Even before this class began, Fight Club was easily one of my top 5 favorite movies. The plot, casting, and execution of this film was nearly perfect! The narrator, who's name remains a mystery, tells the audience some facts about his life, such as his suffering of insomnia, and his love for catalog shopping.
His attachment to catalog shopping, he believes, helps portray what kind of person he really is, by choosing one specific coffee table, or one set of dishes over another for use in his kitchen.
In the article titled "Naturalism and Dystopia in Fight Club and Ghost Dog" the author, Wegner, elaborates on the protagonist of the film by explaining how his insomnia takes away from different aspects of his life. He 'finds no reward or pleasure in his work, [and is] detached from everyone around him' (Page 177). Wegner also mentions how the narrator was addicted to support groups, and would frequently attend random groups as an impostor. The narrator does this because he believes when people think your dying, they listen closely instead of just waiting their turn to speak.
This among other reasons help depict Fight Club as a dystopic society that can occur in the present and focus on any ordinary person, rather than in a distant world where members of society are controlled and don't seem like normal 21st century people.
The narrator creates an alter-ego named Tyler Durden, who 'convinces' him to blow up his apartment even though it was filled with all the things he found browsing through catalogs still inside. Later, the narrator and his alter ago's subsequent underground fighting leads to an extremist group that focuses on blowing up buildings containing credit card debt records. By accomplishing this, people will stop being mentally attached to their material possessions.
An interesting side point; on page 178, Wegner explains how once the original Fight Club turns into Project Mayhem, the narrator's alter ego is soon eradicated, resulting in a return to his "middle-class self".
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