Themes Of Masculinity In American Psycho And Fight Club

Both American Psycho (1991) and Fight Club (1996) have prominent themes of masculine identity and its presentation in modern society. In this essay, I will compare how Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk explore the concepts and themes of masculinity through their use of language, structure, and portrayal of the protagonists. Through the use of unreliable narration, progressive increase in violence, the stigmas of mental health, anti-capitalist themes, and references to existential philosophy, both novels highlight the issues with masculinity in a consumerist society. Both novels were written in the 1990s and explore masculine identity through this lens; both Ellis and Palahniuk are gay men, who would have experienced masculinity differently

This can be seen almost immediately in fight club, when, in chapter 2, the narrator says “I never give my real name at support groups” this is in reference to the support groups that he attends in order to combat his insomnia, support groups in which he pretends he has the illness and struggles that the others have. The use of the words ‘real’ and ‘name’ together are impactful in setting up the further themes of the novel; this is because our names are our primary identities, they are how people identify us and how they refer to us; the narrator of Fight Club is never given a name, he is lacking his primary identity and this affects how he relates to other and himself, only ever using a guise of identity, fake names at support groups. The only aspect of the narrator given a name, an identity, is his alter ego: Tyler Durden. Tyler is an analogy for toxic masculinity and the ‘freedom’ afforded to people by American capitalism. It is this Lack of identity that leads to the narrator’s subconscious creation of his alter ego, this is supported by the essay ‘The Search for Identity: A New Critical Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club’ when it says “In order to cope with his namelessness, the narrator manifests everything he wants to be in the character of Tyler Durden. Tyler is the polar opposite of the narrator. With regards to image, he is characterized as being strong, masculine, and forthright.” (Tarasenko et al. The Search for Identity: A New Critical Analysis of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club) American psycho addresses this lack of identity in similar ways, Ellis often has characters mistaking other characters for one another and calling them different names, this happens to the protagonist Patrick Bateman too, when even his lawyer mistakes him for another person, in the chapter named ‘New Club’, in this