EXISTENTIALISM AS SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S
FIGHT CLUB
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SANDRA RESKITA
Student Number: 024214047
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
EXISTENTIALISM AS SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S
FIGHT CLUB
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SANDRA RESKITA
Student Number: 024214047
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2010
D ifficult ies exist t o be sur mount ed
-Emer son-
This under gr aduat e t hesis is dedicat ed t o
M y beloved par ent s
M y dear est br ot her
M y dear est lover
M y wonder ful fr iends
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I thank Jesus Christ for the guidance, miracles, and difficulties. Thank you Jesus for Your guidance and lessons in my life. My highest gratitude goes to my beloved parents for their greatest love, patience, and support during my years in university. I thank my mother and father for their struggle and lessons of love they have given. I apologize for making them wait so long. I thank my brother and his family for the support. I also thank my lovely Suharthowo for making my life complete with his love, support, advice, courage, and sacrifices. Thank you for your computer until the finishing of my thesis.
I would like to thank my advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum. for being patient as I prepared this thesis. I thank him for valuable suggestions, and for his time guiding me in the order to finish this thesis. I would like to thank my co-advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S, M.Hum for the support and suggestions she has given. Thank you for your encouragement during the making of my thesis. I would also like to thank Romo In for his time and for the discussions we have done.
Thank you for my wonderful friends, Rere and Teres for their love and true friendship. I would like to thank Garry, Galang, Andika, Jati, Imbik, Ian, Budi obel, Leo, Sigit, and David, for their friendships, the discussions, information, and suggestions. I would also like to thank everyone who helps me during the making of this thesis. I am sorry if I forgot to mention their names.
Sandra Reskita
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS……… …………..vi
1. Theory on Character and Characterization………10
2. The Principles of Existentialism………15
3. The Relation between Literature and Philosophy………..20
C. Theoretical Framework………..22 A. The Characteristics of the Narrator………27
B. The Character Development of the Narrator……….38
C. Sartrean Existentialism Revealed by the Narrator……….48
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION………54
BIBLIOGRAPHY……….59
APPENDIX………60
ABSTRACT
SANDRA RESKITA. Existentialism as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.
Fight Club is a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk. The novel tells about the narrator of the novel, a nameless character whose personality splits into two different characters. The narrator has a meaningless life and he struggles to obtain his own freedom as an individual. With Durden as his second personality and as his friends, the narrator involves into anarchism movement. However, after he knows on the truth of his identity and personality, that he is Durden, he is able to be responsible for his own acts and Durden’s acts at the same time. The writer tries to examine the concept of freedom and responsibility since they are the major principles in Sartrean existentialism.
There are two objectives of this thesis. The first is to discuss the character development by comparing the narrator’s characteristics before he meets Durden and the changing of his characteristics after he meets Durden. The second objective of the study is to discuss the principles of the existentialism during his adventures with Durden.
Library research is used in analyzing the novel. The writer uses the theory on character and characterization in order to examine development of the narrator. Sartrean existentialism is also used in order to analyze the concept of ‘being’, subjectivity, freedom and responsibility.
The narrator hates his life, his possessions, his job, his boss, and his own self. However, he is a coward who is unable to free himself from his own possessions, his job, and his boss. Durden helps the narrator to be free by sharing together and gives his valuable viewpoints on many things. The narrator involves in many new experiences with Durden, including fighting. From a coward, the narrator evolves and changes into a brave man as he dares to speak and against Durden and Project Mayhem. It is because of Big Bob’s death while doing his mission on Project Mayhem that the narrator becomes fully aware of his own freedom and he accepts that the responsibility is on his shoulder.
ABSTRAK
SANDRA RESKITA. Existentialism as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010.
Fight Club adalah sebuah novel yang ditulis oleh Chuck Palahniuk. Novel ini menceritakan tentang pencerita novel tersebut, sebuah karakter tanpa nama yang kepribadiannya terpisah menjadi dua karakter berbeda. Sang pencerita tidak memiliki makna hidup dan ia berjuang untuk memperoleh kebebasannya sebagai seorang individu. Bersama dengan kepribadiannya yang kedua yang sekaligus menjadi temannya, Durden, sang pencerita terlibat dalam gerakan anarki. Namun, setelah ia mengetahui identitas dan kepribadiannya yang sebenarnya, bahwa ia adalah Durden, ia dapat segera bertanggungjawab atas tindakan anarki yang dilakukan baik oleh dirinya, maupun Durden. Penulis mencoba untuk meneliti tentang konsep kebebasan dan tanggung jawab dimana kedua hal tersebut adalah prinsip utama dalam eksistensialisme milik Sartre.
Tesis ini bermaksud untuk mejawab dua permasalahan. Permasalahan pertama ditujukan untuk mendiskusikan perkembangan karakter sang pencerita sebelum dan setelah is bertemu dengan Durden. Permasalahan kedua adalah untuk mendiskusikan prinsip eksistensialism yang muncul dalam petualangan Durden dan sang pencerita.
Penelitian dalam perpustakaan dilakukan untuk menganalisa novel ini. Penulis menggunakan teori karakter dan karakterisasi untuk meneliti perkembangan karakter sang pencerita. Eksistensialisme milik Sartre juga digunakan untuk menganalisa konsep ‘ada’, subjektivitas, kebebasan dan tanggung jawab.
Sang pencerita sangat membenci hidupnya sendiri, barang-barang miliknya, pekerjaannya, bos di tempat ia bekerja, dan ia bahkan membenci dirinya sendiri. Akan tetapi, karakteristiknya sebagai seorang pengecut membuat ia tidak mampu membebaskan dirinya dari hal-hal tersebut di atas. Durden membantu sang pencerita untuk menjadi seseorang yang bebas dengan bertukar pikiran dan memberikan pandangannya tentang banyak hal. Sang pencerita memiliki banyak pengalaman yang baru bersama Durden, termasuk pengalaman berkelahi. Dari seorang pengecut, karakteristik sang pencerita pun akhirnya berkembang dan berubah menjadi seseorang yang berani dimana ia akhirnya berani untuk berbicara dan melawan Durden serta Proyek Rusaknya. Pada akhirnya, adalah kematian Big Bob saat sedang melakukan misinya untuk Proyek Rusak yang membuat sang pencerita sadar tentang kebebasan dirinya, ia pun menjadi sepenuhnya sadar bahwa dirinya adalah orang yang bertanggung jawab atas semuanya.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Philosophy has an important role for human beings. Philosophy as the pursuit of wisdom helps human being by its efforts to answer the important and mysterious questions on things in life. Philosophers maintain their theories and assumptions to fulfill human’s passion of logical thinking. Existentialism as one of the philosophical movement which focuses on human’s essence as an individual often called as philosophy of man. Existentialism was born in the 19th century and grew wider in the 20th century. By existentialism, philosophers are challenged to contribute some ideas on human’s existence in the world. Human’s existence in this world is too complex to be explained and therefore it is also difficult to define the word ‘existentialism’.
Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Camus, Dostoevsky, Jaspers, de Beauvior, Fanon, Marcel, Merleau-Ponty and Sartre are some philosophers who contribute ideas and share their thinking on existentialism who often called as existentialists. Among the existentialists, Sartre is the most interesting existentialist with his ideas and theories on existentialism. As a confusing term, the precise definition of existentialism is impossible, therefore Sartre differentiates existentialism in the perspective of atheism and theism. Sartre states that all existentialists have one idea in common, that ‘existence precedes essence’. By ‘existence precedes essence’, human being is first created, and without any essence. Human is nothing
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and full emptiness until he or she chooses his or her decision, and acts upon it. By making his or her own decision, human being is free, and therefore he or she has the responsibility of their acts. According to Sartre, a writer therefore has his or her own freedom to act in a form of literature. William Barret in Irrational Man gives Sartre’s view on literature:
“…literature is a mode of action, an act of the writer’s freedom that seeks to appeal to the freedom of other individuals and eventually to the total free collective mankind” (Barret, 1962: 250).
Human being tends to seek for meaning of life through salvation and happiness. The happiness is often defined by the material things that he or she owns. For the salvation, it is often seen through moral judgments and even religious values that exist in his or her family. When it comes to the meaning of life, one may perceives the meaning through the major properties, money, cars, or the actual happiness which comes from the life itself as a persona or family. One may also perceive his or her meaning of life through some certain beliefs, religions, medical point of view, or certain ideologies formed by the society.
car company and he travels a lot during his work. Behind his properties, he actually suffers from a severe insomnia which forces him to go to a doctor. His doctor suggests him to go to support groups that exist in town in order to see the real pain. He pursues his freedom by following the doctor’s suggestion and goes to all of the support groups. He feels that he already finds his freedom and happiness with this new activity, pretending that he is ill in each support group. During his work travels, he meets a man named Tyler Durden who works as a soap-maker. They both become friends after the Narrator loses his apartment and all his possessions because of an explosion that happens on his apartment. Durden seems happy with the accident and starts to give his different point of view, how human being must see his or her life based on meaning and not on material possessions. Their friendship gives result to the birth of fight club which finally ends up with anarchism. As the story goes, the Narrator comes to understand his existence once he finds his friend, Big Bob is killed because of the anarchism of Project Mayhem. Once he realizes the truth that Tyler is his other personality, he tries to stop the anarchism of Durden’s Project Mayhem because it is dangerous for other people.
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In this case, existence becomes an issue pointed out by the author, Chuck Palahniuk, because nowadays in the modern era there are many people who struggle for their freedom and existence. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the major character’s characteristics and his existence as a human being. By understanding the Narrator’s characteristics, the writer is able to see the existentialism values that are found in the novel.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to see the existentialism in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, this thesis focus on the major character and his freedom also the principles of existentialism, particularly Sartrean existentialism as formed by the problem formulations below:
1. How do the Narrator’s characteristics develop in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club?
2. What principles of Sartrean existentialism are revealed by the Narrator?
C. Objectives of the Study
This thesis attempts to discuss about the major character’s development, the major character’s freedom and other principles of Sartrean existentialism in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Below are the objectives of the study.
character from the beginning until the end after he finds his freedom and his existence.
Second, the writer tries to find out the principles of Sartrean existentialism which are revealed by the Narrator. The writer will analyze the principles of Sartrean existentialism such as being, subjectivity, human’s freedom, and responsibility.
D. Definition of Term
Existentialism
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Louis Maistros in SFReader (Speculative Fiction Book Reviews and More) starts his review by emphasizes that Fight Club the movie is actually based on a novel with the same title, and that there are some differences between both the movie and Fight Club novel itself. He states that the narration of the narrator in Fight Club is the only matters because it is a study of narcissism but full of wisdom at the same time.
“But unlike most counterculture rants there is no sense of self-pity, no barely concealed tone of self-importance. There are no answers offered other than simple self-annihilation; “the first step to eternal life is you have to die”. “Fight Club” is full of twitchy little pearls of wisdom like that. And full of recipes for bombs. The heavy-duty satire element in “Fight Club” is not directed at the narrator’s perceived enemies. It is directed at the author himself. And at any poor schmuck who plops down the thirteen bucks for this book”
(http://sfreader.com/read_review.asp?book=190&t=Fight-Club-Chuck-Palahniuk).
Maistros senses that an individual is nothing and unimportant in the novel, and therefore he states that self destruction is the answer by showing Tyler Durden’s line. Therefore he also states that Fight Club novel is full of wisdom because Durden can be categorized as a nihilist as there are many of Durden’s lines contain self destruction as its theme.
Destruction is also stated as Fight Club’s theme in John Trimble’s essay entitled Discovery the Meaning of Life through Fight Club and Siddharta in which he compares both novels. He considers Palahniuk’s Fight Club as a nihilist
masterpiece which focuses on human and culture’s destruction. Trimble agrees on St. Clair Carr’s comment that Fight Club is apparently a story of two young men who try to overcome their feminized lives as they are raised by women but end up with violence of Project Mayhem with destruction as its purpose.
On psychological view, Trimble also states his idea by saying that Fight Club is a story of a man who leaves the society and involves in a journey in which he learns from it and finds it peaceful. Trapped in his job and loneliness, the Narrator comes into a schizophrenic double as he has multiple personality disorder, shown by the second personality named Tyler Durden.
Trimble also states that letting go of something is the only way to gain freedom, peace, and happiness for a human who lives in a world full of sin and distraction.
“Though vastly different, Fight Club and Siddhartha both essentially tell the same story of man’s search for personal meaning”
(http://chuckpalahniuk.net/files/papers/discovering-the-meaning-johntrimble.pdf).
He believes that Fight Club is a novel which shares a story of an unnamed character who is searching for personal meaning. The personal meaning such as exploration, acceptance, brotherhood, and peace in Fight Club novel lies underneath the pain, blood, and sacrifice. In the end of Trimble’s review, he concludes that pain, sorrow and fighting are considered only as steps in a journey of one’s life which leads him or her, a free human being, into a better life.
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that both characters are contrastively presented in the novel. The nameless Narrator means to represent human beings, in which Nugraha believes that many people in the Narrator’s world have also similar way of life with the Narrator’s life (Nugraha, 2007: 83). The character of Tyler Durden is depicted differently with the Narrator as a hero and an inspirational man who teaches and able to stimulate the feeling of confidence to other people around him in order to gain enlightenment. Tyler is a revolutionist man who appears with his ability to change a feeling of suffering becomes a glorious experience.
“…the feeling of meaninglessness that overcomes the Americans urban young people during the nineties is reflected in the novel through three symptoms; depression, addiction, and aggression that clearly preoccupies some people describes in the novel to cope with it” (Nugraha, 2007: 85).
Characteristics of the Narrator is also stated in Kristi Hapsari’s The Effects of The Main Character’s Life Pressures as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Hapsari analyzes the characteristics of the Narrator, his life pressures and the effects of the life pressures itself. She concludes that there are nine characteristics that shape the Narrator’s personality and give influence toward his life pressures. Those characteristics which contribute to his life pressures are; the financial difficulty, daily fatigue, his habit of forcing himself to do something, his stupidity and weakness, his dreams and desires, easily influenced by his environment, bad treatments in office and too many assignments at work, and his loneliness (Hapsari, 2007: 49-50).
On the character’s life pressures, Hapsari states that insomnia and affective symptoms are clearly the effects of the life pressures. The Narrator suffers from insomnia and indicates Multiple Personality Disorder as Hapsari gives evidences on anxiety, hysterical, and affective symptoms through the character’s inability to concentrates causes by fear and the loss of his memory whenever his personality changes into Durden.
“Symptoms of mania are shown through the main character’s aggressive behavior, bad attitudes that endanger the other people and engage in sexual activity” (Hapsari, 2007: 51).
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two types of affective symptoms. Hapsari then continues that self-depreciation, pessimism, bad appearance, and his wish to commit suicide are the symptoms of depression.
From the criticisms above, we have not seen the theme which the writer uses in this study. Therefore, the writer will analyze the effects of the main character’s freedom and responsibility as part of Existentialism seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory on Character and Characterization
Abrams in The Glossary of Literary Terms states that character is “the person in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say –the dialogues- and what they do-the action-.”
He also divides characters into major and minor characters. A major character is the most important character in the story. A major character always becomes the center of the story. His or her attitude, behavior, and action will be the focus of the readers’ attention from the beginning to the end of the story (1981:20).
a. Major Character
Major character is a character who should exists in order to develop the story. He appears more often than another character. His experience from the beginning till the end of the story composes the whole story. The theme is conveyed by the action of the major character. He also becomes the main of the story because he endures problems, conflict, happiness, sorrow, etc. Based on these, the messages from the author inside the story can be discovered by the readers.
b. Minor Character
Minor character is contradictory with major character. Minor character is a character that supports the main character to develop the story so that they appear in certain setting. He plays less important and does not have the experience like major character.
Holman and Harmon (1986: 83) states in their book, A Handbook of Literature state that character in literary work can be static or dynamic.
a. Static Characters
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b. Dynamic Characters
The dynamic characters are the opposite of static characters. The dynamic characters are developing in their manner, form, and the way of thinking. They can change in every aspect of the characters but it may also only change in one aspect.
The writer also agrees with Murphy in his book Understanding Unseen (1972: 161-173) that characters must be understandable and come live for his readers. There are nine points stated in this book.
a. Personal description
The author describes a character’s appearance and his attire. It is important for the author because each character has different characteristic and this description will help the readers to have a better imagination.
b. Character as seen by another readers
The author tries to describe a character’s personality by letting go the other characters tell what they see from the characters they run into. The author hopes that the readers will get some clues to understand a character’s personality.
c. Speech
d. Past life
The author helps the readers to understand a character’s personality by learning about the past experience or important moment that influenced the character’s personality.
e. Conversation of others
The readers will achieve some clues about a character’s personality from the other characters conversation.
f. Reactions
A character’s personality can be described through his reaction on different situation or moments. The readers will know a character’s quality in dealing with the problem or situation that happens in the story.
g. Direct comment
The author gives his opinion or comment about a character personality explicitly.
h. Thought
The author describes the character’s personality by stating explicitly about the character’s mind. The author has the ability to tell the readers what are other characters thinking of.
i. Mannerism
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Perrine (1974: 54) in his book also mentions that character development is the transformation that differentiates the characteristic of a character from the beginning of the story until the end of the story. A character developed if he becomes a different character because he has been influenced by the actions or the problems in the story. There are three conditions that lead to the changing of the characters (1974: 71).
a. The changing of the characters must be slowly or step by step. The characters must begin from the smallest changes first.
b. There is a motivation that comes from the characters because of his circumstances. Usually a character is aware that he must have strong reason that lead him into changes
2. The Principles of Existentialism
Jean-Paul Sartre is the only philosopher who claims and declares himself both as an existentialist and atheist. He is one of the famous philosophers who contribute ideas in existential movement in the twentieth century. Sartre proposes many major principles from subjectivity, freedom, desire to be God, and even existentialist psychoanalysis. From those principles, some principles are used by the writer in order to analyze the Fight Club novel. The principles are: being, ‘existence precedes essence’, freedom, and responsibility. Those Sartre’s principles are parallel and related with each other.
a. Being
Sartre gives his thought of being in his Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenology Ontology in which he divides being in two modes; in-itself (etre-en-soi) and for-in-itself (etre-pour-soi). According to Sartre, being-in-itself and being-for-itself are absolutely different though both of them are related with consciousness. Consciousness can only be found in being-for-itself. itself is the consciousness of self, the self of human being. Being-for-itself is the being of human being, the conscious being.
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to itself. It has no future, past, possibility, purpose, hope, or wish. Being-in-itself just exists without fundamental and without being created. Being-it-itself is just what it is, and there is nothing more than that.
Being-for-itself is the consciousness of something, or in relation with human being, the consciousness of self. Therefore, being-for-itself is active and it has purpose. It means that the form of consciousness can be found in human being whenever he or she thinks or feels a certain emotion. When a human being is thinking, he or she is actually conscious of something and this consciousness makes him or her realize something. For example, one thinks of ice cream. There is a distance between the ice cream and the self. Related to being-for-itself, Mary Warnock gives Sartre’s viewpoint on consciousness:
“Consciousness said to be a gap or space between the conscious being and the world. I think it is possible to see what Sartre means by this. By thinking about something, or barely being aware of it, one distinguishes between this something and one’s self” (1967: 20).
After one realizes or being aware on the distance, he or she is able to negate (what it is not) by saying “I am not an ice cream”. Being-for-itself has a capability to negate, to say what is not, which makes it different with being-in-itself as opposed by Sartre:
“…the being of ‘for itself’ is defined, on the contrary, as being what it is not and not being what it is. The question here then is of a regional principle and is such synthetical. Furthermore it is necessary to oppose this formula – Being-in-Itself is what it is – to that which designates the being of consciousness” (Sartre, 1976: 515).
appointment with Pierre in a café at 4 pm. Sartre comes late and he looks in the café to find the presence of Pierre, but finds no Pierre. Sartre concludes that nothingness comes after the activity of negating the world. Nothingness always haunts being, and it can never be separated with the being. Therefore, it can be said that being-for-itself presents nothingness.
b. Existence precedes essence
According to Sartre, existence precedes essence is the basic principle because it can be found in every existentialist’s perspective. He divides existentialism into two kinds, they are:
i. Christian existentialists (Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel)
ii. Atheistic existentialists (Heidegger, French existentialist, Sartre)
Existence precedes essence is the starting point of existentialism, or in other word, subjectivity. Sartre gives his explanation on existence precedes essence, first, man exists, turn up, and only afterwards he can define himself. If man is indefinable, it is because at first human being is nothing. Human being is “thrown” into the world, as a living creature who thinks, chooses, makes a decision, and acts upon the decision. Therefore, essence can only be obtained by the act of thinking, making plan, choosing and deciding something, and acts upon the choice and decision that has been made. Before he or she chooses, makes a decision, and acts upon it, one is full of nothingness and emptiness.
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Because human being is nothing, subjectivity is the primary and basic key to fill the emptiness and gives essence toward nothingness. Subjectivity has two meanings:
a. Human being as an individual chooses and makes himself. It means that it is human being itself that gives essence to his or her existence by making choices. Subjectivity of the individual is when one makes a choice based on the personal perspective. Subjective truth occurs whenever one makes his or her choice based on subjective perspective. No one can make my own choice. The choice can only be made by me, myself, as an individual without any interfere from other people, even a member of the family. There is no one can decides for my own choice. This subjective truth is what makes my life authentic, because authenticity defines the self-making decision, committing my own choice. No matter it is a good or bad decision.
c. Freedom
Sartre’s concept of freedom is obviously seen as he states that man is condemned to be free. Being-in-itself is thrown into the world and being-for-itself has a power to affirm or negate the world. In order to fill the emptiness or nothingness and gives essence to one self, human is actually a free being. The emptiness is filled by choices, and the choices are based on subjective truth in which he or she decides his or her own choices. Again, Warnock also states Sartre’s concept of freedom by saying, “If we are conscious beings, in his sense, then we are also free” (1967: 29).
Consciousness can be only found in a human being, and it occurs as in being-for-itself. Each human being can not avoid making choices. Once he or she is conscious, he or she will think and make a choice. Be it good or bad, one can only choose for his own self, because it is based on the subjective truth of the individual self.
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d. Responsibility
Being free does not mean to be able to do what one wants, but to be able to choose on what he wishes. Sartre explains that man is also responsible for everything that he chooses or decides or even acts. Existentialism’s first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him (Sartre, 1987: 16). Responsibility also related to other people as well. This happens because the existence of other people in undeniable. Although the person is free to choose anything, he cannot choose without considering other people because everything that he does will affect others (Sartre, 1976: 196). Therefore, it can be said that one individual freedom is limited by the freedom of others, because there are other people in the world who also have the same value of freedom. Sartre also explains that man’s responsibility is not just for himself, but also for other people.
“And when we say that a man is responsible for himself, we do not only mean that he is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for all men.” (Sartre, 1987: 16)
3. The Relation between Literature and Philosophy.
feeling for nature, and questions of myth and magic. The fourth problem is the concept of men and the concept of death and love. The last problem is the problem on society, family, and country.
Rene Wellek (1956: 112) also states that literature can be used as a document in the history of philosophy, because history of literature relates and expresses the history of philosophy. Knight in Literature Considered as Philosophy states:
“Philosophy and literature have acted upon another in the past, but they never lost their identity in one another. Writers who were not philosophers wrote about philosophy, what they wrote was not in itself philosophy in the strict sense of the word (Knight, 1962: 175).”
The relation between philosophy and literature is can be clearly seen from the quotation above. A writer or an author often brings the idea and concept of philosophy in his or her work of literatures although he or she might not a strict philosophical-based person.
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C. Theoretical Framework
In order to understand and solve the problem of study, review of related studies and theories are needed. It gives some basic understanding about the problems and gives a lot of point of views in order to analyze the novel.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club was published on 17 August 1996 in New York, United States. It was published by the W.W. Norton Company. In 1999, director David Fincher adapted the 208 pages of Fight Club novel into a movie with the same title which had been not only criticized by people, but also received positive responses from the readers, media, and the fans of Palahniuk’s literary works. 208 pages which divided into 30 chapters by Palahniuk has brought him to some prestigious achievements since Fight Club novel had won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award in 1997, and the Oregon Book Award for Best Novel in 1997.
Fight Club began when the nameless major character, the Narrator, was having sleeping disorder, called insomnia. He went to his doctor after suffering from his insomnia, and went to many support groups as the doctor suggested in order seeing the real pain. In the support groups, he met a girl named Marla who was also a faker, just like himself, as they both pretended as sick people who needed more attention. One day, the Narrator met a man named Tyler Durden during his travel works to several countries and they become friends. Tyler gave him his various viewpoints on meaning of life, material possessions, consumerism, God, and equality in society. Durden finally ended up in his Project Mayhem, his project of anarchism after fight club was built. The Narrator found
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out about Durden’s plan and he was disagreeing on his Project Mayhem. He finally found his truth of his own freedom and existence as soon as he realized that the project has killed his friend, Big Bob, and that it was danger for many other people. He faced Durden and tried to stop the Project Mayhem where he also realized at the same time that he and Durden are the same person. Bravely, he took the responsibility of Durden’s Project Mayhem and ended up in an asylum.
B. Approach of the Study
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club tells a story about philosophy and the journey of the character to understand his existence. In analyzing the story, the writer uses moral philosophical approach and takes existentialism as the focus. Moral philosophical approach is an approach that is used to analyze the moral teaching or the philosophical issues as the moral messages that are delivered within a literary work (Guerin, 1999: 29). Literature and philosophy have similar problems through the society as presented by Knight in his book Literature Considered as Philosophy. He writes that it has some things in common. It criticizes the issue that occur in society to find the truth and the good (1962: 14). For the writer, this approach means finding the basic interpretation about the truth, the good and the reality through the text.
the aspects of it. This theory used to analyze the Narrator’s freedom and existence as a free human being.
C. Method of the Study
Library and internet research were used to analyze the story. From the library and internet the writer could find some references and reviews about the story. The novel of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club became the primary source of this study. The secondary sources were taken from the books and references related to the story and theories, and also from internet. The books and review of character and characterization, existentialism, and philosophy were needed and could be found in the library and internet.
There were four steps that the writer did in doing the research. The first step was read and reread the story until the writer understands and got the impression from the story. Next, the writer formed some problems to be analyzed in the analyzing step as the third step of research.
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The third step was analyzing the study based on the problem formulations that have been made before. Here, the writer was examining about the values of existentialism such as freedom and responsibility as the main problem beside the study of character and characterization, and also character development. The discussions were about how the main character, the Narrator, finds his own existence through his many experiences with Tyler Durden.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
It is the crucial part of the thesis in which the writer gives the answers on the problem formulations as stated in the first chapter. This part is divided into three sections; the first part discusses the characteristics of the Narrator, the second part discusses on the character development of the Narrator after his condominium explodes and he experiences a fight with Tyler Durden, the third part discusses the principles of existentialism that are revealed through the character of the Narrator. The Narrator and Tyler Durden are presented contrastively in the novel, though both characters are found in a single body of a person. Here, the writer, once again focuses on the character of the Narrator, and how his character develops since he experiences many new things with his best friend, Durden.
A. The Characteristics of the Narrator
In Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, the writer finds only a few physical descriptions on the Narrator’s character since Palahniuk himself does not give various descriptions on the physical appearance. The Narrator is depicted as a thirty-year-old man who lives in a prestigious condominium. He has his birthmark on his right foot in which he always hides it from other people to see.
“Me, when I go to the beach, I always sit with my right foot tucked under me.
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Australia and New Zealand, or I keep it buried in the sand. My fear is that people will see my foot and I’ll start to die in their minds (p. 106).”
The Narrator is embarrassed on his birthmark because it looks similar with a new kind of cancer. Furthermore, he is afraid that other people will consider his birthmark as a disease and then avoid him. This shows that other people’s opinions are important for him, that he needs to be seen as a normal person. He does not want to be avoided by other people. The size of his body can be considered small as seen through his viewpoint towards Robert Paulson a.k.a Big Bob, his partner in the testicular cancer support group. The Narrator statement’s, “Bob’s big arms wrapped around me (p. 20),” shows that his body is small. He is not tall and he is not also a fat person.
The Narrator works as a recall campaign coordinator in a famous car company in United States. He has a fine career since he has a good job position in his office as a coordinator. His duty is to travel to different places whenever a car accident happens. With a high responsibility, the Narrator has to make a calculation in order to make a recall. As a fine man, he is also trusted to be the representative of his boss in some meetings that he does not want to attend.
boss’ representative, the Narrator gets a fine salary and classifies himself as a successful young man. However, the Narrator feels exhausted by his job and his travel works. His career at work and his travel works give result to his life as he feels that his life is meaningless. His whole life is about working and earning money. He feels bored and exhausted during his traveling activities as he says, “If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person? (p. 33).” The Narrator hates his job, his travel works, his boss and he even hates himself as he wishes to be someone else. He wants to escape from himself. He wants to escape from his work and he wishes for a crash whenever he is on a plane to other city.
“Every takeoff and landing, when the plane banked too much to one side, I prayed for a crash. That moment cures my insomnia with narcolepsy when we might die helpless and packed human tobacco in the fuselage (p. 25).” The Narrator is depressed by his job, his travel works, and his boss. He even considers death as a gateway to his freedom, free from his job, his routine travel works and his boss.
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The Narrator is always updated with market news on expensive furniture and he has a lot of brochures and furniture catalogues which shows his obsessions to buy things. Therefore, he can be classified as a consumerist since he reflects the concept of consumerism. On the description of his condo and his possessions, Palahniuk gives the very details of the condominium’s description, from the ceiling to the floor, electronics with high technology, various furniture, until the quilt-cover set made by a famous designer which support the characteristics of the Narrator as a modern man with high taste of fashionable lifestyle in 1990’s.
One day, after doing his travel work, the Narrator is shocked and extremely sad and upset because he finds his condominium explodes and it turns everything that he possesses into ashes.
“I loved my life. I loved my 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. 110-111)”
The Narrator loses his values of life by having his consumptive lifestyle. He values his own life on his material possessions. He values himself not as a person but as the material things that he buys and possesses since it took his whole life to buy and collects the luxurious yet expensive things. He finds himself and his own identity in his condo, his furniture, and his Audi. It shows that he is trapped by his own possessions and loses his identity as a human being with various values of life.
where he is at during his travel works. Suffering from his insomnia, he goes to meet his doctor again. He asked for the same medicine as he had before, but unfortunately the doctor refuses to give medicines, and insists that there is actually a bigger problem which is the real cause of his insomnia. The doctor then suggests him to go to support group for people who are actually in pain. The Narrator does as what the doctor said to him, and soon finds the cure of insomnia. He attends every support groups that exist in the city, and he pretends to be an ill person who is about to die. For the Narrator, attending various support groups is the way to cure his insomnia.
“And I slept. Babies don’t sleep this well.
Every evening, I died, and every evening, I was born. Resurrected (p. 22).”
The quotation above shows the Narrator is suffering from insomnia. By attending support groups, he is able to sleep again and he feels more alive than before. For the Narrator, it is his freedom and his vacation. Once again, the Narrator feels his life as a meaningless life. He is just living his life like common people, go to work like many people do, but he actually hates his life, his work, and himself.
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group on Thursday which is called Free and Clear. And the last support group that he attends is tuberculosis support group on Friday night.
The various support groups gives meaning for his life. It frees him every night after his stress at work. In those support groups, people are willing to hear for stories and it is just what the Narrator needs. It is by crying and meditating in support groups that he feels that he exists to other people. He feels that he exists because people are there to hear his story, to share sadness and hope, and he gets attention from other people. Support groups fulfill his needs of care and attention in which he can also share his feelings. Care, attention, crying, and sharing feelings together are things that he never gets during his days.
After the explosion, the Narrator struggles for his own freedom from his possessions. In relation with his consumptive behavior, he realizes that he is also trapped by his possessions by saying, ”Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you (p. 44),” and he realizes that he needs to get away from all that. He needs someone to help him escape from his own possessions although he loves them very much. He lays his hope on Durden by saying, “Deliver me from Swedish furniture. Deliver me from clever art (p. 46).”
condominium from other people and society. He has no connection with his neighbors in his condominium.
The Narrator’s characteristic as an individualistic person is also seen from his lack of friends. His statement, “Ever since college, I make friends. They get married. I lose friends (p.62),” describes his loneliness and that he eventually becomes an individual man, living his own life by himself without companions from other people. He has no one to share with although he desperately needs it. The Narrator therefore hides his loneliness and meaningless life by purchasing expensive furniture. However, he always tries to make friendships with other people. During his trip to many cities, he tries to make a relationship which he calls as,”…tiny friendship (p. 31).” He opens himself to make a connection with others, but he limits the connection. Close relationships or friendships are something that he avoids. The Narrator can finally make friends with his two best friends, Big Bob and Tyler Durden. Bob and Durden become his friends because he can share his feelings by crying together with Bob and share various viewpoints with Durden.
“At the introductions, tonight, we introduced ourselves: I’m Bob, I’m Paul, I’m Terry, I’m David.
I never give my real name (p.23).”
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by his willing to free himself from his work and his insomnia. It is the Narrator’s effort to escape from his boredom, exhaustion, suffering from insomnia and his own possessions.
The Narrator has a good discipline and a good habit in doing his work. He always obeys his boss although he hates him. He has no courage to speak or complain to his boss. He always finishes his work and his travel works. During his travel works, he always packs the same things in his bag which indicates his good ability on managing himself.
“When you travel a lot, you learn to pack the same for every trip. Six white shirts. Two black trousers. The bare minimum you need to survive. Travelling alarm clock.
Cordless electric razor. Toothbrush.
Six pair underwear. Six pair black socks.
My contact lens stuff. One red tie with blue stripes. One blue tie with red stripes. These are regimental stripes, not club tie stripes. And one solid red tie (p. 40-41).”
stressed, that he travels around only because his boss’ orders while in fact, the Narrator himself does not want to do travel works.
The Narrator is a smart character. He has a good ability on memorizing things although his insomnia makes him difficult to memorize things. He asks his doctor for some medicines to cure his insomnia as he states, “I wanted little blue Amytal Sodium capsules, 200-miligram- sized. I wanted red-and-blue Tuinal bullet capsules, lipstick-red Seconals (p. 19).” The Narrator has a fine ability on memorizing the name, size, and the colors of the medicines. Although it also represents his perfection and his pain from insomnia in which he desperately needs those medicines. For the Narrator, his insomnia gives him crucial impacts, such his inability on memorizing days.
“My boss is wearing his gray tie so today must be a Tuesday.
The insomnia distance of everything, a copy of a copy of a copy. You can’t touch anything, and nothing can touch you (p. 96-97).”
His severe insomnia makes him hard to remember dates, days, and places during his trips. But he knows what day it is as the result of his perfection, his attention on small details, even for his boss’ tie color.
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He is not a dare-to-speak person, not a rebellion, and always afraid to speak his mind or feelings. He is a weak character with no self-principles.
In the Narrator’s family history, he is raised by his mother. His father leaves him and his mother to marry another woman in another city. His weak characteristic shows by his obedience to what his father says to him. As a single man in his family, he has no figure of father to guide him, therefore, he always obeys his father. He never does what he wants to do. He even does not know what he wants.
“My father never went to college so it was important I go to college. After college, I called him long distance and said, now what?
My dad didn’t know.
When I got a job and turned twenty-five, long distance, I said, now what? My dad didn’t know, so he said, get married (p. 50-51).”
He loses his father’s care, love, and attention. It makes him try to do best for his father and does anything his father tells him to do. He goes to college because it is what his father wants him to do. He needs a figure of a father, and marrying a woman is not what he needs. The Narrator is confused and “…wondering if another woman is really the answer I need (p. 51).” He doubts his own self and he can not decides what he really wants to do. He has no ability to make a decision by himself, for himself. His whole life is about obeying what his father says, his boss, and what his doctor suggests him to do. Raised by his mother, without a figure of a man in his family shaped his characteristics into a weak and once again, obedient character.
to others. He limits the relationships with partners, friends, and family. As the result of his unconfident, he has no ability to make good friendships, and he has no lover. The Narrator’s only relationship with woman is with Marla Singer. The Narrator’s relationship with Marla, a woman whom he knows from support groups, is full of hatred. He hates Marla for being a liar just like himself by pretending as a sick person in each support groups. Both the Narrator and Marla actually feel and experience the same meaningless life. However, he has no ability to give his care and attention to her, although he understands that Marla is also lack of care and attention just like himself. Particularly, his individuality and unconfident make him unable to have a good relationship with woman. Extremely speaking, he hates women and he needs no more woman to deal with because he is raised by his mother. It is the basic reason that explains why the Narrator has no love life and does not marry, even until his age is thirty years old.
“Crying is right at hand in the smothering dark, closed inside someone else, when you see how everything you ever accomplish will end up as trash.
This is when I’d cry because right now, you life comes down to nothing, and not even nothing, oblivion (p. 17)
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entirely free himself. It is after his meeting with Tyler Durden that he feels entirely free as an individual.
B. The Character Development of the Narrator
In this part, the writer discusses the Narrator’s character development after the explosion in his condominium, his meeting and his various experiences with Tyler Durden which gives result to the changing of his character.
After the explosion in his condo which causes him losing his possessions, the Narrator decides to call Tyler Durden, a friend whom he meets during his travel works. The Narrator, then, moves in to Durden’s house, a rented house on Paper Street. The environment between his condo and Durden’s house are totally different.
“When it’s raining, we have to pull the fuses….
The rain tickles down through the house, and everything wooden swells and shrinks, and the nails in everything wooden, the floors and baseboards and window casings, the nails inch out and rust….
There’s no lock on the front door from when police or whoever kicked in the door (p. 57).”
In that big and poor house, the Narrator tries to adjust himself with the situation, without being surrounded by luxurious furniture and his other expensive possessions.
Durden, “Shit, I said, that didn’t count. I want to try it again (p. 53).” After that night, fighting becomes the Narrator’s activity during each Saturday night. Together with Durden, he starts a community which called as fight club. Fight club is a place for the Narrator in which he can express his anger and his boredom of his life, his work, and his boss. Fight club is about expressing the deepest feelings that one can never reveal to other people. In fight club, the Narrator’s desire to be someone else is fulfilled since no one knows his real identity, his past life, his stories, or his job. In his office, the Narrator is just a recall campaign coordinator, but in fight club, he becomes a different man, the founder of fight club.
“You aren’t alive anywhere like you’re alive in fight club. When it’s you and one other guy under that one light in the middle of all those watching. Fight club isn’t about winning or losing. Fight club isn’t about words…, but fight club isn’t about looking good (p. 51).”
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fight club. He does not have to be scared of his boss, because no one knows his job or his boss. In fight club, the Narrator leaves all of his life pressures without being afraid of winning or losing. He does not have to worry on words. It means that he can escape from his boss’ words in office in which he ordered to do many things by his boss. Fight club is not about looking good, because the Narrator does not have to be a young professional with white shirt and black trousers. During his work and his trips, the Narrator always pays attention on the details of his appearance. In fight club, he does not have to be afraid or be embarrassed on his birthmark. The Narrator frees himself from his pressures from work and his possessions by fighting each other. He becomes confident with himself, especially with Durden besides him as his friend. He shows his confident as he finds out that “Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer. Maybe self-destruction is the answer (p.49).” In fact, the Narrator finds that fighting improves himself into a better person.
The Narrator goes to work with dry blood on his pants. He does not care about his appearance anymore, does not goes to work with clean shirt and pants. Clean and fashionable shirts, pants, and ties are no longer important to him. Looking good is no longer needed, even when his boss sends him home because of blood on his pants, he feels extremely happy for it.
The Narrator even goes to work with his bruises on his face without being afraid on other people’s opinion about himself. He finds his courage and his inner peace at work, with his bruises and dry blood on his pants. The Narrator feels enlightened by his bruises and that he can still goes to work without fear and feels embarrass. Blood is nothing for him, and so does dry blood on his pants. It means that nothing is more important for him than his own calmness and his inner peace that he gets. He is no longer depressed or stressed by the regulations in his office, how he should looks, or what his boss says to him. This is when he realizes that a human being must not worry of anything else rathen than the inner feelings, self-satisfaction, and his own happiness.
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Narrator trust Durden as he surrenders himself in pain and experiences a new thing that he has never deals with, sacrifice.
The Narrator is no longer an individualistic person since he lets Durden to be his best friend. With Durden, the Narrator shares his stories and he feels excited to try new things. He becomes confident and finds the excitements of his adventures with Durden.
“Last week, I tell Tyler, when the Empire State Lawyers were here for their Christmas party, I got mine hard and stuck it in all their orange mousses.
Last week, Tyler says, he stopped in the elevator and farted on a whole cart of Boccone Dolce for the Junior League tea (p. 80).”
Durden’s viewpoint, working class should not exist because equality is the most important thing in human’s life. Struggle for one’s freedom is the purpose of Durden’s teaching towards the Narrator. It is the reason of his bad actions toward the richest people in the city who eat in luxurious hotels. It is also the reason why Durden teaches the Narrator on how to make soap from humans’ fat and sell them again with high prices.
“I am Joe’s Broken Heart because Tyler dumped me. Because my father dumped me. Oh, I could go on and on. …
This happens in most of the new fight club. Yes, I say. I’m best buddies with Tyler. Then, everybody all of a sudden wants to shake my hand (p. 134-135).”
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him. It is because he is Durden’s best friend that others want to shake his hand and get to know him.
At work, his boss knows and reads the rules of fight club by accident after the Narrator makes the copies of them. His boss asks him about rules, whether or not they belong to him. With his courage, the Narrator shows his anger and his boredom to his boss. He is able to express his feelings though he classifies himself as a bad person. By saying, “Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth. I used to be a nice person,” the Narrator finds himself no longer as a good person because he dares to speak using Durden’s words. On the other side, it also means that Durden, who makes him turns into a bad person, is also not a nice person. The Narrator considered his action in order to express his feeling as something bad. A nice person should not dare to speak his mind or his feelings although he is actually depressed with his work and his boss. With Durden’s words comes out of the Narrator’s mouth, the writer believes that Durden is an important role of the Narrator’s character development. The Narrator’s way of speaking is changing because Durden gives him a great influence, even toward his way of thinking which makes the Narrator is able to speak in Durden’s way.
“I knew that so I tagged him because the insomnia was on again, and I was in a mood to destroy something beautiful….
Tyler told me later he’d never seen me destroy something so completely….
What Tyler said about being the crap and the slaves of history, that’s how I felt. I wanted to destroy everything beautiful I’d never have. Burn the Amazon rain forests….I wanted to kill all the fish I couldn’t afford to eat, and smother the French beaches I’d never see (p. 122-123).”
The destructive behavior becomes one of his characteristics whenever his insomnia comes back. To destroy something beautiful is what Durden’s teaches him to do. The Narrator is never fully destroying something until that night in fight club. He lets his anger out because he hates being suffered by insomnia as much as he hates his job and his boss. The Narrator shows his agreement on Durden’s viewpoint of destruction and accepts the concept as his way to escape from his suffering life.
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must trusts Durden. The Narrator, once again, shows his trust towards Durden. He lets himself and his actions ruled by Durden by doing Durden’s order.
The Narrator is forced by Durden to do his homework for Project Mayhem, that each members should have a gun and, “…each has to bring Tyler twelve driver’s license. This would prove we each made twelve human sacrifices (p. 151).” The Narrator points his gun towards a man named Raymond K. Hessel and he takes Raymond’s driver’s license. With a gun on his head, Raymond is forced to tell the truth on what he really wants to be in his life. Raymond wants to be a veterinarian, it is his dream, but he ends up working in Korner Mart. The Narrator tells Raymond that he should stop working and that he should go back to school in order to reaches his dream as a veterinarian. However, the Narrator does not understand the meaning of his homework. His action towards Raymond is,”…what Tyler wants me to do. These are Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth. I’m Tyler’s mouth. I’m Tyler’s hands (p. 155).” However, the Narrator is able to understand the purpose of his homework which is to make other’s life meaningful, to do something and become something that he or she wants to. After doing his homework, the Narrator states that tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond’s life because he is going to pursue his happiness, back to school to become a veterinarian.
close relationship after several events. Durden saves Marla from death and they become more like lovers. They both sleep together almost every night. It makes the Narrator hates Marla even more because she ruins his perfect life with Durden. However, the Narrator starts to like Marla and he tries to make her happy when she feels sad. He tells his funny stories to Marla so that she would laugh. During the Project Mayhem activities, Durden becomes a busy man. It is difficult for the Narrator to find him, therefore, he can walk and talk with Marla at night whenever she intends to visit Durden who is unable to be found.
The Narrator is confused because Durden is suddenly missing. He starts to look for Durden which leads him to several cities. Everywhere he goes, in every city, there are people who recognize him, respect and call him ‘Sir.’ Eventually, after Durden meets him, he tells the truth on his personality.
“We’re not two separate men. Long story short, when you’re awake, you have the control, and you can call yourself anything you want, but the second you fall asleep, I take over, and you become Tyler Durden (p. 167).”
The Narrator comes to his own awareness that he and Durden occur in one body. The night he fights Durden is his illusion. Durden states that he is actually fighting everything that he hates in his life. He needs Durden to express his hates towards his own meaningless life, job, and possessions. In fact, Marla loves him and Marla herself affirms the truth that they both sleep together soon as the Narrator calls her to confirm the reality.
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the testicular cancer support groups. At that moment, the Narrator finds his true courage and he makes his decision by stating that “…fight club is mine. Project Mayhem was my idea. You can’t throw me out. I’m in control here. Go home (p. 180).” The Narrator does not leave or give up because he already knows that he is Durden. He is the creator of fight club and Project Mayhem, therefore he understands that he has the power to control Project Mayhem and the members of it. The Narrator struggles to stop the project although no one listens to him. He tries to tell the truth to two police officers, but it is useless because even the police officers are actually the members of Project Mayhem. At the moment, he totally realizes his own situation, his personality, and that he is responsible for Durden’s acts and the rest of the members of fight club and Project Mayhem.
“You just do a little job. Pull a lever. Push a button. You don’t really understand any of it.
The world is going crazy. My boss is dead. My home is gone. My job is gone. And I’m responsible for it all.
There’s nothing left.
I’m overdrawn at the bank (p. 193).”
Once he is aware of the situation and the reality of his own life and his own identity as an individual, he is able to make his own decision. He knows what he really wants for once, and he knows what he should do. The Narrator decides to meet Durden and ends the anarchism of Project Mayhem because Durden needs to be stopped.
C. Sartrean Existentialism revealed by the Narrator
consciousness as in being-for-itself. He struggles for his own consciousness once he realizes that he is trapped in his being-in-itself. His identity is unknown until the end of the story. He remains to be the being-in-itself as he identifies himself as his condominium and his possessions. The Narrator’s condominium and possessions are unconscious things. It is what Sartre calls as being-in-itself, a table is just a table with no consciousness of the world. It is who the Narrator is because he defines himself not as a conscious man, but as an unconscious man whose identity is found in material possessions. His boredom and insomnia bring him into a meaningless life. After his condominium explodes, he realizes that he needs to find something else or someone to help him understands his own being. Durden helps him to understand the world that consumerist behavior is stupid and useless for the Narrator, that there are classes in society in which one must struggle for the equality. Everyone has their power to do something that he or she wants. With Durden, the Narrator’s viewpoint changes through various processes. By experiencing pain, he understands the importance of human’s sacrificing since it brings future to the next generations. However, those experiences are not enough to make him conscious of his being-for-itself.
“The fundamental relation, then, between conscious beings and the world is derived from the power of negation. Thinking of how things are not is the indispensable preliminary to describing them, categorising them, seeing them as desirable or hateful, and therefore to trying to change them (Warnock, 1967: 22).”
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itself. Big Bob’s death brings him to his consciousness, that he is not just a body of being-in-itself. Being-for-itself appears to him as he fully realizes and understands the value of human being, that Big Bob should be alive. Big Bob is the Narrator’s best friend in testicular cancer support group. The Narrator is shocked once he is conscious of death, and it is what triggers his self-awareness into a conscious being. Being-for-itself has the power and ability to negate and annihilate something. Eventually, the being-for-itself of the Narrator is able to understand his power of negation by saying no to the anarchism of Project Mayhem. The Narrator is able to come out from his being-in-itself into being-for-itself after he is conscious on death and the danger of Project Mayhem for human beings.
his insomnia. He spends his whole life searching for a figure of father because he is disappointed from being abandoned by his father. He is unable to make his own choices. His failure is the result of his obedience to his father’s suggestions. Those factors give result to his feeling of emptiness. After he meets Durden and involves in fight club, he is forced to explore himself on his own feelings. Through the fights in fight club, he is able to express his hates, anger, and disappointment. Fighting is the first action that the Narrator does with Durden which makes the Narrator consider him as an idol. Durden pushes the Narrator to get out from his meaningless life and create a new one. He causes the explosion of the Narrator’s condominium in order to eliminate his possessions so that he is able to realize that there are other things in the world that he should think of, that owning furniture is meaningless and it will trap someone’s identity into a meaningless life.
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“We may summarise Sartre’s position at the end of Being and Nothingness as follows: First of all men are free: ‘For human reality, to be is to choose oneself.’ Choosing oneself entails assigning values to things, and this we do simply by regarding some goals as worth pursuing, others not. To evaluate something, to say that it is good or worth pursuing, is not to describe it; it is to set up as something to be aimed at (Warnock, 1967: 48).”
Freedom and responsibility are also the two major principles of Sartrean existentialism that the writer tries to analyze. In order to be free, one must have his or her own consciousness of the world. The for-itself has the ability to make choices or negate something. The Narrator has no full consciousness because he denies revealing his identity by using fake names in each support groups. This is what Sartre calls as ‘bad faith,’ a lie to oneself within the unity of a single consciousness (Sartre, 1976: 547). Bad faith is the Narrator’s way of escaping from his freedom. The Narrator limits his connection with others by not reveals his true identity. Beyond his lie, he is fully conscious that he is pretending not to be his own true self. He stands back and sees himself as an object, plays his role as hard as he can as a sick person who is haunted by death.
permits himself to act against Project Mayhem. It is through his action that his life becomes a meaningful life. To choose someone is to be oneself and by act upon it. “You just do a little job. Pull a lever. Push a button. You don’t really understand any of it.
The world is going crazy. My boss is dead. My home is gone. My job is gone. And I’m responsible for it all (p. 193).”
The Narrator comes into a reality as he meets Durden and faces the truth that they are both exist as two different personalities occur in one body. After understands his own being as a man with two different personalities, that he is also Tyler Durden, he regrets on his meeting with Durden. On the night of Big Bob’s death, the Narrator’s being-for-itself appears as he is also conscious of his being. Being-for-itself has its power to annihilate being-in-itself, and it can be seen through the Narrator’s capability of thinking and making his own decisions on Durden and his Project Mayhem.
