Fight Club Essay Example

Many recognize ‘Fight Club’ as one of the most renowned movies based on a lesser known, but an exceptional novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed in the year 1999 by David Fincher while the book was written in 1996. The Novel was picked by 20th Century fox producer Laura Ziskin for a film adaptation; Fincher, one of the short listed directors to frame the movie, was selected because of his enthusiasm towards this project. Fight Club underlines many themes; however in Fincher’s own words ‘Fight club was a coming of age of film’. The narrator is described as an everyman who has tried everything he was taught to do, with which he cannot find happiness, therefore he travels on a path of enlightenment in which he kills his parents, god and his teacher. This narrator is unidentified in the film, but identified as ‘Jack’ in the book. The book has numerous characters that are a representation of myriad of concepts and themes Palahniuk has covered in his book, Fight Club. Soon, the novel became a source of critical analysis because of its underlying commentary on the consumerist culture and feminization of American Culture. One such character, Bob, in the plot highlights this phenomenon. Bob has the characteristics of both male and female physically and behaviorally. He is former fitness gurus, whose excessive use of steroids has caused his loss of testicles and instead develop bitch-tits as a result of hormone therapy. Being a feminized character Bob became somewhat of a maternal figure to Jack, a person of comfort and a state of pre-phallic awareness where Jack is able to ‘let go. Lost in oblivion, dark, silent and complete, he found freedom, losing all hope was freedom’. And even though Bob is feminized, he is one of the real male characters in Fight Club. The information given by Jack is unverifiable because of his schizophrenic condition whereas all other males in the club took the discussion in its most literal form instead of questioning the possibility of alternatives or drawing their own conclusions. In this case, Bob is the only character that supplies us with some verifiable information, a male, with both male and female characteristics.
One of the many mystic things about Fight Club is narrator’s power animal being a penguin and many speculations have been put forth to explain it. Firstly, every person present in the cave had their own interpretation of the cave and hence saw themselves as an animal that fit their lives, in this case the narrator saw himself as a penguin. The penguin symbolizes narrator’s depressing lifestyle and his inability to let go of things. Since penguins inability to fly stops them to ‘fly away from their problems’, they merely slide away, in which case the narrator saw himself as sliding away from his problems, into a new life. The cave scene is also said to have been inspired by the film ‘The Secret life of Walter Mitty’ (1947) as sign by the director David Fincher to show audience as to how surreal this film was going to become.
Marla is perhaps one of the biggest mysteries in Fight Club. The reason she joins the support group is to try to put her life in context by seeking out death. The narrator describes Marla as a ‘big tourist’, primarily because the narrator is unable to cry when she is around. The actual problem that the narrator has with Marla is that she is honest in her lies. Unlike the narrator, Marla doesn’t need a split personality to deal with her problems; she faces those head and is up front. She knows she is going to die but the support group make her feel alive. In her own words Marla says ‘I embrace my own festering diseased corruption’. Marla and the narrator go seek out death because it is a way through which they believe they’re living however, the narrator ends up being delusional without Marla. One must consider myriad of other available options when confronted with such situations or circumstance. Although support groups are sometimes seen as an effective source of comfort, they can be misleading and hazardous, in some cases. Other alternatives include, consulting psychologist, doctor and prescribed medicine.
The novel ends with the narrator admitting that he remember everything. This line is paramount because it helps discern the various interpretations of the book and how it ends. When the narrator admits that he remembers everything, it can be taken in its most literal sense and interpreted into that the narrator remembered all the events of his life/club that lead to his horrible condition. While on the other hand it could be interpreted that the narrator was still in a lost reality trying to figure out what he remembered.
The ending of the book and the movie are totally different. Many love the ending endorsed by Hollywood while many still prefer the ending, originally written by Paul, in his book. The movie ends with narrator killing Tyler. He also kills Marla, holding her hand while the building come crashing down on them. The ending is pretty ambiguous because it is unclear whether they lived or died. If they lived, it could be said that both of them found their realities palatable enough to experience, hence, they no longer need to pretend to be someone else; however if they died, the interpretation is different. The later one shows us our obsession with reality and consumption and how it leads to the path of death and destruction. In the book, the narrator kills Tyler and ends up in a mental institution. And even though Marla isn’t present at the hospital, the narrator continues to talk to her, hence the problem and the mayhem continues. The different endings alternate the interpretations of ‘Fight Club’ as mentioned above. The ending cannot be discerned with one being more hopeful than the other, however, in the film, if both Marla and the narrator are able to survive, then it could be said the movie sheds a bit more positive light in the ending than the book.