Within the past few millennia, people have socially evolved away from the aggressive, deep-rooted nature they have been biologically programmed over the past million years to feel (Palahniuk 4). While most have embraced this approach, whether it be through religion or other means, many people, mostly men, feel this suppression is unhealthy and unnatural. Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, a transgressional piece of fiction, was set in a world of parental abandonment, womanly men, and corrupt political and corporate practices, a dark, nameless city in modern day America (Palahniuk 28). This setting allows for the author to provide a stark comparison over what we have become as a nation compared to what we should be, a nation of self-respecting people with a lack of value on materialistic things, and a push towards Buddhist principles (Reed). Fight Club is about how feminism, commercialism, religion, and politics in modern day America have caused a decline in the masculinity of American, mi ddle-class men and how that has destroyed society as heavily demonstrated by the support group he attends, the fight club he helps start, the terrorist group that sprouts from this, and the Narrator's second personality (Tuss). The story's second chapter starts the flashback that comprises all but the first and last two chapters of the book. In this scene, the Narrator has been suffering from chronic insomnia and is attending a self help group meant for men suffering from testicular cancer, a treatment sarcastically "prescribed" by his doctor in an effort to make him, the Narrator, feel less narcissistic since the physician himself was unwilling to give him the medicine to treat his insomnia. All of the men in this group have become feminine due to ... ... Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. Print. Price, Bryan R. "A Psychological Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo, 3 May 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Price, Bryan R. "A Psychological Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo, 3 May 2007. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Reed, Charley. "Journal of Religion & Film: Fight Club: An Exploration of Buddhism By Charley Reed." Journal of Religion & Film: Fight Club: An Exploration of Buddhism By Charley Reed. University of Nebraska at Omaha, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Tuss, Alec, SM. "Masculine Identity and Success: A Critical Analysis of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club." Journal of Men's Studies. University of Dayton, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.