Dystopia- A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control, Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about, when given the definition of a dystopia famous literary works such as 1984 or A Brave New World seem to flutter the mind, but we don’t think of popular books of today that can make just as big of a dystopian impact. Chuck Palahniuk’s gruesomely truthful novel, Fight Club, gives readers a raw look on just how miserable and monotonous the “American Dream” can become. In the generic definition of dystopia it is stated that a dystopia is a futuristic universe, Fight Club is not a futuristic universe, it is a mirror on how society is today. Dystopian authors usually are writing their novel as a warning on how society is going to become, but Palahniuk didn’t write any predictions, he wrote a novel on how society exactly was when he wrote the novel. The narrator of this aggressive tale is trapped in his own life and trying to find absolutely anything to fill the hole of self petty that he created himself because he chose to follow the “American Dream” which ultimately makes his life even more horrible than it was before. Fight Club is based off of real life events that actually happened to Palahniuk himself. In an interview with DVD talk the question, “How much of this was based on real things?” is asked and Palahniuk answers with the startling answer “Everything except for the clubs themselves.” By making the novel almost 100 percent accurate, Palahniuk is showing readers that this is exactly how society is, the world is actually this bad and it is only going to get progressively worse. Our world is already at the point where it is rare to see a complete stranger smile and wave at one another. This is demonstrated perfectly in the sculpture called Rush Hour by George Segal, this sculpture shows just how lifeless the city citizens can become, the people in the sculpture are blank slates and look miserable on their way to their mediocre jobs. These feeling are shared by the narrator of Fight Club; he is miserable with his job and begging for an escape from not only his job but an escape from his life all together. He fills the holes of his life at first with IKEA furniture or pretending that he had a life threatening disease in support groups. It wasn’t just that narrator that feels like he had like he had to do something to make his life better, it was also everyone around him as well, “I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue.” (page 143). By doing these ludicrous actions he believed that he was making his life better. The narrator like most Americans, attempts to buy his life away, this is one step to conquering the “American...
