Fight Club

Context:

The narrator is suffering from insomnia, and his doctor suggests that if he wants to see real suffering, he should see support groups. The Narrator goes to them religiously every day for two years, until Marla shows up. Marla visits these support groups to make her feel alive, giving her something to live for. The narrator goes to these to cry and relieve his stress, and thus be able to sleep.

“In this one moment, Marla’s lie reflects my lie, and all I can see are lies. In the middle of all their truth. Everyone clinging risking to share their worst fear, that their death is coming head-on and the barrel of a gun is pressed against the back of their throats.” (23)

“‘No’ Marla says. No, she wants it all. The cancers, the parasites, Marla’s eyes narrow. She never dreamed she could feel so ’smarvelous. She actually felt alive. Her skin was clearing up. All her life, she never saw a dead person. There was no real sense of life because she had nothing to contrast it with. Oh, but now there was dying and death and loss and grief. Weeping and shuddering, terror and remorse. Now that she knows where we’re all going, Marla feels every moment of her life” (38).

Marla explains how she had been living her life in a vacuum, that she had never had any reason to actually live or to die, that she was simple existing. Now that she knows the alternative to life, she is ready to start living it. She is ready to start piloting her own life instead of leaving it to the dreary autopilot of society

Context:

After the Narrator meets Tyler Durden, they start a Fight Club, designed for men to take out their angst, anxieties and anger out, to feel that they are truly alive. The fights clubs are run by Tyler Durden and are run by a few main rules:

This quote is one of the most important quotes in understanding the thought process of the people who willingly take part in Project Mayhem. The people who participate in Project Mayhem have been taught to try their best and maybe they'll make it someday, but that will never happen. This kind of desperation leads to extreme actions and risking everything because they have no future to invest in.

Side Note: I found about 50 quotes to make my poem, and only highlighted the top five in this Prezi.

Look up into the sky

Everyone clinging,

risking,

because on a long enough timeline

the survival rate for everyone

will drop to zero

Look up into the sky

for just one moment - pefection

one minute was enough

If you work hard for it,

a moment is the most you can ever expect

from perfection

Look up into the sky

and all I can see are lies

in the middle of truth

stranded on a single lie

now that we know where we're going,

live the most out of your life

Fight Club

Citations:

By: Chuck Palahniuk

All images are subject for copyright and are to be used in an educational setting. I found all of them on either Google Images or of Wikipedia. All are from the movie Fight Club.

Found Poem

Quote #1

Quote #3

Plot Summary

Quote #2

Quote

Context:

The narrator confronts Marla during one of the support groups, and demands that she leaves, saying "this is my vacation". The narrator has been visiting the support groups for two years, until Marla shows up and destroys the haven that the narrator created.

Fight Club is incredibly complex, so much so that the first rule of Fight Club is "Do not talk about Fight Club".

The plot of Fight Club follows the journey of an unnamed narrator suffering from insomnia, and goes to support groups to try to fall asleep. There he meets Marla Singer, another imposter who attends those meetings to try to give her life some kind of depth. After that, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden and his whole life is turned on its head

Summary:

The narrator works for an auto-manufacturer, and often has to do business trips abroad. He works in the recall management branch of his company and goes to visit car crashes, and determines which would be more effective: initiating a recall, or ignoring it.

Connection to Major themes

Quote:

This passage illustrates the theme of "what is the purpose of life?", as it shows people trying to find a reason to live and find a way not to die. We can see from the text that these people in the support groups know that they are dying and they're trying to find some way to live and hold on to life and not fall off.

Main Themes

One of the main themes of Fight Club is wondering what life is really about and what you can actually accomplish in your life, as well as being able to live your own life and fighting back.

Connection to Major Themes

Quote

Quote #4

Connection to major themes

Quote #5

“For this moment, nothing matters. Look up into the stars and you’re gone. Not your luggage. Nothing matters. Not your bad breath. The windows are dark outside and the turbine engines roar backward. The cabin hangs at the wrong angle under the roar of the turbines, and you will never have to file another expense account claim. Receipt required for items over twenty-five dollars. You will never have to get another haircut” (31).

In this quote the narrator ponders why he keeps living, how easy it would be to die. This question continues to drive him as he meets Tyler. The narrator's life seems meaningless and he subconsciously wants to end his dreary existence and replace it with a new, exciting one.

Quote:

"You aren't alive anywhere like you're alive at fight club. When it's you and one other guy under that one light in the middle of all those watching. Fight club isn't about winning or losing fights." (51)

Context:

In this part of the story, Tyler has started what he calls Project Mayhem and it a series of domestic terrorism designed to effectively re-create the world in a different likeness. At this point, the police commissioner in Seattle announced he would try to stop and arrest Project Mayhem and everyone in it, much to the dismay of Tyler. Tyler can't afford to watch his empire crumble, so he gags and blindfolds the police chief and gives this ultimatum:

Connection to Themes

This quote illustrates what the goal of fight club really is. As it said, fight club isn't about winning or losing, just fighting. fight club shows the desperation these men are facing, and that they want to feel that they have some say in their lives. Fight club gives these people an outlet for all the fear and rage they carry inside themselves and gives them an excuse to destroy something

Quote:

"'We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact,' Tyler said. 'So don't fuck with us.'"(165)

Connection