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Marxism Fight Club

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The novel Fight Club not only explores the issues of human psyche, but also provides the twinge problems of society in the 20th century. The main character in the Fight Club is a man who suffers a lot of struggles in his life, such as lacking of a father figure, having a boring job, ineffective interaction with others and having no hope to pursuit. These struggles make the narrator suffer insomnia and unconsciously create an alternate life. Tyler, the alternate life, is used to express the narrator’s entirely unconscious desires and assert his identity. Chuck Palahniuk uses Marxist criticism to represent the class struggles and consumerism which the narrator is suffering. And the well-known concepts of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis …show more content…

The upper class not just wants to ensure their money worth every single penny by exploiting lower class as much as they want, but also want to show up their power, the power of rulers. While the proletariats are the victims of abuse and oppression by the bourgeoisies, so that the proletariats see themselves as “guerrilla terrorists to strike back to free themselves and reform the society. The huge gap between bourgeoisies and proletariats leads to a revolution as Marx said “the proletariats will one day spontaneously develop the class consciousness needed to rise up in violent revolution against their oppressors and create a classless society” (51). Tyler, the creator of Fight Club, leads the revolution by gathering proletariats into a basement and lets them fight each other. “Each guy is trained to do once simple task perfectly” (130). Their fighting is not for winning, it is for giving proletariats courage by letting them image their opponent are bourgeoisies and vent all their hatred on the opponent. The next step of Tyler is Project Mayhem which is used to destroy credit building company to free proletariats. “We’re going to break up civilization so we can make something better out of the world” …show more content…

When the Narrator observes the outside world are going crazy because of consumerism, he becomes slaves of IKEA furniture; and also tries to get himself a good job and a nice condo. All of the things which the Narrator has done are the standards of a good citizen requirement. However Tyler, the id which is created by Jack, represents for the hidden desires of the Narrator. “anything arising from within (apart form feelings) that seeks to become conscious must try to transform it into external perceptions” (The Ego and the Id, 21). Tyler is a rebel which is driven out from the narrator’s expression by insomnia. Tyler creates Fight Club and Project Mayhem to rebel against social rules which he has to follow, to destroy consumerism which is making him become the slave of his own and to do what he desires to do such as having sexual relationship with Marla. The narrator uses Tyler to guide him overcome the fear of breaking rules. However, as the novel progresses, the id becomes stronger and has more influence on the narrator. At this time, the super ego appears to balance between the ego and the id. The narrator tries to stop Project Mayhem and restrain his desires with Marla when checking for her breast

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