'Fight Club' - review.

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Christopher Beeton        Fight Club: A Critique of Human Society        28/04/2007

The idea of the destruction of the modern day American male due to capitalist and consumerist thought and the vital role that woman have played, is the most dominant and consistent theme running through Chuck Palahnuick’s ‘Fight Club.’ Even from the beginning of the novel, it seems to have an anti-capitalist and anti-feminist tone. The only solution to this epidemic in the eyes of Tyler Durden, the protagonist, is destruction and the return to the primal. Throughout the novel, capitalism is condemned with special attention given to materialism of modern day society. Fight Club illustrates the consumer culture in which the twentieth century male exists in and how it has led to the destruction of the individual and in essence individuality.

The main character of the novel, the Narrator, an unnamed “thirty year old boy” who is employed in the recall division of the Federated Motor Corporation is the personification of the modern day American male raised in a capitalist society. He is a person that clearly defines himself through the possessions he owns. “ The people I know used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue”. (Palahniuk, 43) The transition to a capitalist mentality is clearly depicted in this quote by the Narrator. It appears that the reference to the IKEA catalogue has an important role in describing consumerist thoughts and the role of capitalism in everyday life. Even with our free time we are still heavily sedated with capitalist ideologies and behaviours. The Narrator also says, while looking through the IKEA catalogue, “What kind of plates define me as a person”. Here it is evident that it is not the character of the individual and attributes that define him as an individual but what possessions the individual owns most accurately does.

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“ We all have the same Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stripe pattern.” ( Palahniuk, 43) The Narrator’s life is identical as everyone else’s; everyone in the capitalist society has the same possessions and with it comes a loss of individuality. Thus, the Narrator is not given a name adding to the idea of the loss of individuality; he is referred to as the every man, the IKEA man. To further express his capitalist nature, the Narrator says, “ The Vild hall clock made of galvanized steel, oh, I had to have that.” (Palahniuk, 43) Brand names have replaced ...

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