Fight Club Study Guide

Chuck Palahniuk grew up in Burbank, Washington. His parents divorced when he was 14—an event that would greatly influence his writing. As a young man he held a number of odd jobs, including working as a diesel mechanic, and also volunteered at homeless shelters and hospitals. Palahniuk didn’t begin writing until he was 30. After publishers rejected his first novel, he set to work on his most famous book, Fight Club, which made him a minor literary celebrity after its publication in 1996, and a major literary celebrity after it was adapted by the director David Fincher into a cult movie starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. The novel and film were so popular and influential that copycat fight clubs arose across the country—including one on the Princeton University campus. Palahniuk’s more recent novels haven’t had the same impact cultural impact as Fight Club; nevertheless, he remains a highly popular novelist, and two of his other books, Choke (2001) and Rant (2007) have been adapted as films.

Fight Club doesn’t allude to many specific historical events, but it satirizes the rise of consumerism over the course of postwar American history. Following World War II, America became the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country, to the point where the average American (though not every American) was more prosperous than all but the wealthiest people in many other countries. With the new prosperity in America, though, came a new wave of alienation: some Americans, even (and especially) well-off Americans, confessed to feeling that their lives were meaningless—they didn’t lack for anything materially, but felt that they had nothing to live for. The “alienation of prosperity” is a key theme of Fight Club, and also inspired films like Rebel Without a Cause (1953) and The Graduate (1967), both important influences on Palahniuk’s novel and, especially, David Fincher’s film adaptation.

Palahniuk lists a number of important influences on his Fight Club, particularly the novelist Bret Easton Ellis, whose 1991 novel American Psycho used surrealism and sardonic humor to satirize the commodification of modern America. It’s also worth noting Palahniuk’s respect for the philosophers Michel Foucault and Albert Camus, whose writings of alienation and violence prefigure Fight Club. Camus’ minimalist, deadpan writing style, especially in his 1942 novella The Stranger, was an important influence on the style of Fight Club.