Punches Determine your Masculinity

In Fight Club, although we don’t know the name of the author we seem to know everything else about him. At this point we know that the narrator has an alter ego that he has developed throughout his life. There is no evidence as to why he creates this alter ego but it is obvious that this other person is a sadistic version of the narrator. Fight club is the narrators struggle to gain masculinity. This lack of masculinity comes from his father neglecting to take care of him as he grew up.

Instead of defining himself as a man he defined himself through the things that he owned. When he loses his apartment he says that he lost himself he lost all of his belonging s and without them he would not be himself because they are him. “You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.” (Palahniuk 44). In this quote not only is he saying that he misses the things that he owns but he has to learn to be content without them. At this point his apartment has been blown to pieces and he turns to Tyler for a way out. On page 46, is when we really learn that the narrator is an irrational person and he looks to Tyler for the answers to everything. He is obsessed with what Tyler can do for him. He says, “Deliver me Tyler form being perfect and complete” He now makes it obvious that what he has or have had is no longer good enough for him. He is looking for a way out and Tyler will deliver it.

The lack of a father figure affects him to the extent that he befriends the nihilistic Tyler Durden. Tyler helps him to gain the masculinity that he lacks in his life. Tyler helps him to gain confidence and self esteem. After a few nights in Fight Club he is a different person, “Who guys are in fight club is not who they are in the real world.” (page 49) When he is fighting in Fight Club he believes he is not himself

The question is does being a man really constitute whether or not you can throw a punch? The narrator also seems to struggle with this question. This is the reason why he creates an alter ego. Due to the fact that he lacks a father figure he feels that he did not grow up to be the perfect man.