Fight Club Lesson 3

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Fight Club

Lesson 3

Characters & Characterization

In Class Today

Character Analysis

Recap & analysis Chapters 1-2

Recap & analysis Chapters 3-4

The Narrator

Tyler Durden

Marla Singer

Big Bob

In one sentence:
How would you summarise chapter 1?

Analysis Chapter 1

The story begins “en medias res,” which means “in the middle of the action.” The first things we learn about the Narrator are that he knows a lot about weapons, and seems to have a strange, almost telepathic connection with Tyler (in spite of the fact that they seem to be enemies)—the line, “I know this because Tyler knows this” repeats throughout the book. 

Tyler’s first line, “This isn’t really death,” suggests that he loves flirting with death and danger (it’s not yet clear if Tyler, the Narrator, or both are intended to die).

Analysis Chapter 1

Palahniuk doesn’t tell us what Project Mayhem is yet, but he establishes suspense immediately: the clock is, quite literally, ticking.

 Although the Narrator seems frightened, Tyler is eerily calm, again suggesting that he celebrates death and danger. 

Tyler’s mentions of “our world” might imply that he has ambitions of changing the world with the help of his followers (in Project Mayhem).

Analysis Chapter 1

The novel is told almost entirely in flashbacks (reminiscent of the way, according to some, “your whole life flashes before your eyes before you die”). 

The Narrator’s thoughts of Marla Singer establish a romantic triangle between the Narrator, Marla, and Tyler. In essence, the novel’s “project” is to explain how, exactly, the Narrator comes from point A to point B—from meeting a woman named Marla Singer to sitting in the building with Tyler and a gun in his mouth.

In one sentence:
How would you summarise chapter 2?

Analysis Chapter 2

The chapter, told in flashback, opens with an image of emasculation: Bob is a man, but he’s depicted as being burdened with humiliatingly large mammary glands, or, in The Narrator’s rather cruel phrase, “bitch tits.” 

With this, Palahniuk immediately contrasts the danger, pain, and “realness” of the first chapter to what is here presented as a weak, emasculated modern culture.

Analysis Chapter 2

The Narrator attends support groups meant for people with serious medical problems, even though he’s perfectly healthy. 

The men in such groups, such as Bob, seem almost literally, biologically feminized by this: Bob loses his testicles and gains breasts.

The awareness of another person who does the same thing—another faker—makes the Narrator feel more self-conscious and guilty; he can no longer “lose himself in the moment” and cry.

Analysis Chapter 2

The Narrator’s insomnia, the doctor suggests, is symptomatic of a larger problem (although this is also a common misdiagnosis of insomnia). The larger problem presented here is the Narrator’s emasculation and boredom: he lives an unsatisfying life and has a dull corporate job. 

Analysis Chapter 2

The Narrator’s problem, as the doctor’s comment about “real pain” might suggest, is that his life is boring: everything he does is familiar and comfortable. Pain, then, is an escape from the ordinary for the Narrator, a way to experience something truly “real.”

In one sentence:
How would you summarise chapter 3?

Analysis Chapter 3

The chapter reinforces the connection between Tyler and the Narrator (“I know this because Tyler knows this”). And yet Tyler and the Narrator lead opposite lifestyles: 

The Narrator has a corporate job that requires him to follow orders, 

Tyler marches to the beat of his own drum, and works during the night 

Analysis Chapter 3

Tyler uses his jobs to undermine what big movie companies are trying to do: he’s literally stealing audiences’ entertainment. 

By contrast, The Narrator spends his job following orders at all times. The monotony of his uniform symbolizes the monotony of his lifestyle as a whole, as well as its emphasis on appearance and superficial “perfection.”

Analysis Chapter 3

Tyler doesn’t just steal from film companies; he sabotages their products and subverts their goals of providing “family entertainment,” disobeying the rules of his profession. 

In contrast, the Narrator obeys his company’s dictates to the letter, even suspending his own morals for the company’s sake. As he explains it, he helps his company save as much money as possible, even if doing so involves innocent people dying in their cars.

Analysis Chapter 3

When the Narrator meets Tyler for the first time, he’s just woken up from sleep, immediately introducing the dreamlike nature of his friendship with Tyler. 

Tyler’s sculpture suggests the way that he uses ugly or chaotic-looking elements (like the pieces of driftwood) to make a coherent, organized plan, albeit a plan that breaks down over time. 

Also notice the homoerotic nature of Tyler and the Narrator’s meeting: they meet on a nude beach, and Tyler gives the Narrator his number.

In one sentence:
How would you summarise chapter 4?

Analysis Chapter 4

The Narrator and Marla strike up an unorthodox friendship based in their common sense of feeling out of place. From the perspective of rest of the group, Marla and the Narrator appear to be crying and expressing emotion, but they’re really “carving up” their shares of support groups (so that The Narrator can get back to crying and feeling a cathartic release).

Analysis Chapter 4

The Narrator asks Marla why she comes to support groups, and she explains that she loves “the real experience of death.”

Marla’s statement could be a kind of thesis statement for the novel—in a world of dullness and apathy, the characters seek something “real,” and seem to find it in pain and the experience of being close to death.