Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk

A theme is a specific reason that something is happening in a book or a movie. A theme is also in real life. A theme in real life could be you doing something for a specific reason over and over again. The two classic stories of Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey may at first seem very different. One is Ancient Greek and the other is the late 1500’s. One of these stories is more of a hero’s journey while one is more of a love story between star crossed lovers. The themes between The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet are very similar. The three themes are Loyalty, Love, and Strength. The first theme that is similar between these two books is Loyalty.

The definition of masculinity; Is the fact of being a man or having qualities considered typical of a man.

The traditional definition of masculinity include such qualities as independence, pride, resiliency, self control and physical strength. It can be change into qualities such as competitiveness, toughness, aggressiveness and power. For example, he says that the boy who doesn’t show these qualities and might be called a “fag”. The boy is most likely becoming aware of having feminine qualities.

Three main terms will be used in this essay and require a definition as to avoid confusion. Masculinity is defined by Merriam-Webster as,

Theme in literary works is used to show the reader an underlying message and moral. William Shakespeare uses theme in an impactful way. Julius Caesar written by William shakespeare has three dominant themes of manipulation, bloodshed brings about bloodshed, and power corrupts.

Theme is the main idea of a text that we come up with after reading a fictional story. For example, the story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by author Rudyard Kipling, is a story with the main idea or theme that “evil is punished while good is rewarded”. In addition, I am certain that this is the theme because Nagaina, the antagonist, and the other cobras were evil and they got killed which proves “evil is punished” while Rikki-Tikki, the protagonist, was good and he was “rewarded” by winning all of his battles with the cobras. In contrast, some people might say that the theme “accepting challenges brings good results” is right but both Rikki-Tikki, a mongoose, and the cobras “accepted their challenges” when only Rikki got “positive results” by winning all his battles. The cobras died which is how they got a “negative result”. Proving that this can’t be the complete theme.

The theme of a story is the moral or lesson displayed in the story. The theme of both the short story Ransom Of Red Chief and the movie Home Alone is that looks can be deceiving. In Ransom of Red Chief two con men try to kidnap a boy and hold him for ransom money, but the boy tortures the con men. In Ransom of Red Chief it stated “ I jumped up to see what the matter was. Red Chief was sitting on Bill’s chest, with one hand wrapped around Bill’s hair. In the other he had a sharp knife we used for slicing bacon. He was trying really hard and with great realism to scalp Bill.”(O’Henry 65) This shows how the con men thought Red Chief was a harmless little boy but he ended up torturing Bill and Sam. In Home Alone Kevin’s family go on vacation and leave him at home. Kevin learns to live on his own, meanwhile two criminals are planning to rob his home. Kevin outsmarts the criminals and sets traps that they fall into. In a scene in Home Alone the two criminals that are robbing Kevin’s house are surprised when he set traps for them. This shows how the theme related to the story by Harry and Marv thought Kevin was a harmless kid when in actuality he was really smart.

Masculinity is defined as “having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength and boldness.” (Dictionary) In current society gender roles and gender equality is changing. The Huffington Post asked a group of men what their version of masculinity is or what they wish that it was. To the men that were asked what masculinity was they described it as “Masculinity is what it means to be a man -- which I think is not such a simple thing.

His mind was cuffed onto the desperation of consumerism. A man in David Fincher 's film, Fight Club, has fallen into the world of materials and perfection. As he became a slave of common franchises around him, the narrator strived to get it all. However, no matter how many things he bought, never had he achieved the definition of satisfaction. People rely on profit and possessions to be happy, but does it really help? Fight Club carries philosophical messages about money and materialism to the capitalist society in order to wake up and realize that those objects are not the key to happiness.

Similar to the structure of gender perspectives the concept of masculinity within today's society continues to undergo modification, reform and development. Accordingly, it would seem that the male species attains his niche in the world and society often by finding a sense of identity within his masculinity. The dilemma remains that masculinity is so blurry that many boys subsist in a vulnerable and disorientated status. Boys without fathers, and limited male teachers feel the desire to seek identity and a place in society as male however are faced with hardship when attempting to do so. Due to this it is difficult to define masculinity, the Macquarie dictionary defines masculinity as "having manlike qualities; strong; manly; the masculine gender" (1994:594).

The film “Fight Club” is about a man played by Edward Norton who lives a miserable and

The description of masculinity have always expresses having qualities or appearance of traditionally attitude or physical image associated with men, especially strength and aggressiveness, “Common features of traditional masculinity (a concept similar to hegemonic masculinity) include avoidance of femininity, dominance, importance of sex, restrictive emotionality (suppressing the expression of emotions), negativity toward sexual minorities, and self-reliance”(Scharrer & Blackburn) masculinity have always been seen as the lack of feelings, and negative use of strength, dominance, and avoidance of correlation with femininity.

David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club is centered around a white-collar unnamed narrator who seeks emotional comfort and relief for his insomnia by going to support groups for diseases he does not have. The narrator is an average man- so average that he is in fact never given a name. He seeks to fill his empty, hollow life with material goods and possessions. He finds his life to be so meaningless that one day while flying on a plane he wishes for the plane to crash. This is when Tyler Durden appears. Tyler Durden is everything the narrator wishes to be. He is impulsive, confident, and embodies sex appeal. Tyler and the Narrator become friends and soon form a “fight club,” where all men can assert their masculinity through fighting. Soon the club spirals out of control into an anarchist group called Project Mayhem that seeks to wreak havoc on the world by

They can be defined as the forms of practice by which a person being male or female engages in their situations. ‘Masculinity does not simply equate with men. Women can practice masculinity, though there is always a certain tension about their doing so. And masculinities can be defined in cultural spaces without the presence of reproductive bodies, though some link with reproductive bodies is always implied’ (Connell. R 2014:6). Raewyn Connell best describes the concept of masculinity in her many articles regarding the topic. One of her most well-known concepts is hegemonic masculinity and how she describes that there is an incorrect popular belief that masculinity is set in stone, created and permanent by your genes or by

According to the Oxford dictionary, masculinity is defined as possession of the qualities traditionally associated with men: "handsome, muscled, and driven, he 's a prime example of masculinity" synonyms: virility, manliness, maleness, machismo, vigor, strength, muscularity, ruggedness, robustness, testosterone. Today masculinity encompasses more synonyms perhaps but not too many. Boys are still teased for letting their mothers kiss them, preferring the cello to football, writing poetry instead of not writing at all. This definition leaves out a whole range of men sensitive or not. This definition is putting men into a narrow category that needs to change. The fight for feminism is still being fought and has