Fight Club Lesson 5
Fight Club
Lesson 5
Symbolism
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This lesson contains 30 slides, with text slides and 3 videos.
Lesson duration is: 60 minItems in this lesson
Fight Club
Lesson 5
Symbolism
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Slide 2 - Video
In Class Today
Symbolism
Recap and analysis/ Symbolism in Fight Club chapter 7 - 9
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What is symbolism?
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Symbolism
Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea.
An action, person, place, word, or object can all have a symbolic meaning.
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How would you summarize chapter 7?
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Chapter 7 - Summary
The Narrator wakes up in Tyler’s dilapidated home, where he’s been crashing lately. He notices a condom floating in the toilet, and remembers that the night before, he dreamed about having sex with Marla.
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Chapter 7 - Analysis
The Narrator’s life has its own “dream logic.” He dreams about things that then seem to come true, or else, it’s suggested, his dreams aren’t really dreams at all.
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Chapter 7 - Summary
The previous night, while the Narrator was asleep, Marla called from a hotel. Tyler answered the phone and learned that Marla, whom he’d never met before, was dying by suicide.
If he had just let Marla die, the Narrator thinks, “none of this would have happened.”
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Why do yo think Marla tried to commit suicide?
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Chapter 7 - Analysis
How Marla gets Tyler’s house number isn’t explained, as Palahniuk drops more hints about Tyler’s true nature.
Marla, it’s shown, has continued to flirt with death, hurting herself by overdosing (on Xanax, we’ll later learn).
The passage also reminds us that Marla is, supposedly, to blame for “all of this.” We still don’t know how, which makes the Narrator’s apparent willingness to let Marla die seem pointlessly cruel.
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How would you summarize chapter 8?
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Chapter 8 - Summary
The Narrator gets sent home from work because he showed up with blood all over his pants. He leaves, thinking about how he’s given up his worldly possessions to live with Tyler and fight.
When he’s home, he can hear Tyler and Marla having sex. Over time, Marla continues to come by to have sex with Tyler, though the Narrator never sees them in the same room together.
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Chapter 8 - Summary
Tyler asks the Narrator not to mention him to Marla, ever.
The Narrator promises not to do so.
Tyler’s request isn’t explained, and won’t make sense for a long time.
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Chapter 8 - Analysis
There’s a clear romantic triangle between the Narrator, Marla, and Tyler: The Narrator seems to resent that Tyler is having sex with Marla, even though he doesn’t say so.
Notice of Tyler, The Narrator, and Marla are never in the same room together.
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Chapter 8 - Summary
Tyler teaches the Narrator how to make soap.
As the fat cooks on the stove, Tyler tells the Narrator that Marla is “trying to hit bottom.”
The Narrator, Tyler claims, is nowhere near rock bottom—just because he’s given up his property doesn’t mean a thing. The Narrator’s sense of eerie calm is just “premature enlightenment.”
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Slide 17 - Video
Chapter 8 - Summary
Tyler and the Narrator then return to making soap.
Tyler points out a layer of glycerin forming on the cooling fat—a product that can be used to make the explosive TNT.
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What do you think of when you think of soap and TNT?
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Chapter 8 - Analysis
This shows that soap, a symbol of domesticity, civilization, and ordinary life, isn’t that far away from TNT, a symbol of chaos and destruction.
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Chapter 8 - Summary
Tyler kisses the back of the Narrator’s hand. He then pours lye (a caustic solution used in making soap) on the Narrator’s hand.
Tyler causes the Narrator tremendous pain, as if he’s trying to push the Narrator down toward “rock bottom.”
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Chapter 9 - Summary
Tyler yells at the Narrator to remain calm. As the Narrator writhes in agony, Tyler reminds the Narrator that one day, he will die, just like everybody else.
The Narrator tries to make himself think of his “happy place”—Ireland—but Tyler tells the Narrator to focus on here and now.
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Slide 23 - Video
What do you think Tyler is trying to do/say with his kiss?
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Chapter 9 - Analysis
The Narrator tries to use “new age” psychological techniques to cope with his pain, but Tyler insists that the Narrator is just dodging the real issue. Instead of evading his pain, Tyler wants to make The Narrator embrace his pain.
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What do you notice of the bond between Tyler and the Narrator?
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Chapter 9 - Summary
The Narrator remembers being in Ireland and learning about the human sacrifices that the Celts made centuries ago.
Tyler reminds the Narrator that the melted fat of the sacrifices trickled into the Irish rivers, reacting with the water to form lye.
Because of the lye in the water, the Irish were able to clean themselves in the water, centuries later.
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Chapter 9 - Analysis
Tyler’s explanation for the link between human sacrifice and cleanliness exposes the sinister link between civilization, symbolized by soap, and violence.
Furthermore, his explanation suggests that all social progress requires sacrifice: without human sacrifices, the Irish wouldn’t have had clean clothes.
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Chapter 9 - Analysis
Tyler is a cruel teacher, but he seems to be trying to get the Narrator to embrace pain instead of hiding from it.
All true progress, according to Tyler, requires pain.
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Homework
Read chapters 10-12
write a (very) short summary of each chapter
