...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 is...
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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 Tyler’s...
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...Gender roles are heavily displayed throughout society, patriarchal as opposed to matriarchal, but still gender roles are easily conflicted. The movie Fight Club directed by David Fincher demonstrates the means of gender inequality throughout the film. Fight club presents the view of Marla Singer being a low life character, Robert also known as “Bob” being an over dramatic character because the removal of his testicals characterize him more women like and the violence symbolically revealing nature's way of dominance. Fight Club conveys manhood and masculinity and the unimportance of women through the duration of the film. Marla Singer was the only main character played by a women in the film which shows the gender roles. Throughout...
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...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 vecernal style. This discussion will attempt to uncover what Palahniuk portrays as the cause of emasculation, if anything at all. To begin I will discuss the excess of recent decades and how it has effected men’s lifestyle, in reference...
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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 mentioned...
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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 meetings...
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...Emasculated Reality The novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is filled with a large number of motifs from downward movement and destruction to overall decay. The unnamed narrator uses motifs to show images and pictures of greater themes throughout the novel. The narrator and other main character Tyler Durden share the feeling that civilization has emasculated men and, “What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women” (Palahniuk 50). The author shows the reader many themes by describing overly vivid motifs that represent them. Motifs are images that show up throughout a work. Fight Club uses motifs of downward movement and disintegration to point to the larger themes of emasculation, self-destruction and rejection of civilization. Motifs of downward movement in the novel make visible many of the cultural norms, by which the narrator feels extremely emasculated. Not only do cultural norms make him feel emasculated, but also being surrounded by men who don't typically fit the definition of a man. The narrator himself doesn’t fit the definition of a typical man. He works a cubicle 9 to 5 job that is split with being sent all across the country like a carrier pigeon, evaluating insurance claims on failed safety equipment in cars that have already been subject to horrible life threatening accidents. Emasculation hits the narrator when he feels like it pointless to die in a body without few scars. The narrator says, “It’s nothing anymore to have a beautiful stock...
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...Mainstream media is a powerful influence on the construction of an individual’s identity. Use your case study to explore the impact of the media in the construction of identities. In the original edition of “Media, gender and identity”, David Gauntlett stated that identity in modern culture is more “fluid and transformable”1 than ever. If we look at identity 30 years ago and identity in society now, it is true that modern day individuality and labelling has changed extremely over the years. Media that surround us in society today i.e. film, newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio are the things that shape and construct an individual’s identity, more and more so as time and technology progresses. We look to the media to find examples of small parts of our personalities which we can label and define, taking ideas, opinions and behaviours from 100’s if not 1000’s of places and people over time, creating our own individuality. 20-30 years ago, mainstream media was very different to what it is today. The ideas and stereotypes that were portrayed told us how we should be and how we should act, allowing unrealistic expectations to be expected of everyone. Society was pushing people into defining exactly who they were by putting themselves into one traditional category, very resistant to the idea of change and being unique. Today, it seems that, “within limits, mass media is a force for change.”1 As it being easier to create things for other people with more platforms for the public...
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...Professor Raymond Morris 23 October 2015 The Fight Club Aims to Free Individuals from Society’s Emasculating Shackles Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is an exciting fictional novel that will hold the audience captive following three revolving main characters in Marla Singer, Tyler Durden, and the narrator himself as they take the reader through confusing twists and perspectives, while providing a most revealing closure. Although the title suggests an exclusive organization focused on violence, the novel describes the emasculation of man in today’s modern age of consumerism, societal associations and family structure along with the main and sub-characters’ exercising of power and submission to power as evident throughout the novel. Chuck Palahniuk’s values illustrate in the novel how humanity is being enslaved by the power of consumerism, brought to general awareness a new mental disorder, and how he portrayed the narrator having experienced or enacted numerous anarchistic efforts in the hopes of being freed from the confines of an industrialized and necessity-driven society. It should also be noted that several rebellious acts were performed by the fight club members and subsequently members of Project Mayhem in order to gain notoriety and power in response to being economically and socially subdued. To understand the novel’s numerous projection of emasculation, masculinity will need to be established. Man’s foundation of masculinity can be traced back to 3000 BC. Ancient societal...
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...only wanted to go out with him and Lance (The previous starter quarterback) because that gave her a guaranteed opportunity to get out of their small town. Belonging to the school hero also helped Darcy feel like she was better than other women were. The way Darcy gets both of the men to go out with her is by giving them the opportunity to prove to themselves that they are men, which is by letting them have sex with her. This reasserts the notion that women respect a real man, and how they show their respect to that man is by having sex with him. Mox’s girlfriend, Jules, is very similar to Darcy in the sense that she shows him how to be a real man. However, Jules’s case is different because with her, masculinity and femininity are not as black and white; Jules’s brand of masculinity involves loyalty, taking charge, being sensitive, appreciating others, and being a winner. Until Mox can handle all of those things, she will not go out with him. Jules shows women what it means to be a good woman, first, that a good woman appreciates the things listed above in a man and second, that a good woman loves her man selflessly without any ulterior motives, unlike Darcy. The two other women in this movie are Mox’s mother and his sex education teacher. Mox’s mother, Mo Moxon,...
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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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...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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...Minimalist contentions: Fight Club Introduction Chuck Palahniuk is one of the most influential American fiction writers who emerged in the 1990s. His debut novel, Fight Club (hereafter: FC) reached cult status after the film adaptation by David Fincher was released in 1999, and widespread and divided critical reception was soon to follow. Much of the current debate about Fight Club focuses on the political implications of the text, but most often recourse to it by way of referencing the film. These arguments usually question or celebrate the transgressive potentials of the book (Giroux; Mendieta), or address issues of masculinity brought into the fore by their literary and cinematic representations emergent in the same decade (Tuss; Friday). However, few, if any, have addressed the literary aspirations of the text and its author. Although none of the approaches to the thematic concerns of Fight Club are unjustified, in the argument that follows I will suggest that conclusions drawn and critical judgments passed have been hasty, and not only failed to take into account the formal aspects of story-telling, but that the narrative features of Palahniuk’s text have largely went unexplored, and constitute a blind spot of the reception. Critics condemning or acclaiming the novel, and, indeed, many a cultic reader of Palahniuk ignored Fight Club as a literary narrative, and have inadvertently been repeating the catchphrases of the text, either reinforcing or trying to undermine what...
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...Clinical Diagnosis of Jack in Fight Club In the film Fight Club, Jack, the narrator, is introduced as a troubled individual who is suffering from insomnia, while seeming commonly bored with his white-collar job. This serious disorder causes him severe sleeplessness, and he describes it as never really being awake, while never really being asleep. He also explains that nothing feels real when you have insomnia. His diagnosis of the disorder is made clear in the film, but the doctor he sees will not give him a prescription. He instead turns to support groups in order to see “what pain really is.” After going to these support groups, Jack is finally able to sleep, after relieving his emotions by crying to the other members. Jack’s second diagnosis would be Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is also known as having multiple personalities. Possible symptoms of this disorder include exhibiting two or more distinct and altering personalities, which Jack does. The attitudes and beliefs of the two personalities of the individual are not similar to each other; they could even be opposites, and they have their own voices and mannerisms. Typically, the host personality denies the awareness of another, which can have its own unmemorable authority and control over the individual’s behaviors. Other symptoms include the loss of time, depersonalization, sudden anger, anxiety attacks, mood swings, depression, hallucinations, phobias, traumatic flashbacks, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders...
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...Fahed Alhajri Professor Alvarez English 113B Dec 8, 2015 Rhetoric of Tyler Durden Written by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club is a novel that was released in 1996. The story follows the experiences of a person struggling with insomnia and how he takes drastic steps to regain normalcy in his life. As the doctor suggests, he is indeed not suffering from insomnia but from fatigue, caused by the job he holds that gives him frequently jet lag as he is required to travel to different countries regularly. On a deeper level, this book is about post-modern consumer society and lack of masculine identity that is prevalent among grey collar workers (Lindgren). A film, going...
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