Capitalism And Consumerism In Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk

1351 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of advertising and marketing

Every day factors influence how each person lives life in even the most subconscious of ways, driving mankind in to a culture that puts emphasize on ideals that are a rare natural occurrence in society. The novel, Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk delves deep in to how the human subconscious is affected by these factors, with emphasize on a banal corporate setting. Fight Club gives the reader insight on how capitalism and mass consumerism shape the way people think and how cues created by marketing dictate how civilization participates in it. By creating a mass produced culture, consumerism drives people to buy in to what is marketed as “In” and can leave an absence of happiness by not possessing such items. Capitalism, and consumerism by proxy, will tend to create a divide in human emotion by allowing society to look past what is right and switch the focus on profiting off of one another. The detrimental effects of a capitalistic and consumer driven lifestyle are commented on in Fight Club by showing us the psyche of a character driven mad by his unwilled acceptance of his daily life. Driven to the submissive mentality of a corporate mindset, The Narrator feels as if life is meaningless. Instead of fighting for something worthwhile, he instead works in a job that profits off of the loss of others and participates in daily shopping rituals that seek to fix the contempt he has for that lifestyle. For this reason of bringing light to the issue, while also inspiring people to think about how a capitalistic lifestyle affects the world around them, Fight Club should be considered for literary study.
By portraying an unrealistic ideal of cultural normality, marketing creates a divide between how the average person perceives society and ho...

... middle of paper ...

...porate drone, he takes on a rebellious alter ego that is willing to do the dirty work The Narrator has so readily avoided. The piece of mind that is to be taken away from this novel is to seek happiness from within and that simply buying material possessions to fill the void that depression has created will simply continue to breed discontent. Rather than use violence to seek out change, make a difference in the lives of others through positivity. Take pride in individuality, as it sets a person apart from the mindless drones stuck corporate or consumerist mindset. Do not ever lose sight of personal goals and unique freedoms that can make up how an individual is. In the end, if a sense of self is lost, a person can be driven to the most absurd of extremes and can ultimately lead in to an unstable state that may just end up as disillusioned as The Narrator himself.

Show More
Related

  • George Saunders and Contemporary U.S. Life

    1641 Words  | 4 Pages

    Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing The Kite Runner 'And A Separate Peace'

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    An individual’s mental well being can greatly affect their character and the way they perceive things. In the novels The Kite Runner and A Separate Peace, the protagonists are boys who are infested by internal conflicts such as insecurities and emotions. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, a boy lets his dad negatively affect his character, causing him to treat those around him in a cynical manner. Likewise, a boy from John Knowles’ A Separate Peace bases his character on whom he wishes to be, letting his unhealthy mental state consume him. Hence, explored through both novels, is how a person’s internal conflicts can lead to their downfall, whether as a result of their struggle with identity or their feelings towards others.

    Read More

  • Tyler Durden Fight Club Essay

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    Essentially, fighting relieves the blunted affect associated with post-industrialism by revivifying the masculine tendencies suppressed by a feminizing culture. The tension between the industrious and post-industrious is presented in Fight Club with the bruised and bloodied male being constructed as the more masculine, whereas the clean and crisp male is constructed as the more feminine. That is to say that the bruised and bloody male represents the masculine identity absent in the post-industrial consumer society (Iocco

    Read More

  • Gatsby Fight Club

    2329 Words  | 5 Pages

    Chuck Palahniuk wrote an afterword for the paperback edition of Fight Club, in which he indicated that his novel was principally an updated version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: “Really, what I was writing was just The Great Gatsby, updated a little. It was ‘apostolic’ fiction – where a surviving apostle tells the story of his hero. There are two men and a woman. And one man, the hero, is shot to death” (Palahniuk 215). Much can be written about the similarities and contrasts between these two novels. In addition to this simple plot similarity, both novels provide powerful social commentary on the state of American culture and the detrimental impact of capitalism on the individual during their respective times. The Great Gatsby was published in the 1920s and Fight Club in the 1990s, giving two similarly written literary snapshots of American society at opposite ends of the twentieth century. The temptation is to analyze and compare these novels in terms of American consumerism at different times, the individual’s quest for self-identity in the increasingly conformist capitalist structure, or to focus on literary aspects, such as character and narrative structure. However, these obvious subjects seem secondary to an overarching thematic similarity.

    Read More

  • Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    “I had to know what Tyler was doing while I was asleep. If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?” (Palahniuk 32). When Tyler is in action, narrator is not contemporaneous in a sense that he is Tyler now. Tyler is someone who doesn’t give any importance to money-oriented world but he indeed believes in the willpower of constructing a classless society. The narrator is insomniac, depressed, and stuck with unexciting job. Chuck’s prominent, pessimistic, radical work, Fight Club, investigates inner self deeper and deeper into personality, identity, and temperament as a chapter goes by. Through his writing, Chuck Palahniuk comments on the inner conflicts, the psychoanalysis of narrator and Tyler Durden, and the Marxist impression of classicism. By not giving any name to a narrator, author wants readers to engage in the novel and associate oneself with the storyline of narrator. The primary subject and focus of the novel, Fight Club, is to comment socially on the seizing of manhood in the simultaneous world. This novel is, collectively, a male representation where only a single woman, Marla Singer, is exemplified. “Tyler said, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can” (46). This phrase is a mere representation of how to start a manly fight club. However, in the novel this scene is written as if two people are physically fighting and splashing blood all over the parking lot, in reality it’s just an initiation of fight club which resides in narrator’s inner self. The concept of this club is that the more one fights, the more one gets sturdier and tougher. It is also a place where one gets to confront his weaknesses and inner deterioration.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Fight Club

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk. This is a story about a protagonist who struggles with insomnia. An anonymous character suffering from recurring insomnia due to the stress brought about by his job is introduced to the reader. He visits a doctor who later sends him to visit a support group for testicular cancer victims, and this helps him in alleviating his insomnia. However, his insomnia returns after he meets Marla Singer. Later on, the narrator meets Tyler Durden, and they together establish a fight club. They continue fighting until they attract crowds of people interested in the fight club. Fight club is a story that shows the struggles between the upper class and lower class people. The upper class people here undermine the working class people by considering them as cockroaches. In addition, Palahniuk explores the theme of destruction throughout the book whereby the characters destroy their lives, body, building and the history of their town.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jack Solomon's Masters Of Desire: The Culture Of American Advertising

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    Americans have long since depended on a falsified ideology of idealized life referred to as the American dream. The construct of this dream has become more elusive with the emergence of popular cultural advertisements that sell items promoting a highly gendered goal of achieving perfection. In “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon states that ads are creating a “symbolic association between their products and what is most coveted by the consumer” to draw on the consumer’s desire to outwardly express high social standing (544). The American dream has sold the idea of equality between genders, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds, but advertisements have manipulated this concept entirely through representations

    Read More

  • Normative And Informative Susceptibility

    2022 Words  | 5 Pages

    Individual’s consumption pattern and purchase decision are strongly influenced by cultural norms and values of the society he lives in (H. S. Kim & Drolet, 2003; Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002; Sun, Horn, & Merritt, 2004). Since individuals in collectivist society pay more attention towards harmony of the gro...

    Read More

  • What We Are To Consumers By James Twitchell Summary

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    American’s and people in general are an audience targeted for various commodities, advertising being a major contributor. The world of advertising has become a multiplex science, as mentioned in “What We Are to advertisers,” Twitchell divides consumers into 8 categories and Craig, in “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” concludes there are specific times of day for advertisements to be displayed to reach specific audiences. “Mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes,” claims Twitchell. These stereotypes of men, women, and humans in general are how advertiser’s reach their targeted audiences.

    Read More

  • Individualism in "Anthem" by Ayn Rand

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.

    Read More

  • Rise Of The Image Culture Analysis

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product and could immediately relate to the subject or the product in that advertisement? Companies that sell products are always trying to find new and interesting ways to get buyers and get people’s attention. It has become a part of our society today to always have products being shown to them. As claimed in Elizabeth Thoman’s essay Rise of the Image Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream, “…advertising offered instructions on how to dress, how to behave, how to appear to others in order to gain approval and avoid rejection”. This statement is true because most of the time buyers are persuaded by ads for certain products.

    Read More

  • Nike's Individuality

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Solomon’s words, “American dream encourages the desire to ‘arrive,’ to vault above the mass, it also fosters a desire to be popular, to ‘belong’.” (169) Advertiser whose “ads are aimed at a broader market” (169) are utilizing such kind of human mentality. For instance, Nike is a famous clothes brand to almost everybody. In its advertisement, there are always people in different genders, races and ages wearing Nike’s products running on streets, on riversides or in parks. Through its advertisement, Nike is trying to convey consumers that everyone is using Nike’s products, and you should be one of them. People want to fit in as part of most people, so they buy Nike’s products. Nike’s advertised products make people belong to it. If I were going to buy a new pair of shorts for running, I would consider of buying a pair of Nike shorts because it seems that so many people wear Nike shorts and I want to keep the same with them. People buy those advertised products to increase their senses of belonging, but they are losing their individuality at the same time. Despite many advertised products could decrease the individuality, some of them indeed make people more of

    Read More

  • Theme Of Masculinity In Fight Club

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, masculinity is a reoccurring theme that is present throughout the novel and is directly linked to the creation of Fight Club in the first place. After meeting Tyler Durden, the narrator’s masculinity and outlook on life starts to dramatically change. In result of this change, the theme of masculinity becomes very disastrous throughout the novel very quickly because Palahniuk uses masculinity in order to explain the many problems the consumer driven males may struggle with. In this case, the narrator’s masculinity is constantly in question because of his struggles with insomnia, consumer driven lifestyle, and Marla Singer.

    Read More

  • Relation Between Advertising and Our Consumer Culture

    2541 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mooij, M.de. (2004). Consumer Behavior and Culture, Sage Publications, Page 102, Page 119, Page 274, Page 275

    Read More

  • Setting Analysis – “Fight Club”

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    “My boss doesn’t know the material, but he won’t let me run the demo with a black eye and half my face swollen from the stitches inside my cheek”(Palahniuk, par. 1). Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” deals with a man frustrated on many different levels; from his childhood to present day life. Fight Clubs' setting contributes to what makes Fight Club such a powerful story. The narrator who is never named, starts off in chapter six with what could be described as an office hell; complete with empty smiles and feeble minded speak of which color icon they will use for office reports. The beginning of chapter six reminds the reader of mindless zombie office speak and a lack of life, that is all too common in many peoples lives. The reader will most likely identify with what is written in a manner easily transferable to anyones life. I believe most people, when reading would characterize the office environment as the light side and the hours during fight club at the bottom of the bar the dark side. I would argue the complete opposite. For the narrator, all the hate, the disgust, the total contempt for humanity is created in that office environment. All the feelings of life, and meaning, and what I would characterize as happiness is all felt during the time fight club is in effect in the bottom of that bar.

    Read More

More about Capitalism And Consumerism In Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk

Open Document