Fight Club

Fight Club{{ref|lowercase}} (1996) is the first published novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The plot is based around an unnamed protagonist who struggles with his growing discomfort with consumerism and changes in the state of masculinity in American culture. In an attempt to overcome this, he creates an underground boxing club as a new form of therapy. The novel was made into a movie of the same name in 1999 by director David Fincher, which resulted in the story becoming a pop culture phenomenon. A reissued version of the novel was published in 2004 that begins with an introduction by the author which talks about the conception and popularity of both the novel and the movie.

Characters

• The narrator - The nameless protagonist (though near the end of the novel he shows Marla his driver's license with his real name). He starts the story suffering from insomnia, and starts going to support groups for terminally ill people (he fakes that he is dying of their diseases) to help him sleep at night (through crying at them). He eventually quits going to them after he becomes part of fight club. He co-founds fight club along with Tyler Durden as a method of dealing with his insomnia and annoyance with consumer culture. His self-loathing, mental instability, and violent behavior make him a good example of an antihero. Some fans of the film refer to the narrator as "Jack", which is in reference to a scene in which he reads stories written from the perspective of a man's organs (e.g. "Jack's medulla oblongata"); further, a number of props from the film (such as a paycheck for the narrator) have the name "Jack Moore" on them, indicating that members of the film's crew also thought the narrator's name was Jack. The name "Jack" was "Joe" in the novel, which was changed in the film to avoid conflicts with Reader's Digest over the use of the name (the articles read by the narrator were featured in the magazine). The narrator of Fight Club set a precedent for the protagonists of later novels by Palahniuk, especially in the case of male protagonists, as they often shared his anti-heroic and transgressive behavior.
• Tyler Durden - A primitivist/ nihilist with a strong hatred for consumer culture. Tyler works night jobs just to cause problems for the companies; he also does beach art to find "perfection". He is the co-founder of fight club (it was his idea to have the fight that led to it). He later launches Project Mayhem, from which he and the members make various attacks on consumerism. The unhinged but magnetic Tyler could also be considered an antihero (especially since he and the narrator are technically the same person), although he becomes the antagonist of the novel later in the story.
• Marla Singer - A woman that the narrator meets during a support group. Marla causes the narrator to lose interest in the groups when he realizes that she is faking her problems just like he is. After he leaves the groups, he meets her again when she meets Tyler and becomes his lover. In later novels by Palahniuk in which the protagonist is male, a female character similar to Marla has also appeared.
• Robert "Big Bob" Paulson - A man that the narrator meets at a support group for testicular cancer. A former bodybuilder, Bob lost his testicles to cancer possibly caused by the steroids he used to bulk up his muscles, and had to undergo testosterone injections; this resulted in his body increasing its estrogen, causing him to grow large breasts and develop a softer voice. The narrator befriends Bob and, after leaving the groups, meets him again in fight club. Bob's death later in the story while carrying out an assignment for Project Mayhem causes the narrator to turn against Tyler.