Analysis

In the following sections, you can read our suggestions for an analysis of Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

The novel’s structure is unusual, as it begins with the climactic final scene and afterwards most of the plot is revealed through the narrator’s flashbacks before the novel returns to the final scene at the end. 

The most important characters in the novel are the unnamed narrator, his friend Tyler Durden, and Marla Singer, a woman Tyler and the narrator have a complicated relationship with. Although it is eventually revealed that the narrator and Tyler are different aspects of the same person, their personalities are so different that we have kept their characterizations on separate pages.

The physical setting of the story is an unnamed major city in the US in the mid-1990’s. More specific settings of note include Tyler’s home and the various locations where the fight clubs take place.

The story is told by an unnamed first person narrator. There are many signs that the narrator is unreliable, as his perception of reality often seems confused because of his insomnia. Towards the end of the story, it is further revealed that the narrator suffers from a kind of split personality disorder. 

The style of language used in the novel is blunt and direct, with many graphic descriptions of violence and other disturbing content. The novel also makes use of various language devices, such as personification, irony, and dark humor. 

Excerpt from the study guide: