Reflection to Fight Club

            Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club was a very interesting and provocative reading. Unlike most stories and novels which follow the loose diagram of introduction of character, introduction of problem, character defeats the problem, and happy ending, I feel that this novel did not have a happy ending but rather acted like an ominous warning to us readers and all humans of what could be. When we are first introduced to the narrator we learn he has insomnia, but he goes to support groups for cancer, brain parasites and other lethal health problems. We learn that he is faking when Marla says: “You’re not dying either…. You tell on me and I tell on you” (38). The irony is that later we do learn that the narrator does have a problem, Split personality disorder. While the disorder is not deadly, his second personality, Tyler Durden, is making it extremely deadly for both the narrator and the people around him. Tyler says “Its Project Mayhem that’s going to save the world…. Project Mayhem will force humanity to go dormant or into remission long enough for the Earth to recover” (125). Here we see how ironic Tyler’s logic is. To meet his end goal of supposedly saving the earth and humanity, he is planning on destroying the earth and humanity that we know and see around us. He then completely contradicts himself by saying “This was the goal of Project Mayhem…The complete and right-away destruction of civilization” (125). The Tyler Durden personality is also a huge danger to the narrator himself. The narrator almost gets castrated because of the split personality’s made up rules and rituals. After The narrator realizes the truth behind Tyler and tries to shut down the Fight Clubs, he gets captured by his own recruits, the space monkeys, and the mechanic and they tell him “You know the drill, Mr. Durden. You said it yourself. You said, if anyone ever tries to shut down the club, even you then we have to get him by the nuts” (187).

Another interesting aspect of the novel is the Fight clubs striking similarities to religion and cults. Tyler uses Buddhist practices to filter potential members. He makes them stand outside the door for three days without food or water and insults and tells them to leave. If they are still there after day three, then he lets them in. another cult like aspect is the no questions allowed stance. “The second rule is you don’t ask questions” (125). This rule plays two important roles in my opinion. First, if no one can ask questions then there is really no room for alternate ideas and things get done a lot faster and exactly as Tyler envisions them. The second aspect is that if no one is questioning Tyler, the subconsciously start treating him as a supreme authority and even to the point of seeing Tyler as something along the lines of being god-like.

There are many more interesting things in the novel including how Tyler’s labor plan is just as bad if not worse than the jobs that the people under him were “saved” from. I believe that this book is definitely a good read that can be used as a warning about the power mobs have when they get behind some sort of an idea, no matter how twisted it may seem from a neutral point of view. I definitely think most of the book is satire and should not be token for face value or as advice directly.

Link to Original Paper: Reflection to Fight Club