Masculinity and Violence in Fight Club and Drowning Tucson - Essay Example

?Masculinity and Violence in Fight Club and Drowning Tucson The mechanic says in Fight Club, “If you are male and you are Christian and living in America, your father is your model for God. And if you never know your father, if your father bails out or dies or is never seen at home, what do you believe about God?” (Palahniuk 141). Admittedly, the novel Fight Club depicts the dissatisfaction felt by men with the state of masculinity and the way they use violence in an effort to come out of that depressive state of mind. In fact, a close reading of the book reveals that the writer tries to convey the message that masculinity needs freedom, in fact a lot of it. However, when “a generation of men” is raised by women, there is no “male example” (Palahniuk 50) to follow and males only have that urge for liberalization and the need to ascertain their masculinity. One can see that the Tyler in Fight Club is the real macho man who tries to struggle away from the feminized Narrator, or, in other words, Tyler is the real male self of the Narrator. In fact, what Palahniuk points out and what the reader feels is that real masculinity involves surplus aggressiveness and sexual and emotional desires. In the real society, most males are forced to employ surplus repression to look civilized. Thus, there are institutions of male bonding which offer them a way to unleash this hidden aggression in the safest possible way. They engage in fist fight in such institutions and enjoy a sense of power. In the novel, the Narrator is a person who has lost his sense of manhood. He does not have a name, lives alone, and is unable to make healthy relations with others. This extreme pain and alienation makes the real man in him struggle away and become Tyler who wants to become the leader of the “space monkeys” (Palahniuk 132). However, what happens in the novel as it reaches the second half shows that according to Palahniuk, sexual suppression is one of the important factors that lead to male conflicts (Palahniuk 132). In the beginning, the Narrator is in full appreciation of the violence and chaos envisioned by Tyler. However, as the novel progresses, the Narrator becomes more in terms with Marla, whom he considered earlier as the reason behind all the chaos. The more comfortable the Narrator becomes with Marla, the more detached he gets with the destructive plans made by Tyler. Finally, by the time he admits he likes her, the Narrator is in total contradiction with Tyler, and eliminates him (Palahniuk 15). However, the men who are still isolated continue demanding the return of the anarchic Tyler. At least the Narrator realizes Marla is not the reason behind anarchy. Thus, one can see that there are various factors Palahniuk tries to point out as the reasons behind violence. The first one is the lack of role models of maleness for the new generation which is often brought up in a feminized society. The feminist era took away everything that is good as the virtues of femaleness and men of the post-feminist period were left with nothing more than mere ambiguity regarding masculinity and parenting (Palahniuk 141). The second important factor is the ‘homophobia’ developed by men in a patriarchal society. It is admitted facts that many hate crimes occur as a result of doubts over sexual orientation. In Fight Club, the Narrator gives Angel Face a severe beating to see that his beauty is reduced because the Narrator hates the favoritism Tayler shows towards him. (Palahniuk 96) Evidently, males have their own ways of measuring masculinity. To illustrate, in Fight Club, it is seen that the ability to conquer a woman is an important aspect of deciding ones maleness. As a result, there is a kind of rift between males that arises out of this competition to win women, and in the novel, there is a great degree of tension between Tayler and the Narrator in this regard. (Palahniuk 113) Thus, it becomes evident that men’s lives are structured around aggressiveness and power relations. The highly phallic notion of masculinity that exists in the patriarchic society makes them look for more power. To illustrate, the Narrator laments in Fight Club, “Tyler is capable and free, and I am not” (Palahniuk 174). This difference between the real and the virtual makes them express the frustration in the form of violence. In other words, men develop extreme isolation as they suppress their own feelings. This suppression makes males look for safe ways to unleash the pent up tension. Vey similar is the work Drowning Tucson by Aaron Michael Morales. The work consists of a number of short stories which all portray lives in dangerous and unpredictable Tucson of 1980s, which are haunted by poverty, inequality, machismo and human desires. The work becomes very similar to Fight Club for both celebrate masculinity and violence. In Drowning Tucson too, excessive levels of machismo and its exhibition through violence are depicted vividly. Thus, both the works show how maleness is easily linked to violence when suitable situations arise. In the latter work also, one can see that machismo tends to view females as sex objects and it feels no guilt in ravishing femaleness. A perfect example is “Rainbow”, the prostitute. She is forced to live in the drainage tunnels due to circumstances, and the Latin Kings gang feels no mercy in subjecting her to extreme brutality (Morales 156). Admittedly, in this case too, the desire to conquer women often comes out in the form of violence and conflict as is the case in Fight Club. In a similar story “Kindness”, homophobia takes the life of a teenager (Morales 45), very similar to the attack on Angel Face by the Narrator to make him less beautiful. Thus, homophobia also appears as the second main reason in both the works. Thus, in total, what both the works together bring out is the painful realization that humans can be despicable creatures. Also, the works reveal the fact that while suitable situations make some horrific, some are forced to resort to violence due to adverse situations. In addition, both the works aim to prove that violence is highly linked to masculinity as promoted by the present day patriarchic society. For example, the Narrator in Fight Club reveals, “I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny 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” (Palahniuk 174). To wind up the discussion, it can be said that both the works link violence to masculinity. According to both the authors, masculinity involves a lot of aggression as the desires of males are not often acceptable in the real present day society. The result is extreme suppression of such feelings which in turn results in the expression of such feelings in male-only avenues like fight clubs. In Fight Club, the males who want to unleash the pent up tension gather and engage in various acts of violence until their machismo is satisfied. In Drowning Tucson, most of the male characters resort to violence but due to slightly different reasons. There is Felipe Nunez who is killed by his siblings as a gang initiation turns sour (Morales 23). Similarly, there is Jaime who wants to revenge the killing of his boyfriend by some homophobic (Morales 41), and the Latin Kings gang which finds no problem in torturing hapless Rainbow (Morales 143). Ironically, there is Peanut, a gang member who always enjoyed females as sex objects but still wants to have a better future for his own little sister (Morales 89). In total, one point becomes crystal clear from both the works; maleness is highly prone to resort to violence and this despicable human nature can come out due to various reasons. In Fight Club, the various situations and emotions which lead to masculinity-linked violence are depicted through a single character- the Narrator- and his detached self Tayler. The work more closely follows the ambiguity faced by the modern day man in deciding what is exactly masculine and in suppressing the primordial male urges of aggressiveness and the lust for power. However, such elements go less noticed in Drowning Tucson because of the presence of various female characters. Still, a close observation of the male characters in this work again proves that in both the works, masculinity uses violence as a way to achieve its ends which are often barbaric. Works Cited Morales, Aaron Michael. Drowning Tucson. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2011. Print. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Random House, 2011. Print. Read More