This section contains 1,329 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
The Pursuit of Masculine Identity in "Fight Club"
Summary: In the novel "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk, the characters engage in deviant behavior as a rebellion against materialistic society and to "reclaim" their masculinity in a society that often demeans it.
What defines a man today? One may say he is a man when he reaches the magic age of eighteen. One may say he is a man when he has a job, and can support himself. Maybe one becomes a man when he has a wife and children and he is officially "the man of the house." Now stop. Rewind to fifty, one-hundred, even thousands of years ago; back when a man was defined by different standards. A man was defined by how many battles he won, wars he fought, hardships he overcame. One of the basic questions posed in Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, is why men have allowed society to rob them of their free will, their internal experiences, and symbolically castrate them, robbing them of the fullness of their manhood. The men of Fight Club lack a trial by fire, a rite of passage, a...
This section contains 1,329 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |