Tommy Lee
Professor Mill
EngWr 300
09 March 2018
Three Phases of Chaos
Anarchy, a gun, and an explosion! These words are normally used to represent the darker side and the more violence side civilization, the same can be said when apply to people. They can become a manifestation of that person’s inner turmoil and chaos. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club use these word to further progress and symbolize the inner chaos of the narrator’s mind. Chuck Palahniuk, instead of using those words to to tell the narrator’s conflict, he chose to personified those words and use them to symbolize the narrator’s turmoil. He uses anarchy to represent Marla, a gun to represent Tyler, and an explosion to represent the narrator. All three of them represent a darker society and it chaos, just like how all these characters play a part in affecting the narrator's life while progressing with the story. While guns, anarchy, and explosions normally represent destruction in today’s society, the symbols often represent progression in Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club.
Palahniuk uses Marla to present anarchy to show the nihilistic side of society. Anarchy believe in a stateless society free from government’s rules and laws. In the novel, the narrator is constantly lying to himself and it is Marla that forces him to confront himself. Just like how in a society you are constantly tied down by governance, laws, and your place on the society’s hierarchy, but anarchy challenge all of that, in an anarchist society, you are free from hierarchy, free from laws, and free from something you are not.For example, In the novel, the narrator couldn’t sleep so he started going to a bunch of support groups to help cry himself to sleep, it is there that he met Marla. Since meeting Marla, the narrator start having problem crying, because "Marla's lie reflects my lie, and all I can see are lies" (Palahniuk 23). This shows his inner turmoil and he resort to lying in order to gain support in the support group, but Marla challenge all of that, she forces him to feel guilty, unable to feel good about his lies anymore. Eventually, Marla and Tyler met and they started dating, we can then see the narrator’s hidden desire for Marla, his secret desire for her can be symbolic of his desire to break away from his everyday consumerism lifestyle and embrace a more free and chaotic lifestyle, a more anarchist lifestyle. His desire can be proven in his split personality, Tyler Durden, who is everything that he wishes to be. Tyler is more capable and free, while the narrator is not. Marla represent the narrator’s secret desire and his inner anarchist, and Tyler is the manifestation of that. Only through Tyler did the narrator truly interact with Marla, and only when he first met Marla did Tyler manifested. Figuratively, only through his encounter and desire for anarchy did his deep and darker self emerge. Without Marla, the narrator would be nothing more than a corporate drone, without Marla confront...
