What would you do if you were to come across someone nearly exactly like yourself, yet with the qualities you wish you had? Someone exactly like you on the surface, but yet they are more suave, more handsome, and more intelligent than you could ever hope to be. The concept of the “doppelganger”, or, a body double of a living person, is a concept that has existed for nearly as long as mankind had begun crafting their first stories. In both the short story “William Wilson” by Edgar Allen Poe, and the film “Fight Club”, directed by David Fincher, the concept of doppelgangers is explored throughout each work through the assistance of the unwitting narrator in both stories. While a number of similarities can be deferred through each story, there …show more content…
are some differences within each work that solidifies their respective places as monolithic period pieces of the times in which they were both written.
The first most noticeable similarity between both “William Wilson” and “Fight Club” is the style of narration employed by the main character in each story; both forego their “true” names in order to mask their identities; indeed, it could actually be argued that there is no need for the reader to know either of the characters’ actual identities. As the narrator in “William Wilson” states; “Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation.” Both narrators choose given names that the reader is asked to refer to them as; in the case of “William Wilson”, the main character is to be referred to as the titular William Wilson; in “Fight Club”, the narrator refers to himself as Jack. It …show more content…
also seems that, through the use of these “everyman” names, both of these stories try to tell the tale of the average everyday person who just happens to stumble upon some bad luck through meeting their doppelgangers; as the narrator of “Fight Club” so adequately states, he is “…Jack’s smirking revenge”. The name Jack is used to represent the common people; your average, everyday American male who works 9-5 at a job he hates “to buy things he can’t afford to show off to people he doesn’t like”. In “William Wilson”, the narrator’s given identity could also be applied to a large subsect of the population represented in the short story; ergo, young students from England during the 19th century who have collectively been raised in similar circumstances due to the time period in which they were born which, in that respect, makes it similar to the average everyman represented by Jack in “Fight Club”. There are also, however, some very apparent differences in the ways that the narrators in each story represent themselves and the style in which they speak to the reader.
Jack from “Fight Club”, due to his apparent insomnia, which is actually implied to be a metaphor for the collective slumber of the post-feminism industrial male, spins his tale in a nearly half-awake stupor, always meandering through the plot thread by thread, as if he were waiting for his misery to all come to an end. On the other hand, William Wilson narrates his story as if he is not accepting of his role as the “original”, the source of his doppelganger. William Wilson voices his disbelief in the fact that his body double could be related to himself constantly, almost never accepting this possibility until it reaches its virtual tipping point. In this sense, the narrators of each story are almost exact opposites; Jack accepts his fate, while William Wilson wholeheartedly rejects it. It is this complete difference in philosophical beliefs that so clearly draws the line between the societies in both “William Wilson” and “Fight Club” were conceived and written
within. Although these two stories on the surface may appear to be completely unrelated, they can both be drawn together through a common thread; of course, that would be the narrators that prevail through the story and showcase their true natures through the advent of the discovery of their apparent doppelgangers. While both narrators deal with their doppelgangers in fairly different ways, both of these stories are truly emblematic of the time periods in which they were created. That is the true mark of quality storytelling; a story that is timeless, one that can be woven and told through different avenues at different times in history.
In the current age of technology and capitalism, many people get caught up in trying to define their individuality with mass produced goods. In David Fincher's movie Fight Club, the narrator, who is commonly referred to as Jack, invents an alter ego to serve as a source of substance in the hallow world of corporate America. This alter ego, named Tyler Durden, is portrayed as a completely psychologically and physically separate being throughout the movie. The inherent polarity in personality between these two personas proves to be a crucial point of interaction between the two characters, and is the basis for most of the action in the movie. Thus, Fight Club depicts the necessity for a balance between the passive and aggressive aspects of the human psyche, which parallels the main theme and insights that are illustrated in Judith Cofer's "The Other."
Society often pressures individuals within it to conform to different ideals and norms. This stems from the fact that individuals in a society are expected to act in a certain way. If a person or group of people do not satisfy society’s expectations, they are looked down upon by others. This can lead to individuals isolating themselves from others, or being isolated from others, because they are considered as outcasts. The emotional turmoil that can result from this, as well as the internal conflict of whether or not to conform, can transform an individual into a completely different person. This transformation can either be beneficial or harmful to the individual as well as those around them. The individual can become an improved version of himself or herself but conversely, they can become violent, rebellious and destructive. The novels Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both explore the negative effects experienced by individuals living within the confines of society’s narrow-mindedness. In A Clockwork Orange, protagonist Alex was the leader of a small group of teenage criminals. He did not have a healthy relationship with either one of his parents or with others around him. Instead he spent most of his time alone during the day and at night roamed the streets in search of victims he could mug or rape. In Fight Club the unnamed protagonist was an outcast in his community. He chose to distance and isolate himself from others and as a result had no friends, with the exception of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Due to his isolation, he often participated in nightly fights that took place in Fight Club so that he could relieve his anxiety and stress. In this way, Alex and the unnamed protagoni...
In Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, the narrator creates another identity through his schizophrenia and dissociative personality disorder. While the narrator’s other personality is portrayed as a therapeutic creation focused on bettering society and himself through destruction followed by rebuilding, the narrator actually creates Tyler Durden to destroy his true identity, become the person he wishes he was, and destroy those around him without holding any personal responsibility. Even though the narrator pretends that he has no control over his second identity, Tyler Durden acts according the the narrator’s desires; however, with this arrangement, the narrator can pretend that he is innocent.
David Fincher’s 1999 noir film Fight Club combines both thematic and stylistic devices to maintain a psychotic uncertainty for both the protagonists and the spectator. Furthermore, the devices shatter certain barriers which overall support the psychotic theme of the film. This constant theme in the film is also presented in Jack’s alter ego who later reveals himself to be the narrators “nemesis trope”. These devices tie into the expressed ideas against the consumerist society and societies inevitable doom due to the belief that the things you own, end up owning you.
“In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four” (Orwell 250). Winston lives in a time where a set of rules preventing him to be free are imposed on him – the Party defines what freedom is and is not. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows (Orwell 103)”. Winston expresses his views on The Party within his diary even though he knows it is not accepted by The Party or the Thought Police. The narrator in Fight Club uses fighting as a form of escapism from his anti-consumerist ideologies revealed by his alter-ego, Tyler Durden. “Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns. I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve—let the chips fall where they may. (Fight Club)” Tyler urges the narrator to stop conforming to consumerist-imposed views of perfection and break barriers to evolve. Tyler and the narrator create a medium for people in similar positions to escape from societal bound norms; it is aptly named “Fight Club”. In comparison, both Tyler Durden and the narrator from Fight Club and Winston Smith from 1984 share
“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.
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.
Fight Club is not about winning or losing. Paul Palahniuk’s Fight Club is about the issues of masculinity in our modern capitalist society. It is a novel about men who resist conforming to what society defines as masculine. In our present day culture, men are presented with the ideal form of masculinity that they are expected to achieve such as being successful in the work place, going to the gym, and grooming yourself to look attractive. The unnamed narrator of the story undergoes an identity crisis, which is a result of capitalism; he struggles to find himself by going through various support groups before finally attending Fight Club. The consumer driven society has replaced the traditional values of masculinity, which creates conflicts and becomes the catalyst for Fight club: a place to re-masculinize through physical combat.
The idea of the fight club becomes fascist and Tyler becomes Hitler. It turns out that Norton and Pitt are the same person, Tyler Durton. Norton represents the average man in America at a meaningless job, feeling like there is no reason for his existence. Pitt represents the force which makes Norton realize that there is no meaning to life and he must push to the extreme to feel anything and to accomplish anything. Marla is the only woman in the movie and she is used to show that the idea of women fighting is a ridicule where as the idea of men fighting is celebrated.
Others often use masculinity, most often associated with strength, confidence and self-sufficiency to define a man’s identity. The narrator perceives Tyler Durden as a fearless young man who is independent and living life by his own rules. So is Tyler Durden masculine because of his no nonsense attitude or are his law breaking antics and unusual lifestyle seen as a failure because he is a man with neither family, money nor a well respected job? These typical aspirations are commonly defined as the male American dream, but does following life by the rulebook placed on males by society really make a male masculine? Fight Club specifically debunks the male American dream. It challenges’ the idea that the masculine identity is defined by material items and instead embraces the idea that masculine identity can be found in liberation from conformity and the ability to endure pain.
Fight Club “Its only after we’ve lost everything are we free to do anything”, Tyler Durden as (Brad Pitt) states, among many other lines of contemplation. In Fight Club, a nameless narrator, a typical “everyman,” played as (Edward Norton) is trapped in the world of large corporations, condominium living, and all the money he needs to spend on all the useless stuff he doesn’t need. As Tyler Durden says “The things you own end up owning you.” Fight Club is an edgy film that takes on such topics as consumerism, the feminization of society, manipulation, cultism, Marxist ideology, social norms, dominant culture, and the psychiatric approach of the human id, ego, and super ego. “It is a film that surrealistically describes the status of the American
The narrator is changed by his experience with fight club; his life becomes all about fight club. Fight club becomes the reason for the narrators existence. The narrator experiences a shift in consciousness; in that, he is able to understand more of who he is and what really matters in life through fight clubs trial by fire. Through battle and a mindset of counterculture and a complete expulsion of ...
Psychological disorders are widely represented in films, as well as in other media texts such as novels, television shows, etc. One film that portrays more than one example of a psychological disorder is Fight Club, a Twentieth Century Fox movie released with an R rating in 1999. Directed by David Fincher; and produced by Art Linson, Cean Chaffin, and Ross Grayson Bell, the movie mainly introduces Dissociative Identity Disorders (also known as Multiple Personality Disorders), but also hints at insomnia and depression. The movie is adapted from the book Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk. Fox marketed the movie using a “myriad of merchandise, including posters, the soundtrack, and even email addresses (yourname@fightclub.com)” (CNN). The movie’s production budget was set at $63,000,000 with the movie grossing $37,030,102 (Daily Box Office). The characters of the movie refer to themselves as the “middle children of history” with the feelings of having no purpose or place in life. They convey that they have no history-making events or real set goals and/or destiny to look forward to. They were brought up by society to believe that one-day they would be rich, famous and loved just as those depicted on television. This is symbolic of society during the surrounding time of the movie’s release. It is prevalent in modern society to strive to become someone/something that one sees in the media. The movie is directed towards Generation-X, but the “…hope was that the film would demonstrate the themes of the story to a larger audience. It would offer more people the idea that they could create their own lives outside the existing blueprint for happiness offered by society” (Palahniuk). This message was one that demanded that its viewers put all that drives them aside, and rethink what they had been taught from childhood. After the film’s release, instead of delivering the message that was intended, it was met with criticism and misunderstanding. This was due partly to the fact that it was scheduled for release shortly after the Columbine shootings. The movie became an easy target for those upset by the blatant violence which surrounded the Columbine incident. Although Fight Club is a film full of violence it is in reality one that promotes anti-violence, and points out to the audience the human impulses that cause violent behavior. Ironically, despite all of the med...
The narrator is emasculated in many ways from; his addiction to consumer products, work life, spirit animal, and Tyler Durden. In the novel the Narrator is a consumerist and has the common issue of his things owning him. “The addictions and afflictions of the male characters in Fight Club are directly connected to the film 's interest and investment in the 'disenfranchising ' and 'emasculating ' effects of late capitalist consumer society on masculine identities” (Iocco, Melissa). His insomnia turns out to control his life, causing him to turn to the support group “Remaining Men Together” where he copes with these terminal victims. The Narrator is shown by Tyler Durden that his job is an emasculating factor that he does the same thing over and over again, and that his job sucks. “The men who participate are, apparently, attracted to Fight Club because it allows them to get away from the drudgery and repetition of work life, satisfying a desire to experience something ‘real’ ”(Iocco, Michelle). In the Narrator’s power trips he witnesses his spirit animal is a Penguin. His power animal states his weakness of masculinity, puny and harmless. His power animal explains the Narrator’s life before Tyler and Fight Club. Tyler Durden shows up and the narrator is still overshadowed by him, belittling him more and more through Marla Singer, because Marla is turned on
“How much can you know about yourself if you have never been in a fight?” asked Tyler Durden as he pleads to get hit in the face? Notably, the book Fight Club shows the late 20th century man feel emasculate due to how society has evolved overtime, and eventually tries to regain his manhood in a violent and powerful fashion. The unnamed narrator in Fight Club characterizes with these types of men. His alter ego Tyler Durden helps the narrator identify his masculinity and how society has affected it. They both go through a passage of manhood that includes the formation of Fight Club and later on Project Mayhem, the narrator regains his masculinity by brawling strangers, and later on by causing anarchy. Fight Club shows how much empowerment men use to have, and how the loss of that has men feeling less masculine.