Fight Clubs Cultural Context - Book Report/Review Example

s Fight Club would normally write novels deeply influenced or inspired by what he/she sees, hears, and feels. They would have been seen, heard, and felt about various events, issues, happenings, cultures, and so on during their lifetimes or heard about historical things that would have happened before their lifetimes. Authors influenced by these aspects would come up with “replicas” of those aspects or variations of it in the form of fictional novels like the Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk. So, the fact is that real-life aspects can influence and orient the novel’s plot, characters, themes, and its various other facets. As a kind of ‘reversal of the process’, if one deeply analyzes any piece of literature, it can reveal the aspects which would have influenced the author to come up with that literature, particularly the cultural/historical contexts. On those lines, the analysis of Fight Club can showcase the cultural/historical contexts of the period during which the novel was conceived. Palahniuk wrote it in the mid-1990s, and it released in 1996. The film version of the novel, directed by David Fincher, was released in 1999 gaining cult status. When that cultural/historical context of the novel is compared with the current times, it can provide key perspectives. So, through deep analysis of the novel, Fight Club, its cultural/historical contexts would be gleaned thereby interpreting the novel in an all-new perspective, helping the readers to understand the novel even better, and to reflect how the contexts has changed over time. Fight Club follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist/narrator who is struggling with a stressing job and insomnia. As suggested by his doctor, he finds reprieve from it by impersonating and attending several support groups meant for terminally ill people. Then he “comes across” a mystifying character named Tyler Durden. After their initial “interactions”, “both” of them establish an underground fighting club, where they along with others indulge in no-holds barred fights and thereby violently express themselves. However, towards the end of the movie only, the protagonist understands that there is no one named Tyler Durden, and it was he who was “creating” him (Tyler) because of his mental disorder. When one focuses on what inspired Palahniuk to come up with this novel, it provides key perspectives regarding the cultural/historical contexts. Before delving into those deeper inspirations, the immediate inspiration of Palahniuk to come up with Fight Club can be focused. Palahniuk is earlier referred as the writer who wrote romantic stories (he himself has referred so). However, he transformed into a writer of a violent novel when he received blank response from his work colleagues after being injured during a camping. When Palahniuk returned to work with bruised and swollen body parts, his colleagues did not make any attempts to inquire how those injuries. This non-committal approach by the colleagues inspired Palahniuk to write Fight Club. The 1990s saw the creation of many works including novels and films that depicted masculinity and violence in new ways, with both the novel and film version of Fight Club being the prominent examples. “This work in many ways marks the culmination of the tendency during the 1990s towards depicting masculinity on film in new ways” (Lindgren 1). That is, when one deeply focuses and analyzes Fight Club, it reveals the cultural contexts of the 1990s, particularly the ways masculinity was expressed by men including male characters in fictional works. In the earlier decades, men and women had distinct guidelines on what roles to play in their homes and in the society. However, in the 1990s, there was a crisis regarding what constitutes male masculinity, and so many men of that time were dissatisfied with the state of masculinity. This crisis was reflected in the novel through the character of the unnamed protagonist. “The fact that Fight Club tried to fictionally reflect a generation of men engaged in a crisis of masculinity may reflect a real generation of men confused with this very question: What does it mean to be a man?” (Hess). Sizable parts of the novel appear to be a commentary regarding the ways men of 1990s were discontented with their masculinity. The male characters in Fight Club particularly the narrator lament the fact that they were brought up by their respective mothers and not their fathers, who abandoned or even avoided them. From the mid-1970s, there were increased rates of divorces in American families, along with increase of other social ills, all of which affected children in their growing up years. “Between 1979 and 1995: this generation entered a world where the divorce rate had doubled, had increased apathy towards politics due to sensationalized scandals, and grew up when sex and violence was prominent on television” (Hess). Because of this upbringing particularly by their single-mothers, they viewed themselves as “a generation of men raised by women,” (Palahniuk 50). So, in a way, they grew up without a male role-model who could have exposed them to various facets of masculinity and importantly could have shaped their masculinity. “Men were, and are now left with both contradicting and unclear models for how to live their lives, a concept consistently tackled throughout Fight Club” (Hess). So, when one focuses on Fight Club deeply, it is obvious that it reflects the cultural context that certain men suffered from issues with their masculinity. When the men struggled in expressing their masculinity without apt role-models, they tried to express themselves through violence. That is, when one analyzes Fight Club deeply, the cultural context of how violence was used by men to showcase their masculinity was visible. Violence was seen as a key factor for the males at the time to stamp their masculinity on the society, with Fight Club strongly demonstrating it (Lindgren). For example, it was during that time that ultimate fighting clubs (on lines of the fight clubs featured in the novel) emerged throughout America as an option for the men to express their masculinity in an organized manner. With the people ignoring boxing from early 1990s because of the corruption that pervaded the sport, ultimate fighting became the prominent combative sport for the men. It helped them to reflect and even prove their physical dominance and thereby their masculinity. As the fighting format in ultimate fighting was similar to the basement tussles in Fight Club, the cultural context of featuring no-holds barred, aggressive fights in the novel becomes evident. On those lines, characters in the novel wanted to indulge in those fights to express their masculinity and in the process revoke their senses and feel charged up. “By reworking the myth of regeneration through violence, Fight Club emerges as a contestation of the lengths that men will go to in order to truly feel alive in a society that has dulled their senses” (“Postmodernism and Violence”). Although it is clear that focusing directly on the novel exhibits the cultural contexts particularly combative fighting, when one viewed from another perspective it appears that ultimate fighting of 1990s could have inspired Palahniuk to incorporate fighting in his novel. “It seems like this idea could have been the basis for Palahniuk’s novel, as he created a system to help men “find themselves” in basements or street corners, beating each other to a pulp in order to feel alive” (Hess). However, when one focuses purely on the novel, it is evident that featuring of violent fights as a key component reflects the cultural context of the period during which the novel was set thereby enabling the readers to interpret and understand the novel from newer perspectives. The above-discussed contexts of violence changed quite quickly from the time of novel’s release. That is, when the movie version of the novel was released in 1999, violence had different meanings. The film was originally slated to release in July 1999. However, the shooting massacre at the Columbine High School in Colorado postponed this violence-filled film to October 1999. When the massacre happened in the school, violence became a heavily discussed topic in various circles. So, from the times when violence in the form of organized fighting was considered as an option to express masculinity, after the bloodbath at Colorado, it was viewed negatively. In addition, the 9/11 Twin Tower bombings also influenced and reoriented cultural contexts surrounding the novel and the film. This is because in the post 9/11 period, many studios hesitated and even delayed release of action-packed violent films with sensitive political themes or scenes. Even in the case of Fight Club, if it is assume to be released after 2001, studio would have been skeptical to release it considering the fact that in the end, the protagonist blows a whole skyline full of skyscrapers (Brickmeyer). The other key current cultural context of the novel and the movie is that it led to the establishment of a number of fight clubs throughout America. “Although Palahniuk claimed there were indeed some fight clubs established prior to his novel, the fact that fight clubs became more prevalent after the book and film were released reflects a culture where young men would indeed participate in fight clubs” (Hess). These fight clubs became a “cool” enough idea for males particularly boys to fight with each other in an aggressive manner in an organized setting. In addition, these fight clubs’ role in expressing one’s masculinity appear to be relevant to contemporary cultural context as well. This is because Fight Club’s exploration of complex topics like masculinity does not have an expiration date thereby making it relevant to the current times. So, based on the above-analysis of Fight Club’s cultural context during the 1990s and in the current times, it is possible to state that Fight Club was written at the right time and it reflected the cultural context optimally. Works Cited Brickmeyer, Mimi. “Post-9/11 Hollywood: The Films they dare not make Today.” Hollywood Investigator, 22 Jan 2003. Web 25 Oct 2014. Hess, Anthony. “Fight Club: Palahniuk’s Societal Emasculation of the Everyman.” The Subaltern, 27 April 2012. Web. 25 Oct 2014. Lindgren, Simon. “A Copy, of a Copy, of a Copy? Exploring Masculinity Under Transformation in Fight Club.” Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies 19 (2011): 1-23. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Random House, 2011. Print. “Postmodernism and Violence.” University of Virginia, n. d. Web. 25 Oct 2014. Read More