fight club
... forge a meaningful, authentic masculine identity for himself follows a similar trajectory. Thus, the story begins when Jack is still a self-described "30-year-old boy." (Uhls) Like Stiffed, Fight Club is preoccupied with the outcomes of sons who "grew up with fathers who so often seemed spectral, there and yet not there." (Faludi, 597) Jack, like the men in Stiffed, was abandoned by his father at a young age. He's a member of "a generation of men raised by women," left feeling feminized by the experience and wondering "if another woman is the answer we really need." (Uhls) But Jack's father's real betrayal is his failure to perform what Faludi describes as a father's duty and obligation. She writes that "Having a father was supposed to mean having an older man show you how the world worked and how to find your place in it...Yet the fathers...seemingly unfettered in their paternal power and authority, failed to pass the mantle, the knowledge, all that power and authority, on to their sons." (597) Jack's been told that if he gets an education, a good job, is responsible, presents himself in a certain way with his furniture, car, and clothes, then he'll find happiness. He's accomplished everything his father taught him to do, but he remains unfulfilled in spite of possessing the American Dream. So the movie introduces him at the point when Jack's figuratively killed off his father and realizes that he's wrong. But he's still caught up in the materialism and consumerism that's part and parcel of the American Dream. And then he finds a mentor in Tyler Durden, and they fly in the face of God by doing everything they're ...