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Fight Club Analysis Essay

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Psychoanalyzing Fight Club When it comes to Freudian psychoanalysis, nothing is ever what it seems. The aim of psychoanalytic criticism is to decode symbolism and discover the covert meanings in a work of literature. Sigmund Freud, a neuropsychiatrist from Austria, first proposed the ideas central to psychoanalytic criticism in the early twentieth century. Freudian theory focuses on concepts which are well-known and popularized today, such as the Oedipus complex, and introduces the distinction between the conscious and the unconscious. It also categorizes the mind into three distinct areas: the childlike id, the mature superego, and the ego which strives to keep the other two balanced. In literary criticism, psychoanalysis aims to …show more content…

He moves into the secluded, run down house that Tyler has lived in for a few weeks prior. Here, it is apparent that the personality of Tyler has existed long before the Narrator was aware. The novel reveals that Tyler instigates the apartment explosion, which implies that the Narrator blows up his own residence. He needs a symbol of change, an extreme event that signifies a break from his old life and an initiation into his new life. By destroying everything he owns, he is able to release himself from his material obsession and begin a new life of freedom. He strives for a sense of identity and Tyler is able to make that possible. Sigmund Freud proposes the concepts of the conscious and the unconscious, the overt and covert aspects of a person's mind, respectively. These are represented in Fight Club through the characters of the Narrator and Tyler. The Narrator, the conscious mind, is generally unhappy with his life; he is a slave to the rules of society and allows the world, including his boss and his possessions, to own him. He is lost in a world of materialism, and by building up a collection of nice things, hes discovers that “the things you used to own, now they own you” (Palahniuk 44). Tyler, on the other hand, is everything the Narrator is not and wishes that he could be. He is fearless, street-smart, and in control; he is a born leader and visionary. The Narrator's dissatisfaction with his life causes

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