Modern Warfare
The Modern Warfare
The modern man has created a paramilitary world in which a new form of culture has emerged. In James William Gibson’s essay Warrior Dreams, he discusses the idea of an energized culture whose main objective is to fit the “warrior” persona. The appearance of this warrior persona “revealed that at some deep, unconscious level….the images and tales from the mythic world of warriors and wars still shape men’s fantasies about who they are as men” (633). Men create an image in which they are comfortable with their identity, have power, and are confident about their future ambitions. This warrior persona can be closely related to the narrator in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club. The main character, who is just referred to as the narrator, has a perfect life. He holds a middle class job, has expensive furniture, and a nice apartment, but there is something missing in his life. He lacks a sense of self-worth and self-meaning which in turn leads him to create an alternate persona named Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden is everything that the narrator aspires to be. He is strong, powerful, and conspicuous just like the “warrior” persona. Tyler and the narrator start an organization called fight club with the intention of learning more about themselves, being powerful, and taking out their aggression on the world. Fight club starts to gain popularity due to this warrior persona that the narrator has created. The reason fight club has gained so much popularity is due to the reasons behind fight club itself. Men want to learn more about themselves, and about self-destruction. Tyler says, “It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything” (Palahniuk 70). This is one of the characteristics of fight club that is most appealing to its members. Most of the men that join fight club lead perfect lives with average jobs, but want more meaning out of their lives. In order to be free of this perfection, you need to break everything in your life,
The modern man has created a paramilitary world in which a new form of culture has emerged. In James William Gibson’s essay Warrior Dreams, he discusses the idea of an energized culture whose main objective is to fit the “warrior” persona. The appearance of this warrior persona “revealed that at some deep, unconscious level….the images and tales from the mythic world of warriors and wars still shape men’s fantasies about who they are as men” (633). Men create an image in which they are comfortable with their identity, have power, and are confident about their future ambitions. This warrior persona can be closely related to the narrator in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club. The main character, who is just referred to as the narrator, has a perfect life. He holds a middle class job, has expensive furniture, and a nice apartment, but there is something missing in his life. He lacks a sense of self-worth and self-meaning which in turn leads him to create an alternate persona named Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden is everything that the narrator aspires to be. He is strong, powerful, and conspicuous just like the “warrior” persona. Tyler and the narrator start an organization called fight club with the intention of learning more about themselves, being powerful, and taking out their aggression on the world. Fight club starts to gain popularity due to this warrior persona that the narrator has created. The reason fight club has gained so much popularity is due to the reasons behind fight club itself. Men want to learn more about themselves, and about self-destruction. Tyler says, “It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything” (Palahniuk 70). This is one of the characteristics of fight club that is most appealing to its members. Most of the men that join fight club lead perfect lives with average jobs, but want more meaning out of their lives. In order to be free of this perfection, you need to break everything in your life,
Cited: Gibson, William James. “Warrior Dreams”. Signs of Life in the USA. Eds. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: St. Martins, 2009. 625-633. Print. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. Print.