Fight Club Research Paper
Tyler’s Kiss in Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club examines and exposes the violent potential of frustrated men who must survive in a consumer culture that does not differentiate between men and women. Like women, men in Fight Club are expected to express themselves through the material goods they labor to buy. While both the book and the film versions are drenched with violence; ironically, it is a kiss that emerges as the symbol that justifies that violence. For the narrator, Tyler, and all the space monkeys, the lye-burned kiss of death on the back of the hand symbolizes the recipient’s acceptance of his own mortality and his completion of a rite of passage. Both in the book and the film, Tyler explains to the narrator that soap,
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After Jack has received the mark, fight club ceases to be an end in and of itself. It is no longer enough to get together with a group of other socially dissatisfied men and to take turns beating each other. The physical and emotional outlets that such violence provides is without purpose or direction. Before Tyler’s kiss, there is fight club, but after Tyler’s kiss, there is project mayhem, and the “fifth rule of Project Mayhem is you have to trust Tyler” (Palahniuk 125). Paradoxically, receiving Tyler’s kiss means liberation from the fear of death, but it also implies unquestioning loyalty and submission to Tyler. In Terry Lee’s article, “Virtual Violence in Fight Club: This Is What Transformation of Masculine Ego Feels Like,” he explains that part of the reason why Fight Club has an almost cult-like following is because it functions as a “narcissistic alliance” to its viewers. Lee writes, “One wants to see it because, unconsciously, one know he or she needs something that this particular story offers” (422). This “narcissistic alliance” for repeated readers and viewers of the book and film may also very well be applied to those who receive Tyler’s kiss. Those recipients are able to look at the backs of the hands at any time and be reminder of the symbolism of their scars. Furthermore, keep in mind that the first person to receive Tyler’s kiss is Jack, who in reality is actually
After Jack has received the mark, fight club ceases to be an end in and of itself. It is no longer enough to get together with a group of other socially dissatisfied men and to take turns beating each other. The physical and emotional outlets that such violence provides is without purpose or direction. Before Tyler’s kiss, there is fight club, but after Tyler’s kiss, there is project mayhem, and the “fifth rule of Project Mayhem is you have to trust Tyler” (Palahniuk 125). Paradoxically, receiving Tyler’s kiss means liberation from the fear of death, but it also implies unquestioning loyalty and submission to Tyler. In Terry Lee’s article, “Virtual Violence in Fight Club: This Is What Transformation of Masculine Ego Feels Like,” he explains that part of the reason why Fight Club has an almost cult-like following is because it functions as a “narcissistic alliance” to its viewers. Lee writes, “One wants to see it because, unconsciously, one know he or she needs something that this particular story offers” (422). This “narcissistic alliance” for repeated readers and viewers of the book and film may also very well be applied to those who receive Tyler’s kiss. Those recipients are able to look at the backs of the hands at any time and be reminder of the symbolism of their scars. Furthermore, keep in mind that the first person to receive Tyler’s kiss is Jack, who in reality is actually