Guides and Self-Realization in Invisible Man and Fight Club

Passage 1: “Nor did I think of Mary as a ‘friend’; she was something more-a force, a stable, familiar force like something out of my past which kept me from whirling off into some unknown which I dared not face” (258). - Narrator
Response 1: In Invisible Man the narrator briefly lives with Mary, who starts as a friendly acquaintance, but quickly he sees her as his spiritual guide of sorts. In Fight Club, Tyler lets the narrator come live with him and they become friends quickly. It doesn’t take the narrator long at all to start to think of Tyler as a spiritual guide too. Both narrators mention that they frequently become annoyed by their landlord’s talkativeness. However, both Tyler and Mary help the narrator’s stay focused and inspired at the same time.

Passage 2: “And through the haze I again felt the tension. There was no denying it; it was there and something had to be done before it simmered away in the heat” (461). - Narrator
This is very similar to when Tyler is explains that what makes a person who they are is the context of the world they live in. He tells the narrator that the reason why he was so materialistic and monotonous before is because that’s what the world he lives in taught him. It is only until the narrator goes off the grid to the house with Tyler when he can really evaluate his life and who he is. The same happens in the book when the narrator is left in the dark hole full of coal. He is finally allowed to evaluate his life and his experiences to decide who he really wants to be once he is no longer surrounded by society. The two concepts are a little different, but in the book the narrator’s experiences are all happening in the context of the society he has grown up in. His experiences would have been completely different if he grew up in another country so in that way, he is made up of the context of his