https://litwiki.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=JbrooksLitWiki - User contributions [en]2026-06-09T02:53:14ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.43.0https://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club_Chapter_2&diff=10957Fight Club Chapter 22006-12-03T03:36:22Z<p>Jbrooks: Chapter 2 Study Guide</p>
<hr />
<div>== Summary ==<br />
<br />
In this chapter, the reader is first introduced to Bob. Our narrator meets Bob at one of the support groups he attends. Bob is an ex-wrestler who had testicular cancer and had to have his testicles removed. Bob took Bob now attends "Remaining Men Together", a testicular cancer support group. While in this support group, our narrator notices a woman also in the meeting. This is the first introduction of Marla. At this support group meeting, the men gather together hugging and crying. Our narrator feels this time of the meeting is his vacation. He gets to cry and let it all out and then can go to sleep at night. He started going to the meetings because he suffers from insomnia. The narrator cannot let himself cry with a faker like Marla in the meeting. He realizes that she has been attending all of his different support group meetings. He vows at the end of the chapter to get Marla out of his support group meetings.<br />
<br />
== Definitions/Notes ==<br />
<br />
*'''Seminoma[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminoma]''' (7) - a type of testicle cancer<br />
*'''Amytal[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amobarbital]''' (9) - used as a sedative and a hypnotic<br />
*'''Tuinal[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuinal]]''' (9) - drug containing two barbiturates<br />
*'''Seconals[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconal]]''' (9) - a depressant drug used to induce sleep<br />
*'''Valerian Root[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_root]]''' (9) - perennial flowering plant<br />
*'''Dianabol[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianabol]]''' (11)- anabolic steriod<br />
<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
<br />
Palahniuk, Chuck. "Fight Club". New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1866.<br />
<br />
[[Fight Club Chapter 2|Chapter Two]]|[[Fight Club]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club&diff=10946Fight Club2006-11-27T21:31:39Z<p>Jbrooks: Robert " Bob" Paulson</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:FightClub.jpg|thumb|The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's ''Fight Club'']] <br />
A 1996 [[novel]] by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], and a 1999 [[film]] by [[David Fincher]].<br />
<br />
== Study Guide ==<br />
<table width="60%"><br />
<tr valign="top"><td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]<br />
</td></tr></table><br />
<br />
<br />
== Characters ==<br />
=== The Narrator ===<br />
The protagonist of the story who suffers from insomnia and has a split personality. Because of his insomnia, he starts attending support groups to see what real suffering is like. After a while of attending them, he meets Tyler Durden and forms Fight Club. This begins to be his new support group. We never find out his name in the story. We only know his other personality, Tyler.<br />
<br />
=== Tyler Durden ===<br />
He is the devious side of the narrator's personality. Tyler works night jobs were he is always causing trouble, whether in inserting various clips into the middle of family movies or in his waiting tables and tampering with the food. He is the one who technically made the way for the Fight Club when he said to the narrator "hit me as hard as you can." The narrator wanted to be more like Tyler even though the are the same person. After Fight Club's growth, Tyler started Project Mayhem. Tyler is later seen as the antagonist of the novel.<br />
<br />
===Robert "Bob" Paulson===<br />
The narrator meets Bob at his support group meeting for testicular cancer. Bob had testicular cancer and had to have his testicles removed. He had to have testosterone injectings resulting in his growing "man boobs" by his body's increasing estrogen. The narrator and Bob become friends through the support groups and later meet up when Bob joins Project Mayhem. Later in the story, Bob is shot and killed while attempting a Project Mayhem assignment, which will turn the narrator against Tyler.<br />
<br />
=== Marla Singer ===<br />
The narrator meets her at the support groups he was attending. He begins to hate her for being a tourist. He could not let himself go when there was another faker there. She ends up being Tyler (and the narrator's) lover.<br />
<br />
By analyzing the character of Marla Singer, it is important to look at her part in this novel through the eyes of a feminist critic. She is the only female character and can be seen as a very different character when compared with all of the other male ones throughout the book. She is portrayed and treated differently as a female and as an outsider of the group of men who make up fight club. With this role, she is given a submissive and somewhat blind perspective by the other characters. She is the one who is most intimately involved with the nararrator and with Tyler but seems to be the one that they both treat with the least amount of respect.<br />
<br />
The entire Fight Club is based upon a patriarchal society. All of the men involved are men who were raised by women. None of them had a father figure to look up to and all of them lack the father that they needed when the time came to ask what they should do next. This may attribute to their over masculinity when fight club was in session. The testicular cancer group was a major sign of the lacking of masculinity prevalent in this book. Big Bob was once a very manly and muscular body builder that prided himself on the ability to be strong. He got testicular cancer, lost his manhood, and grew breasts. This shows the negative aspect attributed to being female. Though it is understandable that Big Bob doesn't want to be feminine, especially not physically, there is still a negative aspect surrounding the femal gender altogether. <br />
<br />
Marla is shunned and treated with little or no respect throughout the novel up until the end. The nararrator and herself have a competition in the beginning as to who is allowed what groups. Once Fight Club starts, the nararrator feels pride in the fact that Fight Club really does exclude her due to her gender. From then on she is kept in the dark about what is going on and is not allowed to know anything about this group that allows only men. She is only called on by Tyler for the majority of the book so that he can get laid and the nararrator views her as an annoyance that invades his home. The female character in this novel is shunned, avoided, and is seen as irritating. <br />
<br />
Towards the end of the novel, near the nararrator's breaking point, he begins to appreciate Marla. He is beginning to realize that Tyler isn't a real person at all and that he is just an alternate personality that comes into play when he falls asleep. Upon this realization he calls upon Marla and feels the need to be with her in order to stay awake. He fears that the members of Fight Club are now out to kill her and suddenly gains the urge to be her protector. His new meaning for staying alive is now not all about himself but about Marla and keeping her safe. His annoyance becomes his reason for living. In the end, the female critic would say that the gender prejudice had disappeared and that Marla was eventually given the respect that she deserved.<br />
<br />
== Major Themes ==<br />
=== The Feminization of Men ===<br />
<br />
=== Redefining or Rediscovering Masculinity ===<br />
<br />
=== The Numbing Effects of Modern Life ===<br />
<br />
=== The Oedipus Complex ===<br />
<br />
The Oedipus Complex –<br />
Based from a greek legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus Read about it] king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father by Jocasta of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismeme: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.<br />
<br />
The unresolved desire of a child for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, esp. the desire of a son for his mother. This involves, first, identification with and, later, hatred for the parent of the same sex, who is considered by the child as a rival.<br />
<br />
<br />
1.A child's positive libidinal feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that develop usually between the ages of three and six and that may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved used especially of the male child.<br />
2. The unresolved oedipal feelings persisting into adult life.<br />
<br />
“The child’s sexual researches, on which limits are imposed by his physical development, lead to no satisfactory conclusion; hence such later complaints as ‘I can’t accomplish anything’.”(Freud 15) “The tie of affection, which binds the child as a rule to the parent of the opposite sex, succumbs to disappointment, to a vain expectation of satisfaction or to jealousy over the birth of a new baby-unmistakable proof or the infidelity of the object of the child’s affections.”(Freud 15) “His own attempt to make a bay himself, carried out with tragic seriousness, fails shamefully.”(Freud 15) “The lessening amount of affection he receives, the increasing demands of education, hard words and an occasional punishment-these show him at last the full extent to which he has been scorned.”(Freud 15) “These are a few typical and constantly recurring instances of the ways in which the love characteristic of the age of childhood is brought to a conclusion.”(Freud 15)<br />
<br />
==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ====<br />
Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98).<br />
<br />
In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107).<br />
<br />
For further reading, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex Oedipal Complex]<br />
<br />
== Major Symbols ==<br />
=== The Rules of Fight Club===<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.<br />
<br />
4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.<br />
<br />
5th RULE: One fight at a time.<br />
<br />
6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.<br />
<br />
7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.<br />
<br />
8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.<br />
<br />
=== Jack/Joe ===<br />
<br />
At one point in the novel, the narrator comes across magazine articles that are supposedly written by body organs in the first person. For example, "I am Jack's medulla oblongata. Without me, Jack could not perform any of his autonomic funtions." Throughout the rest of the story, in the film, the narrator uses this line to express his thoughts, emotions and feelings - I am Jack's raging bile duct. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. I am Jack's wasted life. In the novel, this line is also used with the exception of the name - I am Joe's Boiling Point. I am Joe's Smirking Revenge. I am Joe's Broken Heart.<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' in Contemporary Culture ==<br />
[This section should include links to cultural items that ''Fight Club'' has influenced.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== Influences ==<br />
=== F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby'' ===<br />
<br />
[More to be added.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' the film ==<br />
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes Memorable quotations from the film]<br />
* [http://www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/ Official Film Site]<br />
<br />
== Additional Resources ==<br />
[This section should include items of interest that have ''not been cited'' but that might be of further use for researchers.]<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
[All works cited should be in correct MLA format and include in-text parenthetical citations.]<br />
<br />
*Palahniuk, Chuck. ''Fight Club.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.<br />
<br />
*Freud, Sigmund. ''Beyond the pleasure principle.'' New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1961.<br />
<br />
*Rudnytsky, Peter. ''Freud and Forbidden Knowledge.'' New York: New York University Press, 1994. 96-110.<br />
<br />
*Friday, Krister. "A Generation of Men Without History": Fight Club, Masculinity, and the Historical Symptom. Post Modern Culture. Vol.13, Number3. May 2003.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]] [[Category:Study Guide]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club&diff=10945Fight Club2006-11-27T21:25:16Z<p>Jbrooks: /* Marla Singer */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:FightClub.jpg|thumb|The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's ''Fight Club'']] <br />
A 1996 [[novel]] by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], and a 1999 [[film]] by [[David Fincher]].<br />
<br />
== Study Guide ==<br />
<table width="60%"><br />
<tr valign="top"><td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]<br />
</td></tr></table><br />
<br />
<br />
== Characters ==<br />
=== The Narrator ===<br />
The protagonist of the story who suffers from insomnia and has a split personality. Because of his insomnia, he starts attending support groups to see what real suffering is like. After a while of attending them, he meets Tyler Durden and forms Fight Club. This begins to be his new support group. We never find out his name in the story. We only know his other personality, Tyler.<br />
<br />
=== Tyler Durden ===<br />
He is the devious side of the narrator's personality. Tyler works night jobs were he is always causing trouble, whether in inserting various clips into the middle of family movies or in his waiting tables and tampering with the food. He is the one who technically made the way for the Fight Club when he said to the narrator "hit me as hard as you can." The narrator wanted to be more like Tyler even though the are the same person. After Fight Club's growth, Tyler started Project Mayhem. Tyler is later seen as the antagonist of the novel.<br />
<br />
=== Marla Singer ===<br />
The narrator meets her at the support groups he was attending. He begins to hate her for being a tourist. He could not let himself go when there was another faker there. She ends up being Tyler (and the narrator's) lover.<br />
<br />
By analyzing the character of Marla Singer, it is important to look at her part in this novel through the eyes of a feminist critic. She is the only female character and can be seen as a very different character when compared with all of the other male ones throughout the book. She is portrayed and treated differently as a female and as an outsider of the group of men who make up fight club. With this role, she is given a submissive and somewhat blind perspective by the other characters. She is the one who is most intimately involved with the nararrator and with Tyler but seems to be the one that they both treat with the least amount of respect.<br />
<br />
The entire Fight Club is based upon a patriarchal society. All of the men involved are men who were raised by women. None of them had a father figure to look up to and all of them lack the father that they needed when the time came to ask what they should do next. This may attribute to their over masculinity when fight club was in session. The testicular cancer group was a major sign of the lacking of masculinity prevalent in this book. Big Bob was once a very manly and muscular body builder that prided himself on the ability to be strong. He got testicular cancer, lost his manhood, and grew breasts. This shows the negative aspect attributed to being female. Though it is understandable that Big Bob doesn't want to be feminine, especially not physically, there is still a negative aspect surrounding the femal gender altogether. <br />
<br />
Marla is shunned and treated with little or no respect throughout the novel up until the end. The nararrator and herself have a competition in the beginning as to who is allowed what groups. Once Fight Club starts, the nararrator feels pride in the fact that Fight Club really does exclude her due to her gender. From then on she is kept in the dark about what is going on and is not allowed to know anything about this group that allows only men. She is only called on by Tyler for the majority of the book so that he can get laid and the nararrator views her as an annoyance that invades his home. The female character in this novel is shunned, avoided, and is seen as irritating. <br />
<br />
Towards the end of the novel, near the nararrator's breaking point, he begins to appreciate Marla. He is beginning to realize that Tyler isn't a real person at all and that he is just an alternate personality that comes into play when he falls asleep. Upon this realization he calls upon Marla and feels the need to be with her in order to stay awake. He fears that the members of Fight Club are now out to kill her and suddenly gains the urge to be her protector. His new meaning for staying alive is now not all about himself but about Marla and keeping her safe. His annoyance becomes his reason for living. In the end, the female critic would say that the gender prejudice had disappeared and that Marla was eventually given the respect that she deserved.<br />
<br />
== Major Themes ==<br />
=== The Feminization of Men ===<br />
<br />
=== Redefining or Rediscovering Masculinity ===<br />
<br />
=== The Numbing Effects of Modern Life ===<br />
<br />
=== The Oedipus Complex ===<br />
<br />
The Oedipus Complex –<br />
Based from a greek legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus Read about it] king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father by Jocasta of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismeme: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.<br />
<br />
The unresolved desire of a child for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, esp. the desire of a son for his mother. This involves, first, identification with and, later, hatred for the parent of the same sex, who is considered by the child as a rival.<br />
<br />
<br />
1.A child's positive libidinal feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that develop usually between the ages of three and six and that may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved used especially of the male child.<br />
2. The unresolved oedipal feelings persisting into adult life.<br />
<br />
“The child’s sexual researches, on which limits are imposed by his physical development, lead to no satisfactory conclusion; hence such later complaints as ‘I can’t accomplish anything’.”(Freud 15) “The tie of affection, which binds the child as a rule to the parent of the opposite sex, succumbs to disappointment, to a vain expectation of satisfaction or to jealousy over the birth of a new baby-unmistakable proof or the infidelity of the object of the child’s affections.”(Freud 15) “His own attempt to make a bay himself, carried out with tragic seriousness, fails shamefully.”(Freud 15) “The lessening amount of affection he receives, the increasing demands of education, hard words and an occasional punishment-these show him at last the full extent to which he has been scorned.”(Freud 15) “These are a few typical and constantly recurring instances of the ways in which the love characteristic of the age of childhood is brought to a conclusion.”(Freud 15)<br />
<br />
==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ====<br />
Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98).<br />
<br />
In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107).<br />
<br />
For further reading, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex Oedipal Complex]<br />
<br />
== Major Symbols ==<br />
=== The Rules of Fight Club===<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.<br />
<br />
4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.<br />
<br />
5th RULE: One fight at a time.<br />
<br />
6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.<br />
<br />
7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.<br />
<br />
8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.<br />
<br />
=== Jack/Joe ===<br />
<br />
At one point in the novel, the narrator comes across magazine articles that are supposedly written by body organs in the first person. For example, "I am Jack's medulla oblongata. Without me, Jack could not perform any of his autonomic funtions." Throughout the rest of the story, in the film, the narrator uses this line to express his thoughts, emotions and feelings - I am Jack's raging bile duct. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. I am Jack's wasted life. In the novel, this line is also used with the exception of the name - I am Joe's Boiling Point. I am Joe's Smirking Revenge. I am Joe's Broken Heart.<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' in Contemporary Culture ==<br />
[This section should include links to cultural items that ''Fight Club'' has influenced.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== Influences ==<br />
=== F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby'' ===<br />
<br />
[More to be added.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' the film ==<br />
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes Memorable quotations from the film]<br />
* [http://www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/ Official Film Site]<br />
<br />
== Additional Resources ==<br />
[This section should include items of interest that have ''not been cited'' but that might be of further use for researchers.]<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
[All works cited should be in correct MLA format and include in-text parenthetical citations.]<br />
<br />
*Palahniuk, Chuck. ''Fight Club.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.<br />
<br />
*Freud, Sigmund. ''Beyond the pleasure principle.'' New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1961.<br />
<br />
*Rudnytsky, Peter. ''Freud and Forbidden Knowledge.'' New York: New York University Press, 1994. 96-110.<br />
<br />
*Friday, Krister. "A Generation of Men Without History": Fight Club, Masculinity, and the Historical Symptom. Post Modern Culture. Vol.13, Number3. May 2003.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]] [[Category:Study Guide]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club&diff=10944Fight Club2006-11-27T21:24:00Z<p>Jbrooks: /* Tyler Durden */</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:FightClub.jpg|thumb|The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's ''Fight Club'']] <br />
A 1996 [[novel]] by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], and a 1999 [[film]] by [[David Fincher]].<br />
<br />
== Study Guide ==<br />
<table width="60%"><br />
<tr valign="top"><td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]<br />
</td></tr></table><br />
<br />
<br />
== Characters ==<br />
=== The Narrator ===<br />
The protagonist of the story who suffers from insomnia and has a split personality. Because of his insomnia, he starts attending support groups to see what real suffering is like. After a while of attending them, he meets Tyler Durden and forms Fight Club. This begins to be his new support group. We never find out his name in the story. We only know his other personality, Tyler.<br />
<br />
=== Tyler Durden ===<br />
He is the devious side of the narrator's personality. Tyler works night jobs were he is always causing trouble, whether in inserting various clips into the middle of family movies or in his waiting tables and tampering with the food. He is the one who technically made the way for the Fight Club when he said to the narrator "hit me as hard as you can." The narrator wanted to be more like Tyler even though the are the same person. After Fight Club's growth, Tyler started Project Mayhem. Tyler is later seen as the antagonist of the novel.<br />
<br />
=== Marla Singer ===<br />
The narrator meets her at the support groups he was attending. He beings to hate her for being a tourist. He could not let himself go when there was another faker there. She ends up being Tyler (and the narrator's) lover.<br />
<br />
By analyzing the character of Marla Singer, it is important to look at her part in this novel through the eyes of a feminist critic. She is the only female character and can be seen as a very different character when compared with all of the other male ones throughout the book. She is portrayed and treated differently as a female and as an outsider of the group of men who make up fight club. With this role, she is given a submissive and somewhat blind perspective by the other characters. She is the one who is most intimately involved with the nararrator and with Tyler but seems to be the one that they both treat with the least amount of respect.<br />
<br />
The entire Fight Club is based upon a patriarchal society. All of the men involved are men who were raised by women. None of them had a father figure to look up to and all of them lack the father that they needed when the time came to ask what they should do next. This may attribute to their over masculinity when fight club was in session. The testicular cancer group was a major sign of the lacking of masculinity prevalent in this book. Big Bob was once a very manly and muscular body builder that prided himself on the ability to be strong. He got testicular cancer, lost his manhood, and grew breasts. This shows the negative aspect attributed to being female. Though it is understandable that Big Bob doesn't want to be feminine, especially not physically, there is still a negative aspect surrounding the femal gender altogether. <br />
<br />
Marla is shunned and treated with little or no respect throughout the novel up until the end. The nararrator and herself have a competition in the beginning as to who is allowed what groups. Once Fight Club starts, the nararrator feels pride in the fact that Fight Club really does exclude her due to her gender. From then on she is kept in the dark about what is going on and is not allowed to know anything about this group that allows only men. She is only called on by Tyler for the majority of the book so that he can get laid and the nararrator views her as an annoyance that invades his home. The female character in this novel is shunned, avoided, and is seen as irritating. <br />
<br />
Towards the end of the novel, near the nararrator's breaking point, he begins to appreciate Marla. He is beginning to realize that Tyler isn't a real person at all and that he is just an alternate personality that comes into play when he falls asleep. Upon this realization he calls upon Marla and feels the need to be with her in order to stay awake. He fears that the members of Fight Club are now out to kill her and suddenly gains the urge to be her protector. His new meaning for staying alive is now not all about himself but about Marla and keeping her safe. His annoyance becomes his reason for living. In the end, the female critic would say that the gender prejudice had disappeared and that Marla was eventually given the respect that she deserved.<br />
<br />
== Major Themes ==<br />
=== The Feminization of Men ===<br />
<br />
=== Redefining or Rediscovering Masculinity ===<br />
<br />
=== The Numbing Effects of Modern Life ===<br />
<br />
=== The Oedipus Complex ===<br />
<br />
The Oedipus Complex –<br />
Based from a greek legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus Read about it] king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father by Jocasta of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismeme: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.<br />
<br />
The unresolved desire of a child for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, esp. the desire of a son for his mother. This involves, first, identification with and, later, hatred for the parent of the same sex, who is considered by the child as a rival.<br />
<br />
<br />
1.A child's positive libidinal feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that develop usually between the ages of three and six and that may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved used especially of the male child.<br />
2. The unresolved oedipal feelings persisting into adult life.<br />
<br />
“The child’s sexual researches, on which limits are imposed by his physical development, lead to no satisfactory conclusion; hence such later complaints as ‘I can’t accomplish anything’.”(Freud 15) “The tie of affection, which binds the child as a rule to the parent of the opposite sex, succumbs to disappointment, to a vain expectation of satisfaction or to jealousy over the birth of a new baby-unmistakable proof or the infidelity of the object of the child’s affections.”(Freud 15) “His own attempt to make a bay himself, carried out with tragic seriousness, fails shamefully.”(Freud 15) “The lessening amount of affection he receives, the increasing demands of education, hard words and an occasional punishment-these show him at last the full extent to which he has been scorned.”(Freud 15) “These are a few typical and constantly recurring instances of the ways in which the love characteristic of the age of childhood is brought to a conclusion.”(Freud 15)<br />
<br />
==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ====<br />
Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98).<br />
<br />
In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107).<br />
<br />
For further reading, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex Oedipal Complex]<br />
<br />
== Major Symbols ==<br />
=== The Rules of Fight Club===<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
<br />
3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.<br />
<br />
4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.<br />
<br />
5th RULE: One fight at a time.<br />
<br />
6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.<br />
<br />
7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.<br />
<br />
8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.<br />
<br />
=== Jack/Joe ===<br />
<br />
At one point in the novel, the narrator comes across magazine articles that are supposedly written by body organs in the first person. For example, "I am Jack's medulla oblongata. Without me, Jack could not perform any of his autonomic funtions." Throughout the rest of the story, in the film, the narrator uses this line to express his thoughts, emotions and feelings - I am Jack's raging bile duct. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. I am Jack's wasted life. In the novel, this line is also used with the exception of the name - I am Joe's Boiling Point. I am Joe's Smirking Revenge. I am Joe's Broken Heart.<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' in Contemporary Culture ==<br />
[This section should include links to cultural items that ''Fight Club'' has influenced.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== Influences ==<br />
=== F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby'' ===<br />
<br />
[More to be added.]<br />
<br />
<br />
== ''Fight Club'' the film ==<br />
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes Memorable quotations from the film]<br />
* [http://www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/ Official Film Site]<br />
<br />
== Additional Resources ==<br />
[This section should include items of interest that have ''not been cited'' but that might be of further use for researchers.]<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
[All works cited should be in correct MLA format and include in-text parenthetical citations.]<br />
<br />
*Palahniuk, Chuck. ''Fight Club.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.<br />
<br />
*Freud, Sigmund. ''Beyond the pleasure principle.'' New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1961.<br />
<br />
*Rudnytsky, Peter. ''Freud and Forbidden Knowledge.'' New York: New York University Press, 1994. 96-110.<br />
<br />
*Friday, Krister. "A Generation of Men Without History": Fight Club, Masculinity, and the Historical Symptom. Post Modern Culture. Vol.13, Number3. May 2003.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]] [[Category:Study Guide]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Chuck_Palahniuk&diff=10943Chuck Palahniuk2006-11-27T21:02:48Z<p>Jbrooks: Included Pronunciation</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:palahniuk.jpg|thumb|Chuck Palahniuk]]<br />
The American novelist of [[Fight Club|''Fight Club'']].<br />
<br />
== Biography ==<br />
Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk (pronounced "Paula-nick) was born on February 21, 1962 in Pasco Washington. He is one of four children born to Fred and Carol Palahniuk. He lived in Burbank, Washington until his parents divorced, sending Chuck and his siblings to live with their grandparents. Palahniuk graduated from Columbia High School in 1980. In 1986 he graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism. He now resides in Portland, Oregon. <br />
<br />
Palahniuk did volunteer work for a homeless shelter. Later, he also volunteered at a hospice as an escort. As an escort, he provided transportation for terminally ill people and brought them to support group meetings. Palahniuk ceased volunteering upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached. When his first novel, ''Invisible Monsters'' was rejected for being too disturbing, he began to write ''Fight Club''. He wrote this as an attempt to disturb the publisher even more.<br />
<br />
== Works ==<br />
'''NOVELS'''<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/fightclub.html''Fight Club''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1996.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/invisible-monsters.html''Invisible Monsters''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1999.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/survivor.html''Survivor''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1999.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/choke.html''Choke''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385722192/chuckpalahniuhom''Lullaby''], (first in a trilogy), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/diary.html''Diary''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/haunted.html''Haunted''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385663498/chuckpalahniuhom''Rant : The Oral History of Buster Casey''], coming in May 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''NONFICTION'''<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400047838/chuckpalahniuhom''Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon''], Crown (New York NY), 2003.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/stranger-than-fiction.html''Stranger Than Fiction''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2004.<br />
<br />
== Awards ==<br />
<br />
• 1997 Oregon Book Award for Best Novel for ''Fight Club''<br />
<br />
• 1997 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for ''Fight Club''<br />
<br />
• 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for ''Lullaby''<br />
<br />
<br />
'''NOMINATIONS''' <br />
<br />
• 1999 Oregon Book Award for Best Novel for ''Survivor''<br />
<br />
• 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for ''Lullaby''<br />
<br />
• 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for ''Haunted''<br />
<br />
== Timeline ==<br />
<br />
<br />
== Additional Resources ==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.horror.org/stokerwinnom.htm Bram Stoker Award]<br />
<br />
* [http://www.literary-arts.org/awards/ Oregon Book Award]<br />
<br />
* [http://www.pnba.org/awards.htm Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award ]<br />
<br />
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
<br />
''Chuck Palahniuk Home Page''. 18 Oct.2006. http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/.<br />
<br />
''Contemporary Authors Online''. 2005. Thomas Gale. Macon State College Library. Macon, Ga. 18, Oct. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=maco12153&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U14848464&n=10&docNum=H1000144867&ST=chuck+palahniuk&bConts=2191. <br />
<br />
''The Cult - ChuckPalahniuk.net''. Dennis Widmyer. 2005. A Writer's Cult, LLC. 18 Oct. 2006 http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/.<br />
<br />
''Chuck Palahniuk: Information from Answers.com''. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/chuck-palahniuk.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Chuck_Palahniuk&diff=10942Chuck Palahniuk2006-11-27T20:58:28Z<p>Jbrooks: corrected spelling of Chuck</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:palahniuk.jpg|thumb|Chuck Palahniuk]]<br />
The American novelist of [[Fight Club|''Fight Club'']].<br />
<br />
== Biography ==<br />
Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk was born on February 21, 1962 in Pasco Washington. He is one of four children born to Fred and Carol Palahniuk. He lived in Burbank, Washington until his parents divorced, sending Chuck and his siblings to live with their grandparents. Palahniuk graduated from Columbia High School in 1980. In 1986 he graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism. He now resides in Portland, Oregon. <br />
<br />
Palahniuk did volunteer work for a homeless shelter. Later, he also volunteered at a hospice as an escort As an escort, he provided transportation for terminally ill people and brought them to support group meetings. Palahniuk ceased volunteering upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached. When his first novel, ''Invisible Monsters'' was rejected for being too disturbing, he began to write ''Fight Club''. He wrote this as an attempt to disturb the publisher even more.<br />
<br />
== Works ==<br />
'''NOVELS'''<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/fightclub.html''Fight Club''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1996.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/invisible-monsters.html''Invisible Monsters''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1999.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/survivor.html''Survivor''], W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1999.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/choke.html''Choke''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385722192/chuckpalahniuhom''Lullaby''], (first in a trilogy), Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/diary.html''Diary''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/haunted.html''Haunted''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2005.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385663498/chuckpalahniuhom''Rant : The Oral History of Buster Casey''], coming in May 2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'''NONFICTION'''<br />
<br />
• [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400047838/chuckpalahniuhom''Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon''], Crown (New York NY), 2003.<br />
<br />
• [http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/stranger-than-fiction.html''Stranger Than Fiction''], Doubleday (New York, NY), 2004.<br />
<br />
== Awards ==<br />
<br />
• 1997 Oregon Book Award for Best Novel for ''Fight Club''<br />
<br />
• 1997 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for ''Fight Club''<br />
<br />
• 2003 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for ''Lullaby''<br />
<br />
<br />
'''NOMINATIONS''' <br />
<br />
• 1999 Oregon Book Award for Best Novel for ''Survivor''<br />
<br />
• 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for ''Lullaby''<br />
<br />
• 2005 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for ''Haunted''<br />
<br />
== Timeline ==<br />
<br />
<br />
== Additional Resources ==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.horror.org/stokerwinnom.htm Bram Stoker Award]<br />
<br />
* [http://www.literary-arts.org/awards/ Oregon Book Award]<br />
<br />
* [http://www.pnba.org/awards.htm Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award ]<br />
<br />
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
== Works Cited ==<br />
<br />
''Chuck Palahniuk Home Page''. 18 Oct.2006. http://www.chuckpalahniuk.com/.<br />
<br />
''Contemporary Authors Online''. 2005. Thomas Gale. Macon State College Library. Macon, Ga. 18, Oct. 2006. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.maconstate.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=maco12153&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U14848464&n=10&docNum=H1000144867&ST=chuck+palahniuk&bConts=2191. <br />
<br />
''The Cult - ChuckPalahniuk.net''. Dennis Widmyer. 2005. A Writer's Cult, LLC. 18 Oct. 2006 http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/.<br />
<br />
''Chuck Palahniuk: Information from Answers.com''. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/chuck-palahniuk.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Literature]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club&diff=10905Fight Club2006-11-20T20:51:34Z<p>Jbrooks: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Image:FightClub.jpg|thumb|The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's ''Fight Club'']] <br />
A 1996 [[novel]] by [[Chuck Palahniuk]], and a 1999 [[film]] by [[David Fincher]].<br />
<br />
== Study Guide ==<br />
<table width="60%"><br />
<tr valign="top"><td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 1|Chapter 1]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 3|Chapter 3]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 4|Chapter 4]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 5|Chapter 5]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 6|Chapter 6]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 8|Chapter 8]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 10|Chapter 10]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 11|Chapter 11]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 12|Chapter 12]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 13|Chapter 13]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 14|Chapter 14]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 15|Chapter 15]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 16|Chapter 16]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 17|Chapter 17]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 18|Chapter 18]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 19|Chapter 19]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 20|Chapter 20]]<br />
</td><br />
<td><br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 21|Chapter 21]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 22|Chapter 22]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 23|Chapter 23]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 24|Chapter 24]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 25|Chapter 25]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 26|Chapter 26]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 27|Chapter 27]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 28|Chapter 28]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 29|Chapter 29]]<br />
* [[Fight Club Chapter 30|Chapter 30]]<br />
</td></tr></table><br />
<br />
<br />
== Characters ==<br />
=== The Narrator ===<br />
The protagonist of the story who suffers from insomnia and has a split personality. Because of his insomnia, he starts attending support groups to see what real suffering is like. After a while of attending them, he meets Tyler Durden and forms Fight Club. This begins to be his new support group. We never find out his name in the story. We only know his other personality, Tyler.<br />
<br />
=== Tyler Durden ===<br />
He is the narrators devious side of his personality. He is the one who technically made the way for the Fight Club when he said to the narrator "hit me as hard as you can." The narrator wanted to be more like Tyler even though the are the same person.<br />
<br />
=== Marla Singer ===<br />
The narrator meets her at the support groups he was attending. He beings to hate her for being a tourist. He could not let himself go when there was another faker there. She ends up being Tyler (and the narrator's) lover.<br />
<br />
By analyzing the character of Marla Singer, it is important to look at her part in this novel through the eyes of a feminist critic. She is the only female character and can be seen as a very different character when compared with all of the other male ones throughout the book. She is portrayed and treated differently as a female and as an outsider of the group of men who make up fight club. With this role, she is given a submissive and somewhat blind perspective by the other characters. She is the one who is most intimately involved with the nararrator and with Tyler but seems to be the one that they both treat with the least amount of respect.<br />
<br />
The entire Fight Club is based upon a patriarchal society. All of the men involved are men who were raised by women. None of them had a father figure to look up to and all of them lack the father that they needed when the time came to ask what they should do next. This may attribute to their over masculinity when fight club was in session. The testicular cancer group was a major sign of the lacking of masculinity prevalent in this book. Big Bob was once a very manly and muscular body builder that prided himself on the ability to be strong. He got testicular cancer, lost his manhood, and grew breasts. This shows the negative aspect attributed to being female. Though it is understandable that Big Bob doesn't want to be feminine, especially not physically, there is still a negative aspect surrounding the femal gender altogether. <br />
<br />
Marla is shunned and treated with little or no respect throughout the novel up until the end. The nararrator and herself have a competition in the beginning as to who is allowed what groups. Once Fight Club starts, the nararrator feels pride in the fact that Fight Club really does exclude her due to her gender. From then on she is kept in the dark about what is going on and is not allowed to know anything about this group that allows only men. She is only called on by Tyler for the majority of the book so that he can get laid and the nararrator views her as an annoyance that invades his home. The female character in this novel is shunned, avoided, and is seen as irritating. <br />
<br />
Towards the end of the novel, near the nararrator's breaking point, he begins to appreciate Marla. He is beginning to realize that Tyler isn't a real person at all and that he is just an alternate personality that comes into play when he falls asleep. Upon this realization he calls upon Marla and feels the need to be with her in order to stay awake. He fears that the members of Fight Club are now out to kill her and suddenly gains the urge to be her protector. His new meaning for staying alive is now not all about himself but about Marla and keeping her safe. His annoyance becomes his reason for living. In the end, the female critic would say that the gender prejudice had disappeared and that Marla was eventually given the respect that she deserved.<br />
<br />
== Major Themes ==<br />
=== The Feminization of Men ===<br />
<br />
=== Redefining or Rediscovering Masculinity ===<br />
<br />
=== The Numbing Effects of Modern Life ===<br />
<br />
=== The Oedipus Complex ===<br />
<br />
The Oedipus Complex –<br />
Based from a greek legend [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus Read about it] king of Thebes, the son of Laius and Jocasta, and the father by Jocasta of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismeme: as was prophesied at his birth, he unwittingly killed his father and married his mother and, in penance, blinded himself and went into exile.<br />
<br />
The unresolved desire of a child for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, esp. the desire of a son for his mother. This involves, first, identification with and, later, hatred for the parent of the same sex, who is considered by the child as a rival.<br />
<br />
<br />
1.A child's positive libidinal feelings toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that develop usually between the ages of three and six and that may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved used especially of the male child.<br />
2. The unresolved oedipal feelings persisting into adult life.<br />
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“The child’s sexual researches, on which limits are imposed by his physical development, lead to no satisfactory conclusion; hence such later complaints as ‘I can’t accomplish anything’.”(Freud 15) “The tie of affection, which binds the child as a rule to the parent of the opposite sex, succumbs to disappointment, to a vain expectation of satisfaction or to jealousy over the birth of a new baby-unmistakable proof or the infidelity of the object of the child’s affections.”(Freud 15) “His own attempt to make a bay himself, carried out with tragic seriousness, fails shamefully.”(Freud 15) “The lessening amount of affection he receives, the increasing demands of education, hard words and an occasional punishment-these show him at last the full extent to which he has been scorned.”(Freud 15) “These are a few typical and constantly recurring instances of the ways in which the love characteristic of the age of childhood is brought to a conclusion.”(Freud 15)<br />
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==== The Oedipus Myth: The Mother ====<br />
Aristotle once had an idea that thinking and knowledge are the driving forces in human life, and through the well-known myth of Oedipus, a tyrant of Thebes, he tries to reveal these forces are also found at the myth's semantic base. The first and oldest component of the myth is the story of the Sphinx, initially presented as one of the "storm demons," symbolizing disaster and plague, and naming her a "sacred disease" (Rudnytsky 96). The combination of the two myths of the Sphinx and Oedipus was at first understood as a symbolic representation of the purely physical conflicts between the sun and storm clouds. Consequently, changes in social conditions catalyzed a change in the interpretation, so eventually the story developed and became enriched into a myth tracing the daily or yearly career of the sun, which was believed to kill his father (the night) and marry his mother (the dawn) (Rudnytsky 98).<br />
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In respects to religion, the Sphinx can be interpreted as Mother Earth - its gradual metamorphosis from an environment of hostile natural forces and diseases into one of earth, life and Mother Nature. Freud pointed out that figures of this kind are the religious equivalent of the "phallic mother" symbolized in cults by objects such as a totem. In her many guises the goddess represents all the aspects which a mother shows to her child. She is an intercessor with the father-god, embodiment of beauty as well as the origin of all things (Rudnytsky 107).<br />
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For further reading, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex Oedipal Complex]<br />
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== Major Symbols ==<br />
=== The Rules of Fight Club===<br />
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1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
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2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.<br />
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3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.<br />
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4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.<br />
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5th RULE: One fight at a time.<br />
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6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.<br />
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7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.<br />
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8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.<br />
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=== Jack/Joe ===<br />
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At one point in the novel, the narrator comes across magazine articles that are supposedly written by body organs in the first person. For example, "I am Jack's medulla oblongata. Without me, Jack could not perform any of his autonomic funtions." Throughout the rest of the story, in the film, the narrator uses this line to express his thoughts, emotions and feelings - I am Jack's raging bile duct. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. I am Jack's wasted life. In the novel, this line is also used with the exception of the name - I am Joe's Boiling Point. I am Joe's Smirking Revenge. I am Joe's Broken Heart.<br />
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== ''Fight Club'' in Contemporary Culture ==<br />
[This section should include links to cultural items that ''Fight Club'' has influenced.]<br />
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== Influences ==<br />
=== F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby'' ===<br />
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[More to be added.]<br />
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== ''Fight Club'' the film ==<br />
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes Memorable quotations from the film]<br />
* [http://www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/ Official Film Site]<br />
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== Additional Resources ==<br />
[This section should include items of interest that have ''not been cited'' but that might be of further use for researchers.]<br />
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== Works Cited ==<br />
[All works cited should be in correct MLA format and include in-text parenthetical citations.]<br />
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*Palahniuk, Chuck. ''Fight Club.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996.<br />
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*Freud, Sigmund. ''Beyond the pleasure principle.'' New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1961.<br />
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*Rudnytsky, Peter. ''Freud and Forbidden Knowledge.'' New York: New York University Press, 1994. 96-110.<br />
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*Friday, Krister. "A Generation of Men Without History": Fight Club, Masculinity, and the Historical Symptom. Post Modern Culture. Vol.13, Number3. May 2003.<br />
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[[Category:Literature]] [[Category:Study Guide]]</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=Babylon_Revisited&diff=10504Babylon Revisited2006-09-24T02:04:05Z<p>Jbrooks: </p>
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<div>==Factual Information==<br />
"Babylon Revisited" is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This story first appeared in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' on February 21, 1931. <br />
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==Characters==<br />
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===Charlie Wales===<br />
Charlie Wales is a man who has come to Paris from Prague to regain custody of his daughter, Honoria, from his sister-in-law.<br />
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===Honoria Wales===<br />
Honoria is the daughter of Charlie Wales and his deceased wife, Helen.<br />
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===Marion Peters===<br />
Marion is the sister-in-law to Charlie Wales and sister to the deceased, Helen. She also has custody of Honoria Wales.<br />
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===Lincoln Peters===<br />
Lincoln is married to Marion Wales and shares custody of Honoria.<br />
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===Lorraine Quarrles===<br />
Lorraine is a friend of Charlie's from his past.<br />
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===Duncan Shaeffer===<br />
Duncan is a friend of Charlie's from college.<br />
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==Plot==<br />
"Babylon Revisited" is a story about a man, Charlie Wales, who is tries to correct his past and regain custody of his daughter. He has to overcome his drinking and try to regain his wealth. He returns to Paris from Prague to try and convince his sister-in-law, who has custody of his daughter, that he has changed so that she will sign over custody to him. Charlie has to still overcome obstacles in his present while trying to prove that he has changed.<br />
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==Themes==<br />
One [[theme]] of this story is Charlie's struggle to prove to everyone that he has changed from the person they knew that stayed out drinking and partying. There are still some passages in the story that can make the reader wonder if he has really changed. <br />
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==Works Cited==<br />
Sipiora, Phillip. "Babylon Revisited." Reading and Writing about Literature. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River, 2002.</div>Jbrookshttps://litwiki.org/index.php?title=User:Jbrooks&diff=10229User:Jbrooks2006-08-21T23:00:51Z<p>Jbrooks: </p>
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<div>==Major Header==<br />
===Subheader===<br />
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* Item One<br />
* Item Two<br />
* Item Three<br />
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# One<br />
# Two<br />
# Three<br />
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This is my '''first''' ''sentence''.<br />
[[Literary Terms]]<br />
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[http://www.google.com/ Google]</div>Jbrooks