User:Averyfancher003/Fight Club (novel)

While there are many speculations on the various themes in Fight Club, there is no arguing that one of the major themes within Fight Club is of revolution requiring violence. For Burgess, it is evident in how bodies are described in the novel. The fight club “allows men to fiercely embody revolution and desire and rejuvenate utopia”, experiencing sensations through their own aging, injured bodies. In fight club, physical violence is consensual, and the self is liberated through immediate “violence and pain”. Characters do not have to wait for a possibility of a utopia, when they can fight for a utopia in the moment. Burgess argues that the violence of fight club is necessary for revolution, while Project Mayhem is malicious violence that does not liberate anybody. On the other hand, Barker believes that the fight club is just as malicious as Project Mayhem, proclaiming that both perpetuate fascist systems.

Mental Illness
One of the multiple motifs within the novel is mental illness. David McCracken discusses in his article “Disability Studies Simulacra in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club(s)” about how within the context of Fight Club, there is a “"spiritual depression" [that] is congruent with spiritual disability, a malaise that impairs men and women from feeling an inner peace, a mystical transcendence, a euphoric sense of connection with a greater entity.” McCracken points out the importance of the support group chapters as it depicts victims overcoming biological and/or psychological diseases. McCracken claims that Fight Club can be seen as a ‘recovery text’, as “Fight Club may indeed be considered a story about the transition from spiritual deficiency, or spiritual bankruptcy as it is termed in a discussion of the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous (21), to spiritual awakening and consequently spiritual empowerment--the move from disability (spiritual depression) to ability (spiritual vitality).” In the support group chapters, Palahniuk depicts, for the most part, the traditional protocols within existing recovery communities, "the reflection of a profound reality." McCracken continues to highlight how Palahniuk juxtaposes the support group with fight club, and this is utilized to continue to show the mental illness parallels between the characters participating within the club. A comparison that is seen between the two groups, that actually shows their similarity more than anything, is anonymity. The practice of remaining anonymous is to ensure that everyone is equal, “at least in terms of identifiable status designations, and along the lines of disablism/ableism, legislated mediocracy rules.”