James Harris
2/9/14
ENG112
“The Fight Club” displayed post-modernism throughout of the novel, from alter egos to revolutionary groups, this novel gives the reader extreme methods to rethink the issues of post-modernism. Some of the issues addressed in the book were the constant need of material items for pleasure to achieve happiness and a need to escape the life post-modernism has created by any means necessary. During the beginning of the novel, the narrator describes his room after it was completely destroyed by and explosion. He then explains how he spend most of his life trying to get the best of the best quality furniture and be satisfied with that than has to keep repurchasing furniture of even higher quality. At the end of this chapter, he then realizes that nothing he wants satisfied him (44-45).The society in this country is like that as well. The culture today want to buy the newest and latest item there is in order to achieve what they considered to be a form of happiness but it turns out to be nothing more than a false contentment or a temporary one. Many people have gotten so attached to their personal possessions in fact, that their material items have become who they are, their identity. Take this example; a professional track runner might have track shoes, sweats and a variety of stopwatches while a computer designer might have computers and other electronic items at his disposal. Even the narrator explained that all of his item described who he was. When the police accused him of causing the explosion in his own apartment, the narrator talks to himself about how the stuff in his house was “him” and he could never destroy himself. (111)This part in the novel shows that in the post –modern society, we can be so attached to our material items that we considered them a part of our essence and would be lost without them. When we do grow bored of our material items as well as our own life, we try to find an escape out of that life or the thing that is cause us so much grief. When we are unsatisfied with our lives or our material items have stopped giving us that joy we desire, we try to change our lives or try to escape the reality that is causing us unhappiness through other methods such as drug addiction, virtual world by methods of watching T.V or, in the case of the novel, an alter ego to eliminate all of our troubles. In the novel, the narrator, unconsciously created an alter ego, named Tyler to assist in his escape from his reality. In chapter twenty six, the narrator discovered that he killed his boss as Tyler because he (the narrator) wanted a way out of his jobs. In his own words he said “when I wanted out of my job, I was giving him permission. Be my guest. Kill my boss” (185). If not by spilt personalities, society find ways to escape their reality. These lengths allow them to achieve a temporary escape from reality with the drugs. In the virtual method s of escape, they should keep avoiding reality by continuously watching T.V for hours. People who are unsatisfied with their life might try to receive a form of happiness by constantly buying the hottest and newest most up-to-date material item. They even create an identity for themselves out of their material items and when their material are gone, they feel as though they have lost a part of themselves. If not even the latest material items can provide them happiness, they will try to escape reality by means to plug the hole of emptiness and worthlessness they feel I their lives.
James Harris 