Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

Many religions and philosophies believe that human life has meaning to it, but does it actually? Existentialism says that the human essence is not due to nature but what humans make out of it. The two philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, who originated the term in the 19th Century, only hinted to the idea of existentialism within their works. Later in the 1940’s and 1950’s, French existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir wrote scholarly and fictional works that emphasized and popularized existential themes. Sartre once said, “At first Man is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be” (“Existentialism-By Branch/Doctrine-The Basics of Philosophy”). This idea is considered a philosophy concerned with finding ones

This was one of many sets of dialogues that repeats. The repetition helps emphasize the point Beckett is trying to get across. Here, Vladimir and Estragon both have a case of chronic pain. When looking at the piece as a whole, this pain can be seen as inescapable. Not being able to escape from the violence reinforces the idea that masculinity goes hand in hand with violence. Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club, is packed full of violence. The majority of the novel takes place in Project Mayhem, a place where men fight to prove their masculinity. Several fights took place in Project Mayhem. “I hit our first-timer and hammered that beautiful mister angel face, first with the bony knuckles of my fist like a pounding molar,and then the knotted tight butt of my fist after my knuckles were raw from his teeth stuck through his lips” (Palahniuk 123). This graphic scene demonstrates the violence that took place in Project Mayhem. They took no prisoners and did not kid around, all in order to be considered a real man. Not only do these men act violent towards others, but they also direct their violence towards each