Fight Club Lesson 6

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Fight Club

Lesson 6

Mood 

In Class Today

Summary & Analysis Chapter 10-13

Mood

Mood

 In literature, mood is a literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions. 

Usually, mood is referred to as the atmosphere of a literary piece, as it creates an emotional setting that surrounds the readers.

What type of mood does the author create throughout the novel?

- Dark, brooding, reflective

Chapter 10 - Summary

The Narrator assists Tyler during his work as a waiter in a hotel. Tyler urinates in a dish of soup, and he targets the dishes that’ll be served to particularly rich, powerful people.

"Tyler and me, we've turned into the guerrilla terrorists of the service industry." (Ch.10, p.81)

Chapter 10 - Analysis

The passage is very unclear about whether or not the Narrator is also a waiter at the hotel (more foreshadowing of the Narrator’s connection to Tyler). Tyler is presented as someone both “wise” and childish, both aggressively confident and condescendingly cruel.

Chapter 11 - Summary

We learn that Tyler makes good money selling his soaps to fancy stores—people say his soap is the best they’ve ever used.

Tyler and the Narrator sit by a used car lot, surrounded by old vehicles. The Narrator explains that he and Tyler can’t go home right now, because Marla has come by the house and accused the Narrator of “cooking her mother.”

Chapter 11- Analysis

Stores and customers have no idea how savage and violent Tyler is; society is so obsessed with “nice” appearances that it ignores the ugly truths lurking beneath the surface.

Chapter 11 - Summary

Earlier that night, Marla came to the house with a huge package, that she wanted to put it in the freezer. She insisted that the Narrator had told her she could—something that the Narrator angrily denies. Marla is holding: sandwich bags full of rendered human fat—collagen. 

Chapter 11 - Summary

Later that night, the Narrator learns the truth from Tyler: whenever Marla’s mother has a liposuction, she has the fat stored, in case she needs collagen injections. When Marla’s mother has extra fat, she sends it to Marla.

Tyler proudly tells the Narrator that he’s been making a fortune with Marla’s collagen—he uses it to make soap.

What do you think the author is trying to say with this passage?

Tyler's darker side becomes more apparent and is affecting the Narrator.

Chapter 11 - Analysis

Tyler is essentially “recycling” people: converting them back into products and objects. But the conceit of the chapter also alludes to the way that the human body itself has become a product: an object that can be improved and beautified with injections and surgeries. 

Chapter 12 - Summary 

The Narrator sits at his desk at work. The Narrator realizes that his car company is going to have to institute a recall—a rarity. 

But last week, the Narrator thinks, his company declined to institute a recall for a very serious mistake: leather interiors that caused horrible birth defects. 

The company didn’t recall their product because the cost of a recall was greater than the cost of paying off the hundreds of harmed families.

What do you think the car company might symbolize?

Chapter 12 - Analysis

The car company’s actions symbolize the total amorality of corporations: the company intentionally allows some lives to be lost in order to save some money, because making money is the corporation’s only goal.

Chapter 12 - Summary

Over the weekend, the Narrator goes to his testicular cancer support group and finds Bob there—but nobody else. Bob, excited to see the Narrator, tells the Narrator that the group has disbanded—everybody has joined a new group, the first rule of which is that “you aren’t suppossed to talk about it.” The founder of this group, Bob says, is a “great man,” “Tyler Durden.”

Chapter 12 - Analysis

Bob has joined fight club, too, though he seems not to realize that the Narrator is one of the founders. The fact that the testicular cancer support group has joined fight club reinforces the link between death, violence, and masculinity: near death, Bob and his peers fight to celebrate their manhood and the sheer fact of being alive.

Chapter 13 - Summary

The Narrator shows up at Marla’s hotel;  She says she’ll forgive the Narrator for the collagen incident if he investigates the lump on her breast—she’s afraid it’s cancer. 

The incident reminds the Narrator of how, long ago, he went to a medical school to have a wart removed from his penis. During his time there, the doctors noticed the birthmark on his ankle—a birthmark that they at first thought was a new, lethal form of cancer. Disappointed, the doctors removed the wart and let the Narrator go.

Chapter 13 - Analysis

Marla seems to treat the Narrator as a close confidant, and yet, based on the novel’s depiction of Marla so far, her request for a “breast examination” seems more like a sexual flirtation. To reinforce such an ambiguity, the passage mentions another instance in which sex and death are closely tied (the wart on the Narrator’s penis). 

Chapter 13 - Summary

The Narrator continues to examine Marla’s breasts; as he does, he tries to make Marla laugh. He tells her a story about a woman who married a mortician; the mortician forced her to soak herself in ice water and lie perfectly still immediately before he had sex with her. 

As he tells the story, The Narrator thinks about the birthmark on his foot—a birthmark that could have been cancer. He also notices that Marla has “Tyler’s kiss” on the back of her hand.

Chapter 13 - Analysis

The Narrator is genuinely trying to cheer Marla up, since he’s afraid that she’s actually going to die of cancer (and even the Narrator’s jokes underscore the close connection between sex and dying). 

The passage also contrasts two different marks: Tyler’s kiss and the birthmark. The former is a symbol of loyalty to fight club, acceptance of pain and sacrifice, and collectivism (since, now, other people have the same “kiss”), while the latter is a symbol of the Narrator’s individuality and uniqueness.

Homework

Tuesday: read chapters 14-17

and answer the following question:

What is Project Mayhem?