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THE MOTIVES INFLUENCING THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN ESTABLISHING FIGHT CLUB, AN UNDERGROUND BOXING CLUB, AS
SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB
A Thesis
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Fransiscus Haryo Tri Aji Student Number: 991214138
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
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ESTABLISHING FIGHT CLUB, AN UNDERGROUND BOXING CLUB, AS SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB
By
Fransiscus Haryo Tri Aji Student Number: 991214138
Approved by:
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THE MOTIVES INFLUENCING THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN ESTABLISHING FIGHT CLUB, AN UNDERGROUND BOXING CLUB, AS
SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB
By
Fransiscus Haryo Tri Aji Student Number: 991214138
Defended before the Board of Examiners on January 27, 2007
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Chairperson : A. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. ___________ Secretary : Drs. P. G. Purba, M.Pd. ___________ Member : Dr. A. Herujiyanto, M.A. ___________ Member : A. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. ___________ Member : Markus Budiraharjo, S.Pd., M.Ed. ___________
Yogyakarta, January 27, 2007
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University
Dean,
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Yogyakarta, January 11, 2007 The Writer
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I dedicated this thesis to
my beloved father, mother,
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thesis, without assistance. First of all, I thank God, Mother Mary, and St. Fransiscus, who have always been walking beside me. They give me great blessing and show me the best path I should follow.
I realize that many people have given their help in finishing this thesis. I also realize that it is impossible for me to finish it without their help. Now, I would like to express my gratitude for their guidance and support for me in finishing this thesis.
My special gratitude is addressed to my beloved family, especially my mother, Josephine Murtini, and my father Florentinus Broto Wiratno, my great supporters. I thank them for their patience and for entrusting me to finish this thesis. My big gratefulness is addressed to Dr. Antonius Herujiyanto, M. A., as my sponsor. I thank him for his guidance, patience, suggestions and corrections.
I thank Herlambang Jaluardi who tried so hard to find Fight Club for me. My deepest thank is also addressed to Tunjung Sigit Pambudi and Yoyok Suhartanto for the discussions, suggestions, tips, examples and everything. I am deeply indebted to them for their willingness to spend their time to assist me in finishing this thesis.
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his books, and all my friends who are scattered all over the world.
I would also give my biggest appreciation to all the lecturers of PBI Sanata Dharma University and to the secretariat staffs of PBI, mbak Tari and mbak Dhani. I would not have realized my dream without their assistance.
The last and the most important, I thank Elisabeth Diah Purnamasari who has given her times in the last 4 years to accompany me in happiness, pain and sorrow. I thank her for the love and every moment we have spent together.
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PAGE OF APPROVAL ……….…………... ii
PAGE OF BOARD OF EXAMINERS ……….………... iii
STATEMENTS OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ……….………….… iv
PAGE OF DEDICATION ……….…………... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….………… vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….……… viii
ABSTRACT ………. xi
ABSTRAK ………..…..……. xii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Background of the study ……….……….……….…. 1
B. Objective of the Study ………..…….…….... 4
C. Problems Formulation .………..….…………... 4
D. Benefits of the Study ……….……..……….. 4
E. Definition of Terms ……….……….. 5
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Criticism ….……….. 8
B. Theory of Critical Approach ….…..……….. 9
C. Theoretical Review ……… 11
1. The Theory of Character and characterization …..………. 11
2. The Psychoanalytic Theory ..……….. 14
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4. The Theory of Society ……… 18
D. The context of Fight Club ………. 19
E. Theoretical Framework ...……….. 20
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY A. Subject Matter ……….. 22
B. Approaches ………... 23
C. Procedures ………... 24
D. Sources ……….…. 25
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS A. The Characterization of Joe and Tyler Durden ……….. 26
1. Joe ……… 27
a. Joe’s Physical Description ……….……… 27
b. Joe’s Mental Description ..………. 28
c. Joe’s Social Status Description ………... 33
2. Tyler Durden ..………... 34
a. Tyler’s Physical Description ………..…… 34
b Tyler’s Mental Description ……….…… 34
c. Tyler’s Social Status Description ……….…….. 36
B. The Main Character’s Motives ………. 38
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ………... 46
B. Suggestions …... 49
1. Suggestion for Future Researchers ...………….……….…… 50
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1. The Summary of Fight Club .…..………... 57
2. The Biography of Chuck Palahniuk ……… 60
3. Prose II ……… 65
- xi - ABSTRACT
Haryo Tri Aji, Fransiscus. (2007). The Motives Influencing the Main Characters in Establishing Fight Club, an Underground Boxing Club, as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Yogyakarta. English Education Study Program, Department of Language and Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study discusses one of the Chuck Palahniuk’s works entitled Fight Club. The story tells about the effects of consumerism on human psyche. It tells the story of the nameless character, a modern male who has multiple personalities.
This study deals with the motives influencing the main character in creating fight club, an underground boxing club, as seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.
There are two questions in this thesis, namely: 1) How are the main characters described? 2) What are the motives that influence the main characters in creating the underground fight club?
To solve the first problem, some literary reviews concerning with the theory of character and characterization are conducted to find out the main characters’ character and characterization. To solve the second problem, the psychological approach is used to see the main characters’ motive in creating an underground boxing club, fight club and the sociocultural-historical approach is used to understand the social-historical background of the novel. Theory of psychology is used to analyze the motives of the main characters in establishing fight club. The theory of society is used to understand the political and social condition of the world in the 20th century.
The results of the study are as follows: first, Joe and Tyler are actually the same person but Tyler is the antithesis of Joe. Joe suffers insomnia and he hates his job. He is an emasculated person and a dependent person. He does not have any friends. He goes to work and comes home without anyone who greets him. Joe’s multiple personalities appear because he is unable to find ‘something larger’ which causes chronic insomnia. He cannot do anything to overcome his problems. Tyler has everything that Joe does not have. He is smart and free. He hates consumerism. He is not worried about crime, poverty, and murder. What worries him is the fact that people are forced to act and live by corporations. Second, the motives of the main characters in establishing an underground boxing club are their efforts to regain their manhood and break the civilization which has created a consumer society and a dependency on goods. In other words, the motives in creating an underground boxing club are basically their efforts to regain their self esteem as a man, set people free from the control of consumerism and liberate people to make their own decisions.
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Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Univeritas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang salah satu novel karya Chuck Palahniuk yang berjudul Fight Club. Ceritanya berlatar belakang tentang akibat dari konsumerisme terhadap psikologi manusia. Novel ini bercerita tentang karakter tanpa nama yang mempunyai kepribadian ganda.
Skripsi ini membahas tentang motif yang mempengaruhi sang karakter utama dalam menciptakan kelompok tinju rahasia, seperti terlihat dalam novel Fight Club karya Chuck Palahniuk.
Ada dua pertanyaan yang terdapat dalam skripsi ini. Pertanyaan yang pertama adalah 1) Bagaimanakah karakter utama digambarkan? 2)Motif-motif apa saja yang mempengaruhi karakter utama dalam menciptakan sebuah kelompok tinju rahasia? Kedua pertanyaan tersebut diajukan untuk mencapai tujuan dari penulisan skripsi ini.
Untuk memecahkan masalah yang pertama, beberapa telaah referensi yang berkaitan dengan teori karakter dan karakterisasi dilakukan untuk menemukan karakterisasi tokoh-tokoh tersebut. Untuk memecahkan masalah yang kedua, digunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk membahas motif-motif dari karakter dalam menciptakan sebuah kelompok tinju rahasia dan pendekatan sosiokultural-historis digunakan untuk memahami latar belakang sosial-historis dari novel tersebut. Teori-teori psikologi digunakan untk menganalisa motif dan latar belakang dari karakter utama dalam menciptakan kelompok tinju rahasia. Teori sosial masyarakat digunakan untuk membantu menganalisi kondisi sosial dan politik Amerika pada abad 20.
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1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of five parts. They are Background of the Study, Objective of the Study, Problems Formulation, Benefits of the Study, and Definition of Terms. The Background of the Study gives the main reason for conducting this study. The Objective of the Study contains the aim of the study. The Benefits of the Study gives the advantages for the readers and researchers to conduct further studies. While the Definition of Terms gives the meaning of some important words used in the study.
A. Background of the Study
There is a ghost among us. It is not an old ghost like Communism or Fascism, but it is a new ghost: consumerism. A society has been totally machined and exploited to increase production and material consumption. One of the horrified concepts in our economic system is that our economic system is based increasing production and expanding consumption.
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man’s psychological mind.
Based on the above discussion, I choose Fight Club, which is a great novel from Chuck Palahniuk. I choose Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club because the theme, as reflected in the main characters’ behavior, is not only interesting but it also gives a vivid portrait of the reaction of people when their humanity is being limited. The problem presented in the novel is relevant to the situation nowadays and the representation of everyday life. Chuck Palahniuk tries to portray the consumeristic culture in modern society which is reflected in the main character. Therefore, the nameless character and Taylor Durden, who are actually the same person, appear to be the outstanding character to criticize the society. Thus, it is necessary to understand the main characters personalities and their personal motives in establishing an underground boxing club to understand this novel.
Palahniuk never mentions the nameless character in his novel, I think he does so in order to make him as an everyman character. To make it easier in analyzing this thesis, I refer the nameless character as Joe. The name Joe is derived from a magazine, Rider Digest, about the perspective of man’s organ of which the nameless character often refers him to it.
“I’m Joe’s Prostate”
“I’m totally Joe’s Gallbladder”.
I am Joe’s raging bile duct. I am Joe’s grinding teeth. I am Joe’s inflamed, flaring nostrils. I am Joe’s white knuckles. I am Joe’s Enraged, Inflamed Sense of Rejection (pp. 58-59).
will lead us to the dehumanization.
Erich Fromm, The revolution of Hope (1996 : 29), states that the year of 2000 is not an era where a human struggle for freedom and happiness to reach the peak of fulfillment and desires but it is an era where a human discontinues to be a human and become a machine without emotion and thought.
In this novel, Chuck Palahniuk tries to present how the main character makes his efforts to change the society by making a male secret underground club, fight club. Fight club is a club of people who have to bare-knuckle duel and this club is controlled by several rules. There are eight rules in the fight club. The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about fight club. The second rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. Third rule of fight club is if someone yells 'stop', goes limp, taps out, the fight is over. The fourth rule is only two guys to a fight. The fifth rule is one fight at a time. The sixth rule is no shirt, no shoes. The seventh rule is fights will go on as long as they have to. The eighth and final rule is if this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight (pp. 49-52).
Through this club the main characters make a project called Project Mayhem. This project is more like an army whose aim is to wage war against the rich and powerful. In this Project Mayhem, he plans to destroy the systems since he believes that in order to cure one's pain, one needs to demolish the system that has created it.
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Characters have an important part since the characters are the actors. For that reason, this thesis will start with the discussion of Joe and Tyler Durden’s characters.
B. Objective of the Study
The aim of the study is to find out the motives of establishing the underground boxing club as seen in Joe and Tyler Durden, the main characters of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.
C. Problem Formulation
The problems of the study can be formulated as follows: 1. How are the main characters described?
2. What are the motives that influence the main characters in establishing the underground fight club?
D. Benefits of the Study
Two parties can gain benefits from this study. The first is the readers in general and the second is the student of Prose II class.
For the students, this study will give them inspiration to understand and analyze this literary work from a new point of view. As we know, a literary work provides so many angles which can be analyzed further. Through this study, they can get inspiration to use the novel to learn English in an interesting way. This study shows us that through reading novels we can get some moral values and knowledge in an interesting way. The novel not only helps the students to learn English in an interesting way, but this novel also helps the students to develop their mastery on vocabularies and language skills.
E. Definition of Terms
It is important to clarify the meaning of certain words to avoid misunderstanding of the meaning of the words related to the topic of study. I use some sources to define them. They are advanced learner’s dictionary, a glossary of literary terms and some other books.
1. Character
Generally, character can be described as person who has a role in a story. In Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams defined “character” as “the persons presented in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue – and by what they do – the action (1981 : 21).”
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In this study what I mean by the word “character” is the nameless character and Tyler Durden’s appearance, feeling, thinking, and behavior.
2. Motives
The term “motives” in the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Cambridge University Press 2003, Version 1.0) means “(Countable noun) a reason for doing something”. While “motivation” means “(Uncountable noun) enthusiasm for doing something” and “(countable noun) the need or reason for doing something”
Freud (quoted in Human Motivation. Bernard Weiner, 1980: 10 – 11) stated that individuals are considered as striving to satisfy personal needs within a world of limited and restricted resources. To satisfy these needs, behaviors must be undertaken that will lead to the desired goals. Virtually all such goals are located in the external world.
In this study motives which are possessed by the main characters refer to the satisfaction of human basic needs that must be undertaken to achieve the desired goal.
3. Emasculation
In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Cambridge University Press 2003, Version 1.0), the word “emasculation” is derived from the word “emasculate (v)”, which means “to make a man less male by taking away his power and confidence”. It also means “to remove the male parts of something”.
4. Dehumanization
In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Cambridge University Press 2003, Version 1.0), the word dehumanization is derived from the word “dehumanize” (v) which means “to remove from a person the special human qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people.
In this study, dehumanization is a feeling that a person is not able to enjoy his life anymore and does not have independent thought.
5. Consumerism
In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Cambridge University Press 2003, Version 1.0), the word consumerism means “when too much attentions is given to buying and owning things”.
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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter discusses five parts. They are Criticism, Theory of Critical Approach, Theoretical Review, Context of Fight Club and Theoretical Framework. Criticism contains some opponents of experts about Fight Club. The Critical Approach explains some approaches that are used in this study. The Theoretical Review discusses some theories underlining this study like the theory of character and characterization, the psychoanalytic theory, the theory of motivation and the theory of society. The Context of Fight Club contains the situation of social condition when the Fight Club is written. Meanwhile, the theoretical framework explains the contribution of each theory towards the analysis to solve the problems formulated in this study.
A. Criticism
A literary work is made by the influence of the society and for the society. A good literary work can invite some comment or criticism. Criticism toward a literary work can be one of the supports for the author to produce better literary work. Criticism does not always mean bad comment but it can be a compliment toward the literary work. This literary work, which I take as my subject matter, gets some criticism from the readers.
that anyone can become rich or powerful. Part of the way that the working poor are lulled into cooperating and staying in the service of richer classes is by this unspoken promise that if they work hard they will ascend to higher security and status (http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html, accessed on January 20, 2006).
B. Theory of Critical Approaches
The critical approaches provide the methods of analysis and the basis for the judgment on literary works. Using critical approaches, we can understand the novel deeper.
The approaches which are used in conducting this thesis are the five approaches proposed by Rohrberger and Woods, Jr (1971: 3 – 15). The five approaches function as the means to understand and apprehend the esthetic values of a literary work. They are: the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the socio cultural-historical, the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach. The formalist approach insists on the total integrity of the literary piece. Concentrating almost entirely on its esthetic value, they are concerned with demonstrating the harmonious involvement of all the parts to the whole and with pointing out how meaning is derived from structure and how matters of technique determine structure. The extreme formalist critic examines the literary piece without reference to the facts of the author’s life, without reference to the genre of the work or its place in the development of the genre or in the literary history, without refereed to its social milieu (1971:7). The formalists believe in the emphasis on the totality of the literary object itself and its esthetic meanings.
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approach, a work of art is considered a reflection of a personality that in the esthetic experience the reader shares the author’s consciousness, and that at least part of the reader’s response is to the author’s personality (1971:7). Biographical material can provide useful facts that can put us in a better position to understand and appreciate the author’s work.
The socio cultural-historical approach, on the other hand, insists that the only way to locate the real work is in the reference to the civilization of which the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people become the subject matter (1971: 9). A novelist has a status as a member of the society and the society in which he lives can influence him in expressing his ideas in his novel. Analyzing of this kind hangs upon clear external evidence that the novel does use specific people and events from the author’s life.
The mythopoeic approach seeks to discover certain universality recurrent patterns of human thought which they believe find expression in significant works of art. The universality recurrent patters are those that find first expression in ancient myths and folk rites and are so basic to human thought that they have meaning for all men (1971: 11).
The last approach is the psychological approach, which also involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain pattern, but forms a different body of knowledge, that is psychology (1971: 13). This approach uses psychological theories to explain human motivation, personality and behavior patterns written in literary object.
C. Theoretical Review
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
This study uses novel as the subject matter. As we know that in order to have a better understanding toward a literary work such as a novel, we have to understand the character of the novel. To be able to understand the characters, I use the theory of Character and Characterization. The theory helps me analyzing the characters of the novel
Character can be simply considered as a person who has a role in a story. In concordance, Abrams also explains that the person presented in a story is called the character. He adds that the readers interpret the character as having certain characteristic in the way they play their roles that are expressed by what they saw or their dialogue and what they do or their action (1981: 20). In addition, Harvey writes in his book, Character and the Novel, that playwright has a right to create and presents his or her fictional characters in the novel, whatever they look like, their personality, and what the problem they might face (1968:32).
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adequacy as a person in real life is, and like real persons, he is capable of surprising (1974: 46-49).
From the other point of view, Milligan defines the character based on performance. He says, “major character appears more often than the others. They perform important roles in clarifying the theme of the novel, so the reader’s expectation depends on their idea”. The secondary characters, according to him, appear in curtain setting, only necessarily become the background of the major characters (1983: 115).
Characters have particular personalities and physical attributes that distinguish them from the other characters. Santon in An Introduction to Fiction, defines characters as individual who appears in the story or the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that make up each of these individuals. Therefore, an author needs to do with what it is called characterization. It is a process by which an author create characters, the device by which he makes us believe a character is particular type of person he is (Rohrberger & Woods, 1971: 20-21)
Rohrberger presents two principal ways in the process of characterization. Those are:
1. The direct way in which the author tells the readers the physical appearance of the character directly.
2. Dramatic or indirect way in which the character’s behavior, personality, and values are revealed as he or she is giving opinion about the situation he or she faces (Rohrberger & Woods, 1971: 20-21)
there are nine principles for the author to attempt to make his characters understandable to, and come alive for, his reader. They are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, conversation of others, past life, direct comment, reactions, thoughts, and mannerisms. First is the personal description. By giving a clear description of the character’s physical appearance (such as the face, clothing, skin), the author wants to tell us more about the character. The description is often related to the psychological condition, or to the personality. A personal description will also help the readers both to visualize and to understand the characteristic of the character.
The second is character as seen by another. Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him through the eyes and opinions of another character to help us to draw the description. The third is speech. The author can give the readers an insight into the character of one of the persons involved in the book through what the person says. Whenever the person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, or whenever he puts forward an opinion, the author is giving us a clue to his character.
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The author can also give the reader a clue to a character by letting us know how that character reacts to various situations and events. This reaction is as important as his speech, his gesture, and his movements. The author can describe or give comments on a character directly. This kind of description leaves the readers no doubt to what sort of person the character is. The author can give the readers direct knowledge of what a character in his novel is thinking about. In this respect, he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He may tell us what different people are thinking. Readers are in privileged position. We can hear the inmost thoughts of a person in a novel. The last, the author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits or idiosyncrasies, which may also tell us something about description of his characters.
2. The Psychoanalytic Theory
Psychoanalytic is any of a number of the theories of the human personality, which attempt to examine a person’s unconscious mind to discover the hidden causes of their mental problems. Freud as stated by Geiwitz (1980: 395-398) states some parts in this theory, they are:
Freud believes that some individuals have severe conflicts in the attitudes. To represent conflict, then, he decides to construct his theory of the Id, the Ego and the Superego.
a. Id
or an affect received from objects, predominantly sexual, which underlies all mental processes. Our drives surge forth from the id and apply libidinal energy to objects, which may result in aggressive or erotic attachments/actions upon chosen objects The drives of the id are considered to be inborn, operating within the primary psychical processes (those of the unconscious) and are absolutely determined according to the pleasure principle. It is said that the id behaves as though it were unconscious, the reason thought to be is that our ego and our super-ego's ideals and pressures are often in conflict with the id's, causing repression, as the gratification of the id's drives would often be devastating in terms of social- and self-image.
b. Ego
In Freud's theory, the ego mediates among the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is to find a balance between primitive drives, morals, and reality while satisfying the id and superego. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are marginal. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego when id behavior conflicts with reality and either society's morals, norms, and taboos or the individual's expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals, norms, and taboos.
Although in his early writings Freud equated the ego with the sense of self, he later began to portray it more as a set of psychic functions such as reality-testing, defence, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory.
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c. Super-ego
The superego essentially corresponds to two aspects. They are ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘rewards’ and ‘punishments’. Freud's theory says that the super-ego is a symbolic internalization of the father figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and is aggressive towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and the prohibition of taboos. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/sigmund freud, acessed on August 19, 2006).
According to Kasschau (1995: 272), “The id is concerned with what the person wants to do and the ego is concerned with planning what the person can do; the superego is concerned with what the person should do.
3. Theory of Motivation
We must understand the motives and the theory of motivation so that we can analyze the main character’s motivation to create an underground boxing club.
Abraham H. Maslow stated a theory of motivation by constructing a hierarchy of needs which classifying human motives. It is starting from the basic biological needs to the more complex psychological motives that become important only after the basis needs have been satisfied. The needs at one level must be at least partially satisfied before those at the next level become more important determiners of action.
sex, and security. These metaneeds are growth needs or being needs (B-needs), whereas the basic needs are deficiency needs (D-needs).
Maslow’s hierarchy provides an interesting way of looking on the relationship among human motives and the opportunities afforded by the environment.
People have a need from the moment of conception or birth for basic sustenance: food, drink, warmth, etc. these are fundamental survival matters. These needs can be every strong because if dispossessed over time, the person will die.
The next level is safety needs which relate to the individual’s need for protection, security, stability, reliance on order, freedom from fear and anxiety, need for certainty, structure and predictability, etc.
With psychological and safety needs in equilibrium with no chronic deficiency, there is scope for expression of higher social needs. This fits in with or general notions of human development from childhood into adulthood. Social need involves affection and belongingness-giving and receiving affection in relationship with others. When an individual’s social need is not satisfied, he or she may feel separate, isolate, distanced form others-friends, colleagues, lover, family. The need to be socially wanted or accepted may drive behaviour to this end. This need for affection is real, necessary, and important for many and lack of fulfilment may bring loneliness, rejection, and friendliness.
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recognition, and appreciation. People feel and care recognized by others as worthy or importance. The lack of self esteem needs produces feelings of being snubbed, ignored, degraded, inferior, and powerlessness.
Cognitive need is a need to satisfy curiosity, explore, discover, look for relationships and meaning, and seek intellectual challenges. Aesthetic need is a need for beauty in surroundings.
This category is less a need than a final development stage for the person. Maslow saw that lower needs may be satisfied but that discontent and restlessness may remain for the individual. What humans can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need is called self-actualization (http: //www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/maslow.html, accessed on July 3, 2006).
4. Theory of society
This theory is used to understand the society and the characteristic of society to support the analysis why such society has the tendency cause emasculation. By understanding this theory we can also find out the main character’s motive in establishing an underground fight club.
According to Verne S. Sweedlum and Golda (1956: 13 – 14) society is described as social beings who express their nature by creating and recreating an organization, which guides and controls their behaviors in many ways. This organization liberates and limits the activities of men, sets up standards (values, norms, and law) for the members to follow and maintain. Society is a system of usage and procedures, of authority and mutual aid of many groups and divisions,
earth, each of them is affected by the existence of the other. Their relationship is not social one because their relationship is not in any way determined by mutual awareness. Without mutual awareness and social recognition, there is no social relationship, no society exist only where social being “behave” toward one another in ways determined by their recognition of one another, as a result of the people awareness toward their needs.
Society is also a medium, which transmits values from one generation to the next through the socialization process and interaction between each members of the society. Through these two processes, hopefully, that the member of the society will learn and apply it to their environment and behavior which elicits a response of esteem, further this relationship depicts that human beings would have a sense of belonging. There would be no social systems if there were no sense of community or belonging together and no cooperative undertaking by men.
D. The Context of Fight Club
1. America in 1990s
Satish Kumar, the editor of Resurgence magazine, says that the 1990s is the period when America, as de facto, is the leader of the modern world. The twentieth century is dominated by two opposing ideologies; communism and capitalism. Communism collapsed, as it is practiced in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. What is left in China is not communism; it is an authoritarian state with a capitalist economy. So capitalism, with America as the leader, seems to rule the world. It claims to be the only system capable of solving the world’s problems.
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breakdown of the social fabric, human unhappiness and other major problem. All the effort of the past one hundred years towards a free market economy, world trade, globalization, industrialization, the pursuit of high living standards, unlimited economic growth and every other form of capitalist endeavor have benefited only a small minority of people.
The situation of world is getting worse although many efforts have been done by the international organization and countries because there are many factors which cause those situations. Among of them are the high consumerism in some social groups and the exploitation of global economy, social system, politic system and religion.
An aspect of life in America today is the in-your-face tyranny of advertising, business, and media empires that rule over almost every aspect of modern life. The 20th century male’s struggle still continues today, a corporate controlled society, in a consumer culture that gives life value by what is bought and owned, not by the individual. The modern male is emasculated in this feminine culture. (http://www.resurgence.org/2005/kumar233.htm).
E. Theoretical Framework
In this part, I explain some theories used in this study. I also explain why those theories are needed and how this study applies those theories in the analysis process.
characters of Fight Club. Through those four principles, their character can be revealed. It is undeniable that Fight Club is unconventional novel, and hides disguised messages in Palahniuk’s words production which lay randomly in his character’s speech, reaction, direct comment, and mannerism. Thus, through the power of his words production expressed in the speech, reaction, direct comment and mannerism, Palahniuk intends to make the story presentable.
The psychological approach involves various theories of psychology to explain the character’s personality in a story. This approach is applied to see the psychological background and the motives of establishing an underground boxing club.
The sociocultural-historical approach asserts the analysis of social, cultural, and historical background as references in understanding the story. It is used to know the social-historical background and the point of view of the author in writing the novel based on the society of his time.
The theories of psychology are used to analyze the main character’s personal motives in establishing the underground boxing club.
Theory of society is needed in order to understand kinds of society and the characteristic of society. This is important to support the analysis as we can recognize why such society has tendency to create mental disorder.
22 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
This chapter deals with the methodology of the study used in this thesis. This chapter consists of four major discussions. They are subject matter, approaches, procedures and organization of the study. The subject matter discusses the focus of my analysis. The approach deals with approaches which are used in analyzing the novel. The procedures deal with the stages in analyzing the novel. The last part of this chapter, organization of the study, discusses the organization of the study which tells us the content of this study in general.
A. Subject Matter
the novel, one in 1999 and the other in 2004. The story took place in the year of 1996 and took the background of the consumerism era in the United State of America (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/fightclub).
The novel itself tells us about the effect of consumerism towards the American citizens. It describes the experience of American citizens in facing their live and how they behave in the modern era. The analysis of this study focuses on the main characters and their motives in establishing an underground boxing club because it is the most important theme of the novel.
B. Approaches
In this part, I will explain the two approaches used in this study. Those approaches are the psychological and sociocultural-historical approaches.
In order to understand the main characters’ motives to create an underground boxing club, we need to understand the motives. To understand the motives we have to know the psychological approach.
Rohberger and Woods state that psychological approach is the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern. This approach draws a different body of knowledge. We can apply certain psychological theories in analyzing the content of the story in a work of literature (1971: 13). Here I use Psychoanalytic theory, which is designed by Sigmund Freud. That is the important theory to analyze the human personality. The psychological approach insists that each character’s behavior could be explored deeper.
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understand the problem easier. By using those approaches, hopefully the analysis of the motives influencing the main characters in establishing an underground boxing club and the main character’s personality can be done well. Thus, those approaches are useful to answer the questions in the problem formulation.
C. Procedures
There are some steps that would be used to reveal the motive of the main character. The first step is that I read and tried to understand the content of the novel and concentrated more on the main character’s action and reaction so that I would understand the main character’s personality better. Then, I noted some important texts, which were essential for analyzing and showing the description of the main character and also important aspects of his motive in establishing an underground boxing club.
The second step is that I gathered some books that contain relevant information to psychological aspect of the novel. I focused on the information that deals with motive. I also browsed the internet for obtaining other related data and some criticisms.
Maslow.
The fourth step is that I gave a detailed explanation of the main characters by describing them and defining their appearances, their behavior, and their character. After I completely understood their character, I analyzed their motive in establishing the fight club. In analyzing the main characters’ motives, I had to analyze the characters with the psychological theory. In this part, I try to answer the problems formulated above so I can achieve the aim of this study.
For the last step in this study, I drew the conclusions from the analysis and the suggestions for future researchers. I also added some suggestions for English teachers, to teach Prose II, using the novel.
D. Sources
26 CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS
This chapter is the most essential chapter among the other four chapters in this thesis because this chapter provides the answer to the questions formulated in the previous chapter. This chapter is meant to analyze the subject matter that is the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club. Two points analyzed from this novel are the analysis of the Joe and Tyler Durden’s characters and the motives influencing the main characters in establishing an underground boxing club.
A. The Characterization of Joe and Tyler Durden
A character is an essential element in the work of literature. Characters are the persons who are life-like, portrayed in a story and interpretable by the reader from their speeches, dialogues and actions (Abrams, 1981: 20). Further, characters are classified into major and minor characters, and flat and round characters. Henkle (1981:88-97) states that major character is created to carry out ideas or messages in a story to readers through the characters’ feelings, thoughts, actions, and reactions. Minor or secondary characters are those who appear in a certain setting as the background to support the major characters.
In Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, Joe is the major character. He appears from the beginning until the end of the story, but since Joe and Tyler are the same person, thus, the major characters in this novel are Joe and Tyler Durden.
I divide this part into two sections. The first section is talk about the nameless character or Joe and the second part talk about Tyler Durden.
through their speech, reaction, direct comment and mannerism. They will be the device to help reveal the character and characterizations. Then, their character and characterization will be revealed through physical, mental, and social status descriptions.
1. Joe
a. Joe’s Physical Description
Palahniuk’s novel does not give detail information of Joe’s physical appearance such as his body building. Some important notes can be found to illustrate his appearance. Although the text does not explicitly state what sort of man he is, the following information gives valuable clues.
Joe is a thirty-year old man, a young professional who works for a car company, also unnamed, organizing product recalls on defective models if, and only if, the cost of the recall is less than the cost of out-of-court settlements paid to relatives of the deceased.
“I’m a thirty-year-old boy, and I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer I need (51).”
If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall?
You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X. this is what it will cost if we don’t initiate a recall. If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt. If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don’t recall. What I am is a recall campaign coordinator (30-31).
He has a birthmark on his right foot.
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their minds (Fight Club, p. 106)”.
This statement also means that he does not have a strong self-confident and always tries to hide his imperfection.
He wears the same shirt, black pants, and black ties everyday. “I had everything in my bag. When you travel a lot, you learn to pack the same for every trip. Six white shirts. Two black trousers. Six pair underwear. Six pair black socks (40-41)”.
From his conversations, acts, and attitudes we can see that he is a portrait of modern male.
b. Joe’s Mental Description
Fight Club is primary about consumerism culture and changes in the state of masculinity in American culture. The novel revolves around Joe and Tyler and their view toward consumerism.
Joe is an american male who is trapped in the consumer culture. It forces him to define himself by the furniture, clothes, and other material things that he buys.
“and I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. We all have the same Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stipe pattern. We all have the same Rislampa/Har paper lamps made from wire and enviromentally friendny unbleached paper. The vild hall clock made of galvanized steel, oh, I had to have that. The Klipsk shelving unit, oh, yeah (p. 43).”
I tell the detective, no, I did not leave the gas on and then leave town. I loved my life. I love that condo. I loved every stick of furniture. That was my whole life. Everything, the lamps, the chairs, the rugs were me. The dishes in the cabinets were me. The plants were me. The television was me. It was me that blew up. Couldn’t he see that? (p. 111)”
consumerism that has absorbed his life. He knows it but he is unable to overcome his problems.
I was tired and crazy and rushed, and every time I boarded a plane, I wanted the plane to crash. I envied people dying of cancer. I hated my life. I was tired and bored with my job and my furniture, and I couldn’t see any way to change things (172).
This dissatisfaction combined with his frequent business trips across multiple time zones disturb him to the point that he suffers from chronic insomnia
“Three weeks and I hadn’t slept. Three weeks without sleep, and everything becomes an out-of-body experience. My doctor said. “Insomnia is just the symptom of something larger. Find out what’s actually wrong. Listen to your body.”
My doctor said, if I wanted to see real pain, I should swing by First Eucharist on a Tuesday night. See the brain parasites. See the degenerative bone disease. The organic brain dysfunction. See the cancer patients getting by (p. 19).”
His chronic insomnia and the advice from his doctor lead him to attend some support groups to see what ‘real suffering’ is like. In fact he starts to attend them religiously using pseudonyms and pretending he belongs to those support groups.
“I never give my real name at support group (p. 19)”.
“Bob loves me because he thinks my testicles were removed, too (17).”
Again we can see Joe tries to hide his weakness. He is afraid to be known as an imperfect person.
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In these support groups, men are told to gather power, strength and courage from each other not from themselves. At the end of the sessions men are told to hold each other and cry. Things that are very non-stereotypical of men (pp. 20-23). When Bob hugs Joe and tells him that Joe can cry in Bob’s hugs (p. 160). We can see that Joe becomes emasculated.
Joe feels frustrated with others in his life, feeling as if they are too caught up with their own worry to truly care about how Joe feels, what is happening to him, and what he needs and wants in life.
“This is why I loved the support groups so much. If people thought you were dying, they gave you their full attention. If this might be the last time they saw you, they really saw you…People listened instead of just waiting for their turn to speak. And when they spoke, they weren’t telling you a story. When the two of you talked, you were building something, and afterward you were both different than before (p. 107)”.
Joe eventually meets Marla, an untidy, chain-smoking, who is also visiting in the same group therapy sessions as Joe. Joe sees Marla as a tourist--addicted only to the spectacle of the meetings. Marla reminds him of his own phoniness, Marla is faking her problems just like he is. It upsets him and makes his insomnia returns, then his place of safety is shattered. Joe cannot find emotional release with another phony in the same session.
“To Marla I’m a fake. Since the second night I saw her, I can’t sleep. In this moment, Marla’s lie reflects my lie, and all I can see are lies. The next time we meet, I’ll say, Marla, I can’t sleep with you here. I need this. Get out (pp.23-24).”
Once again it shows his masculinity is thrown into a crisis by the femininity that signifies domestic security, comfort and blame in their place.
guided meditation. During the meeting a member steps forward to lead the group on a journey of the mind. It is a mentally lead that brings the participants through various colored doors and lead to a cave, which contains their power animal. This animal is a symbol of their personal power to overcome all obstacles they encounter in life. Joe discovers that his ‘power animal’ is a penguin that offers him the verbal suggestion to “slide”.
“Eyes closed, we imagined our pain as a ball of white healing light floating around our feet and rising to our knees, our waist, our chest. Our chakras opening. The heart chakra. The head chakra. Chloe talked us into caves where we met our power animal. Mine was a penguin. Ice covered the floor of the cave, and the penguin said, slide (p. 20).”
The fact that Joe’s ‘power animal’ is a penguin is actually extremely significant. Through the analysis of the penguin, it is noted that penguin is part of the bird specie that cannot fly. Joe is part of the human species, yet he does not grasp what he can do. He feels restricted by his walls and has essentially made himself a cave to stay in where the simple decisions of everyday life have been robbed from him.
After Joe meets Tyler and establishes fight club, Joe begins to send messages to his co-workers in the form of haikus.
Worker bees can leave Even drones fly away
The queen is their slave (p. 63). Without just one nest
A bird can call the world home Life is your career (p.64). Flowers bloom and die
Wind brings butterflies or snow A stone won’t notice (p. 67).
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unfulfilling careers and that they can choose to leave and change their lives if they want to. It is implied that if they choose this path, then their boss will become their slave instead of them being enslaved by their boss.
The second haiku is a message that material possessions are unimportant, as the whole world is literally a home. It says that living and being free is more important than the materialistic ideals and stifling careers they currently consider to be important.
The third haiku is the statement that all beautiful and living things do eventually die, but those who are strong or ‘stone-like’ will not be affected by the fear of inevitable death.
Joe is a very subservient type of person. For example, he goes to meetings his boss does not want to attend.
My boss is gone on vacation. He sent me an E-mail and then disappeared. I’m to prepare for a formal review in two weeks. Reserve a conference room. Get all my ducks in a row. Update my resume (p. 138).
Joe never makes his own decision. He always obeys the IKEA catalogue. He always obeys his boss. Until one day he realizes that Tyler is him and what Tyler does is wrong. He wants to stop it and at the end of the story, he decides to make the first decision that is truly his own. He puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself.
I’m not killing my self, I yell. I’m killing Tyler. I am Joe’s Hard Drive.
I remember everything.
The barrel of the Gun tucked in my surviving cheek, I say, Tyler, you mixed the nitro with paraffin, didn’t you.
Parafin never works. I have to do this
From the above analyses, I can conclude that Joe is a dependent person. He suffers insomnia because he cannot find something larger in himself. The something larger here is the crisis of masculinity in him. In other words, he is an emasculated person. He does not have a sense of self-confidence. That is why he always hides his real identity and he picks out items such as the furniture in his house that would be best represent the type of person he is.
c. Joe’s Social Status Description
Chuck Palahniuk, in Fight Club, directly puts his character not as great ones and far from heroism. He talks about the emasculation as a result of consumer culture. One of the main characters, Joe, is a portrait of a modern male. Meanwhile, he is a kind of an alienated person and Tyler is the only friend he has. He lives in a condo that is furnished with all the comforts of modern society. Joe owns a car and obtains a respectable wardrobe, white shirt and black trousers, for himself.
Home was a condominium on the fifteenth floor of a high-rise, a sort of filling cabinet for windows and young professionals (41).
When Joe discovers he has lost his home and all his possessions he suddenly feels a sense that he is truly alone. He does not consider calling his family or staying in a hotel but he decides to call Tyler Durden.
“I asked to use the lobby phone. I called Tyler (p. 45).”
It shows that Joe is not close with any family that he may have and that he does not have any friends.
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2. Tyler Durden
a. Tyler’s Physical Description
Since Tyler and Joe is technically the same person. Tyler’s physical description is similar to Joe. The novel does not clearly explain Tyler’s physical description as well as Joe’s physical descriptions. Those character descriptions seem not to be important for Palahniuk since the novel more emphasizes more on the atmosphere.
b. Tyler’s Mental Description
Joe and Tyler are unique characters. The novel revolves around Joe and Tyler Durden, and their search for meaning in a meaningless world, and how that search is. Joe thinks Tyler as his best friend and Tyler is the only one Joe can express his depressions with. Tyler has everything that Joe doesn’t have. Tyler is the antithesis of Joe.
I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage, his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free and I am not (p. 174).
The two men are exactly opposite. When Joe wonders what sofa he is, Tyler wonders why anyone actually cares about that stuff. When Joe says that he lost all of his belongings that were his identity in an apartment accident, Tyler sympathizes by saying that Joe’s loss of possessions will set him free.
“I’m breaking my attachment to physical power and possessions,” Tyler whispered, “because only through destroying my self can I discover the greater power of my spirit.”
Tyler, on the other hand, is a man with little sense of right and wrong. He is not an evil man. He just wants to wake people up from the perpetual dream world that they live in and he will go to any lengths to achieve his vision of setting people free.
Tyler is an anarcho-primitivistic with a strong hatred for consumer culture. Tyler is not worried about crime, poverty, and murder. Instead what worries him is the fact that we are told how to act and live by corporations.
“you have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generation have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need (p. 149).”
These war words of the consumer-controlled male are his fight against society. Along with Joe, he is the co-founder of the fight club, It is Tyler’s idea to have the fight which finally lead to the establishment of the fight club. He later launches Project Mayhem, from which he and the members make various attacks on civilization that creates consumerism.
He will do anything to ensure his vision runs well although it means he has to kill someone.
Because you followed me tonight, because you saw Tyler Durden kill someone, and Tyler will kill anybody who threatens Project Mayhem (p.196).
Tyler also creatively affirms his disgust for women by making high-priced soaps from liposuctioned human fat and proudly telling Joe that he is selling rich ladies their own fat asses back to them at $20.00 a bar.
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From the above analyses I can conclude that Tyler is an anti-consumerism person. He is a man who is smart, admit crime as the right way, unafraid of being poor, and able to kill anyone who want to abolish his way.
c. Tyler’s Social Status Description
In Fight Club, Palahniuk chooses to put his main characters into two different levels. Joe is capable to have condo, car and fill his condo with expensive furniture, meanwhile Tyler lives in an old house that was most likely condemned a century ago. It locates in front of an old factory. His nearest neighbor is a mile and half away.
Our only neighbors are a closed machine shop and across the street, a block-long ware house.
This is the perfect house for dealing drugs. There are no neighbors. There’s nothing else on a Paper Street except for warehouse and the pulp mill (pp. 57-58).
Tyler makes and sells soap. Soap is a symbol in Fight Club. Tyler explains that soap ultimately symbolizes heroism, and human sacrifice.
“In ancient history…human sacrifices were made on a hill above a river…The sacrifices were made and the bodies were burned on a pyre…After hundreds of people were sacrificed and burned…a thick white discharge crept from the alter, downhill to the river…Rain fell on the burnt pyre year after year, and year after year people were burned, and the rain seeped through the wood ashes to become a solution of lye, and the lye combined with the fat of the sacrifices, and a thick white discharge of soap crept out from the base of the altar and crept downhill toward the river…Where the soap fell into the river…after a thousand years of killing people and rain, the ancient people found their clothes got cleaner if they washed them at that spot…It was right to kill those people…You have to see…how the first soap was made of heroes…think about animals in product testing. Think about the monkeys shot into space. Without their pain and sacrifice…we would have nothing (pp. 76,77,78).”
humanity and that this is ultimately how all human progress is obtained. He wants Joe to realize that even though this may be disturbing, it is a fact of life.
He also has other jobs that afford him time to do so unpleasant things such as urinate in soup at high class restaurants and splice objectionable images into family films in major theater chains.
The headlines:
Troubled Waiter Admits Tainting Food.
Sure, I said, I might go to prison. They could hand me and yank my nuts off and drag me through the streets and flay my skin and burn me with lye, but pressman hotel would always be known as the hotel where the richest people in the world ate pee (114).
Tyler is a popular person among workers in the service industry. Everybody knows and respects him. He has many followers who are loyal to him. They obey all Tyler’s words and treat him as their leader.
Tonight, I go to the Armory Bar and the crowds part zipper style when I walk in. to everybody there, I am Tyler Durden and the Great and Powerful. God and father.
All around me I hear. “Good evening, sir.’ “Welcome to fight, sir.”
“Thank you for joining us, sir (p. 199).”
For his society, Tyler is only a poor man. He is a blue collar worker, but toward his followers, Tyler is the great leader who would change their world into better one.
B. The Main Character’s Motives
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id, and super ego because they are the primary formations of self and identity. This will be done within the framework of psychoanalytic theory. The connection that I shall draw between psychoanalytic theory and the novel Fight Club is simple. Joe is the representation of the ego and Tyler Durden represents Id.
In the Freudian psychic model the ego is the civilized part of consciousness. The ego is the part of the psychic apparatus that is modified so that a being can interact safely with other beings and thus remain accepted within the social group. It is important for identity formation that the individual is accepted by the group or a wider society therefore, a controlled id is of paramount importance. For Freud, the ego and id relationship is like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse (Freud, 1987, p XL).
Joe, due to his sleep deprivation, is barely aware of his surroundings and is ultimately alienated. He is never really awake but never quite asleep. He has no concept of self to the point that he uses consumer goods to define his self identity and his relationship with other people. He is the Swedish furniture that he owns. He relates his objects on a pseudo-sexual level and associates them with pornography.
“And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. (p.43).”
He is alienated from the neurotic society that spawned him. His identity is lost within the conflict of consumerism that he observes. In his strange sleep state, he is aware of the situation that he is in. He sees that it is not just him that is half dreaming in this society. Along with him, he observes that many others have also become slaves to the IKEA nesting instinct.
displays that, until now, his ego was functioning well enough. Joe’s id can start makingf such remarks when he suffers sleep deprivation. Joe, as ego, is the perfect working civilized being. His id is limited or in other words, his desires are restricted to what is offered and acceptable to the greater society, namely, consumer goods. However, because he suffers physical symptoms that have an impact on his mental welfare (insomnia), the power of his ego becomes limited. So, the powerful horse that is the id slips its control and leads the ego wherever id wishes to go.
As seen in the discussion of the ego, the id is known as a natural force. In fact Freud tells us that we must recognize the id as a great reservoir of libido. This is the job of the ego to bridle that power. Without the id, the ego would have nothing (Freud. 1987, p. XL). If the id is expressed in terms of the power of speech, not the speech itself, but the power contained within the interpretation of the speaking, then we can easily draw connections with the id of Freud.
In this way, much of Tyler Durden’s power comes from the way he is expressed. He utters numerous slogans and his words have a different carrier. On many occasions Joe does the speaking. This does not go unnoticed by him, even before he discovers that he and Tyler are the same person. At numerous junctures we hear Joe almost mourns. Those are Tyler’s words coming out of his mouth.
I called my insurance to pre-approve a visit to the emergency room, at the hospital, Tyler tells them I fell down. Sometimes, Tyler speaks for me. I did this to my self (p. 52).
Tyler’s words coming out my mouth, I used to be such a nice person (p.98).
These are Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth. I am Tyler’s mouth. I am Tyler’s hands (p. 155).
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Tyler or id induces the speech within Joe. Tyler here is clearly expressed in terms of Freud’s id.
Tyler originally presents himself after Joe’s period of sleep derivation. Freud sees dreams as the context where repressed desire is let loose (Freud. 1987, p. XL). Joe is unable to release any libidinal desires through dreams as his neurotic insomnia has disallowed any natural sleep. Thus, he expressed these desires as Tyler Durden instead. Tyler is the full expression of Joe’s id. He embodies everything that Joe unconsciously wishes for, literally while Joe is unconscious.
The super-ego is where the individual’s guilt originates. Or rather, it would seem that the sense of guilt originates from the authority figure or disembodied authority and then it is internalized to form the section of the psyche called the super-ego. Sense of right and wrong, which is effectively the fear of punishment from a stronger other, is what forces us to self-monitor our behavior. Once this instinctual behavior is monitored, it is easier for human beings to form communities. The formation of such communities can only be achieved through an increasing reinforcement of the sense of guilt. Consequently, Freud concludes that the advances in civilization result in a loss of happiness and he continues to diagnose civilization as being fearful in the same way that an individual might be as a result of the forces of culture (Freud, 1987, p. XLi.).
Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need. …we’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off (pp. 149, 166).
Again, we hear Freud resonating through Tyler’s rhetoric. Freud declares that there is a trade-off happening in the development of civilization. Mankind sacrifices certain aspects of his freedom in exchange for an assured amount of security. However, it is the aspect of human nature or the freedom that people need. The implication is that we have been cheated in this particular deal.
For Tyler, civilization makes us soft and wasteful. Civilization makes people desire things that sometimes people could do without that and then become necessary to our existence. It is the consumer society that Tyler is rebelling against, and it is the civilizing process that contains those things that Freud chooses as creator of the super-ego. Thus, they are civilization and consumer society that represent the super-ego within the context of the novel.
After we know the main character’s self or identity, now we can find out his motives which affect the main character in establishing an underground boxing club. The dehumanizing aspects of society are shown as an emasculating force. It is written that Joe consults a doctor because of insomnia and he is given advice that can be seen as perfect clue for the obvious interest in masculine problem.
“Insomnia is just the symptom of something larger. Find out what’s actually wrong. Listen to your body (p. 19).”
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independently and be able to be emotionally strong on their own. It does not want men to be men. Society wants to take the very ideals of being a man. That is the independence, strength and courage. The best example of this would be the support groups. The feminization of the male character is shown through the testicular cancer support group. The men in this group have lost the very essence of their manhood, their testicles. They are a representation of the 20th century males, castrated and without the male essence. Society has taken the very fundamental aspect of being a man and taken it away creating a more feminine man.
The character of Bob best illustrates this point. Bob was a champion bodybuilder, an independent and strong male, but had his testicles removed and the hormone imbalance caused him to grow extremely large breasts and his voice to become higher. Now Bob goes to a testicular cancer group so he could share his feelings to cry (pp. 16-17). We can see this statement more than a mock to the new age therapy for men. It is also satirizing and condemning the weepy process of feminization. He was once a strong and independent male, now he is weak and dependent. Bob becomes more of a woman than a man because of society.
Tyler Durden makes a statement that illustrates the society the modern male is forced to live in.
You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generation have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need (p. 149).
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 (p. 166).
