Fight Club Violence

Add the words "fight club" to anything—even Jane Austen—and it's going to get bloody. Fight Club isn't about sugar-coating anything. Palahniuk exposes us to the harsh reality of our narrator's world, blood, gristle, and all.

Questions About Violence

1. Is the violence in Fight Club ever gratuitous, or is it always critical to the story?
2. Why does our narrator choose violence as the solution to his problems? Does it solve his problems?
3. We never hear of a woman wanting to join fight club. Why do you think that is? Are men naturally more violent than women or is there something else at the heart of it?

Chew on This

The violence in fight club serves to desensitize men to the horrors they'll see as part of Project Mayhem.

The men in Fight Club are filled with generations of pent-up anger and aggression. It has to come out somehow or they're going to explode. So they decide to blow up buildings instead.