THE EFFECTS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER’S LIFE PRESSURES AS SEEN IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
KRISTI HAPSARI
Student Number: 014214002
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2007
DEDICATION PAGE
I dedicated this work to my beloved parents.
Life is not that easy
We need pain to gain something
(Anonymous)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lord Jesus
Christ. I believe that I will not be able to finish this thesis without His blessing.
I realize that many people have given their help for me in finishing this thesis. Now, I would like to express my gratitude for their guidance and support for me in finishing this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dra. Th. Enny
Anggraini, M.A. I am very grateful for the long hours she spent in guiding me to accomplish this thesis. I also express my deepest gratitude to my Co-advisors,
Dewi Widyastuti, S. Pd., M.Hum. for helping me to check the grammar of my thesis.
I also thank to all of my lecturers who have taught me and given me useful knowledge during my study in Sanata Dharma University.
I am sincerely grateful to my beloved parents Sahir S.R. and Lucia S., and also to my grandmother. Their love, patience, support, and guidance in every second of my life have given me a spirit to finish it. I also thank my brothers Mas
Wid, Mas Thole who helps me with the computer and my sisters Mba’ Kun, Mba’
Ini who always support me with the money, Mba’ Isti, Mba’ Widi for their guidance, and support. I thank my nephew Putut for the printer, my cute nephew
Nico, and also Nyunyun, Togle & Midhu for the joy in my life. My gratitude goes to my savior Titus Tunjung Sigit Pambudi, S. Pd., who has given his times in the last 3 years to share this world with me, to accompany me in happiness, pain and sorrow. I also thank to Nicole Elizabeth Davill for correcting my grammar, giving me support to finish this thesis, and being my friend to share.
I would like to thank all of my friends. I thank my best friends of 2001ers,
Poe3, Ayu, Heny, Ririn for the joys and laughter in my life, and also Galih for the thesis, Mas Aji (PBI) for the novel, Mas Yoyok (PBI), and Mas Sigit (TM) for the useful sharing, Eva (Atma) for her support and great times at home, Agatha
(Atma), Tyas, Indah for the good memories, all my friends in Mudika and my students in Nglengkong, Kulonprogo. I thank you very much for the happiness through these years.
May God bless them all!
Kristi Hapsari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………………. i APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………….. ii BOARD OF EXAMINERS ……………………………….. …………. iii DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………… iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………… v TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………… vii ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………… viii ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………….. ix
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study ………………………………….……….. 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………... 3 C. Objectives of Study ……………………………………………. 4 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………. 4
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………… 8 B. Review of Related Theories …………………………………….. 10 1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……………..…….. 10 2. Theory of Psychology a. Theory of Stress …………………………………… 13 b. Theory of Multiple Personality Disorder …………….. 14 c. Theory of Insomnia …………………………………… 16 C. Theoretical Framework …………….…………………………….. 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study …………………………………………….. 19 B. Approach ……………………………………………………….. 20 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………. 20
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Main Character’s Characteristics …………………………… 23 B. The Main Character’s Life Pressures ……………………………. 28 D. The Effects of the Main Character’s Life Pressures …………….. 36 1. Insomnia ………………………………………………………. 36 2. Multiple Personality Disorder ………………………………… 38
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………. 49
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………. 52
APPENDIX The Summary of Fight Club …………………………………………….. 55 ABSTRACT
Kristi Hapsari. The Effects of the Main Character’s Life Pressures as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, University of Sanata Dharma, 2007.
This study deals with the effects of the main character’s life pressures as seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. There are three questions within this research. The first question is what are the main character’s characteristics, the second question is what kinds of life pressures experienced by the main character of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and the third question is what are the effects of the main character’s life pressures. The questions are formulated to find out the main character’s characteristics, his life pressures and the effects of the main character’s life pressures. In conducting this study, two basic sources, the primary source and the secondary source are used. The primary source is the novel entitled Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk and the secondary sources are books on character and characterization theory, books on psychological theories and some sources from internet websites. The psychological approach is used to see the main character’s life pressures and also the effects of the main character’s life pressures. Theories of character and characterization are used to analyze the main character’s characteristics. Theories of psychology are used to analyze the main character’s life pressures and the effects of the main character’s life pressures. The result of the first analysis is about the main character’s characteristics. He likes to force himself to do things he does not enjoy, has eagerness to reach better life and has high hopes. He is also perfectionist, easily influenced, lavish, weak, stupid, and unsociable. The second analysis is about the main character’s life pressures that are influenced by his characteristics. The first pressure is financial difficulty influenced by lavish, forcing himself, perfectionist and easily influenced characteristics. Second, he experiences daily fatigue influenced by forcing himself and eagerness to reach better life characteristics. Third, he has weak and stupid characteristics. Fourth, he is a victim of consumptive lifestyle because of his easily influenced characteristic. Fifth, he is a victim of exploitation influenced by forcing himself and having desire to reach a better life characteristics. Sixth, he is companionless. The third analysis is about the effects of the main character’s life pressures. First, he suffers from insomnia. He shows the symptoms, like awakening at night and at early in the morning, difficult to asleep and daytime fatigue. Second, he suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. He has other personality, namely Tyler Durden. They have different behaviors, social relationships, perceptions, associations, characteristics and memories. He also shows the symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder. He shows anxiety, hysterical, and affective symptoms.
ABSTRAK
Kristi Hapsari. The Effects of the Main Character’s Life Pressures as Seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Yogayakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007.
Skripsi ini membahas akibat dari tekanan-tekanan hidup yang dialami oleh tokoh utama seperti yang terlihat pada novel Fight Club karya Chuck Palahniuk. Ada tiga pertanyaan yang terdapat dalam skripsi ini. Pertanyaan pertama adalah karakter-karakter apa saja yang dimiliki oleh tokoh utama, pertanyaan kedua adalah tekanan-tekanan hidup seperti apa yang dialami oleh tokoh utama dalam novel Fight Club karya Chuck Palahniuk dan pertanyaan ketiga adalah apa akibat dari tekanan-tekanan hidup yang dialami oleh tokoh utama. Ketiga pertanyaan tersebut diajukan untuk mencapai tujuan dari penulisan skripsi ini. Tujuan tersebut adalah untuk mengetahui karakter-karakter tokoh utama, tekanan- tekanan hidupnya dan akibat yang dihasilkan karena tekanan-tekanan hidupnya tersebut. Ada dua sumber informasi utama yang digunakan dalam mengerjakan skripsi ini. Sumber informasi tersebut adalah sumber informasi utama dan sumber informasi kedua. Sumber informasi utama adalah novel karya Chuck Palahniuk yang berjudul Fight Club dan sumber informasi kedua adalah buku tentang teori karakter dan pengkarakteran dan buku-buku tentang teori-teori psikologi. Pendekatan psikologi digunakan untuk membahas tekanan-tekanan hidup tokoh utama dan akibat dari tekanan-tekanan hidupnya. Teori karakter dan pengkarakteran digunakan untuk membantu menganalisa karakter-karakter tokoh utama. Teori-teori psikologi digunakan untuk manganalisa tekanan-tekanan hidup tokoh utama dan akibat dari tekanan-tekanan hidupnya tersebut. Hasil dari analisa pertama menunjukkan bahwa tokoh utama adalah orang yang suka memaksakan diri untuk melakukan sesuatu hal yang tidak dia sukai, ingin mencapai kehidupan yang lebih baik, mempunyai terlalu banyak keinginan, menginginkan kesempurnaan, mudah terpengaruh, boros, lemah, bodoh, dan sulit bergaul. Analisis kedua adalah tentang tekanan-tekanan hidup tokoh utama yang dipengaruhi oleh karakter-karakternya. Pertama, dia mengalami kesulitan keuangan, yang dipengaruhi oleh karakternya yang boros, mamaksakan diri, menginginkan kesempurnaan, dan mudah terpengaruh. Kedua, dia mengalami kelelahan setiap harinya, yang dipengaruhi oleh karakternya yang suka memaksakan diri dan menginginkan kehidupan yang lebih baik. Ketiga, dia adalah pria yang lemah dan bodoh. Keempat, dia adalah korban dari gaya hidup boros, yang dipengaruhi oleh karakternya yang mudah terpengaruh. Kelima, dia adalah korban ekploitasi, yang dipengaruhi oleh karakternya yang suka memaksakan diri dan menginginkan kehidupan yang lebih baik. Keenam, dia mangalami kesulitan untuk bergaul.
Analisis yang ketiga menunjukkan bahwa tekanan-tekanan hidup tokoh utama membawa dampak secara psikologis bagi dirinya. Pertama, dia mengalami insomnia. Hal ini ditandai oleh gejala-gejala yang ditunjukkan. Gejala tersebut adalah terbangun pada tengah malam dan pada pagi hari, kesulitan untuk tidur, dan kelelahan setiap hari. Kedua, tokoh utama juga mengalami Multiple Personality Disorder yaitu kelainan psikologi yang ditunjukkan dengan adanya dua atau lebih kepribadian dalam satu individu. Kepribadiannya yang lain bernama Tyler Durden. Kedua pribadi tersebut mempunyai sikap, hubungan sosial, pandangan, asosiasi, karakter, dan ingatan yang berbeda. Selain itu, dia juga menunjukkan gejala-gejala penyakit tersebut, yaitu mengalami kecemasan, hilang ingatan, dan emosional.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of four parts. They are background of the study, problem formulation, objective of the study, and definition of terms. Background of study discusses about the description on the topic and the reason of choosing this topic. Problem formulation describes the questions that are used in this research. Objective of study describes the objectives of analyzing this novel, and definition of term defines certain terms related to this study.
A. Background of the Study
Environment has a big role to play in building someone’s characteristics, attitudes, or even his lifestyle. The ideas of life that exist in society and the way people live will influence a person who lives in that society. Usually, a person will do, behave, or even think like the people around them. That influence can be seen when someone imitates a lifestyle that exists in society. A person who lives in certain society usually imitates the way of life that exists in that society, for example consumptive lifestyle.
Not all people are able to have consumptive lifestyle, because everybody comes from different classes with different financial conditions. For those who come from the upper class and have a lot of money, consumerism is pleasurable.
But, for those who come from the working class, who have financial difficulties, consumptive lifestyle only creates new problems. Nevertheless, society has shaped them to live in consumptive lifestyle. So, they might struggle and work hard to fulfill their desires, even though sometimes they have to live under pressure. Their burden might become heavier when the companies they work for do the exploitation. The companies just try to get much profit without giving their employee’s rights and good treatment for their hard work and their loyalties.
Unfortunately, those people do not have bravery to fight against their destiny.
Thus, they become humans who always live under pressure.
Based on the facts above many authors have used those ideas of human life as themes of their works. Novel, as one of literary genres, becomes one of the media to portray human life together with its problems. Through their novels the authors sometime want to criticize certain issues in society or to picture people’s problems.
Therefore, it is interesting to discuss Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club because the story gives a great description of a person who suffers from psychological disorder. One of the causes of his psychological disorder is that he is the victim of consumptive lifestyle in his society.
Palahniuk has cleverly built a world where consumerism becomes a culture. Many people are competing to buy modern and luxurious products. Those products are mainly to make people’s life easier. Somehow, its purpose has changed. People buy the products for their pride, satisfaction or even to reach higher status.
The main character of the novel lives in that kind of society. He is trapped in the consumptive life style. The main character spends his money in order to buy products that are unnecessary. He just wants to be like other people who have consumptive lifestyle.
Actually, the main character does not find happiness from his life style because of financial difficulty and several other reasons. But, he forces himself to have consumptive lifestyle and sacrificing his happiness. Consequently, the main character lives under pressure.
In addition, the main character also has a lot of problems in his job. He works hard for the company without getting appropriate rights or protection. He is exploited. These complex problems make the main character experience Multiple
Personality Disorder. This psychological disorder brings him to become a criminal who opposes consumerism.
The topic is interesting to discuss because the main character of the novel represents a person who struggles to survive in modern society where consumptive lifestyle exists. The psychological disorder as the effect of the main character’s life pressures shows that not everybody can survive from the modern lifestyle.
Another reason that makes the writer interested in discussing this topic is that because it can add to the writer’s knowledge about psychology, especially
Multiple Personality Disorder.
B. Problem Formulation
The problem formulation of this study will be based on the questions as follow: 1. What are the main character’s characteristics?
2. What kinds of life pressures are experienced by the main character
of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club?
3. What are the effects of the main character’s life pressures as seen in
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club?
C. Objective of the Study
The objective of this study is to find out the effects of the main character’s life pressures as seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Therefore, this research will find out the main character’s characteristics. Then, we have to analyze the main character’s life pressures. The next is analyzing the effects of the main character’s life pressures.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding on certain terms, the writer supplies the definition of certain terms related to the topic of study.
1. Character
X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry, and Drama state character as an imagined person who inhabits a story
(1999: 60). While other source, Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing says a character is a person who has all the good and bad traits in a literary work.
A story is usually concerned with the problems that a major character should face. This involves a difficult situation or with an idea or general situation that cause some actions (Robert and Jacobs, 1987: 56).
In this thesis “character” is defined as a person who inhabits a story that has good and bad traits.
2. Pressure
In the Dictionary of Psychology, there are three definitions for this term.
a. The sensation experienced when physical force is applied to an area of body.
b. The emotional experience of feeling compelled to respond to someone’s wishes or to some external forces.
c. The use of coercion to persuade another to act in a particular manner
(Reber, 1985: 2770).
The writer uses the second definition of the word “pressure” which has relation with topic discussed in this study. In this thesis, the writer defines pressure as the emotional experience of feeling compelled to respond to someone’s wishes or to some external forces.
3. Multiple Personality Disorder
In the Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology, Multiple Personality Disorder has been defined as a condition characterized by the existence within the individual of two or more distinct personalities, each of which is dominant at a particular time. Each personality is independent, autonomous, apparently existing as a separate and complete self (Corsini, 1987: 741).
David Sue, Derald Sue and Stanley Sue, in the book entitled
Understanding Abnormal Behavior, define Multiple Personality Disorder as a dramatic disorder in which two or more relatively independent personalities exist in one individual. Each ego state has its characteristics attitudes, perceptions, memories, associations, and behavior (1986: 194).
Karen Huffman, Mark Vernoy and Judith Vernoy, in their book entitled
Psychology in Action define Multiple Personality Disorder as a person who has two or more distinct personality systems that become dominant at different times.
Each personality has unique memories, behaviors, and social relationships.
Transitions from one personality to another occur suddenly and often associate with psychological stress (1997: 506).
In this thesis, Multiple Personality Disorder is the existence of two or more personalities in one individual that each personality has different behaviors, social relationships, perceptions, associations, characteristics, and memories.
4. Consumerism
Consumerism is the tendency of people to identify strongly with products they consume, especially those with commercial brand names and obvious status- enhancing appeal, e.g. an expensive automobile, rich jewelry. A culture that is permeated by consumerism can be referred as consumer culture
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism). In this thesis, consumerism means the tendency of people to identify strongly with products they consume, especially those with commercial brand names.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
It is important to know the criticisms of the novel discussed in this study.
It can give us better understanding on the work. In this part the writer tries to get as many criticisms as possible about Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. The writer has found the criticisms from some internet websites.
The novel Fight Club interests Bob Michaels, a freelance writer. He states that Fight Club tells about the negative sides of being a loyal employee. The main character of the novel does not realize that the company he works for has abused his loyalty for the company’s profit. It is a pride to be an American, living in modern country. On the other hand, it is hard to live in America because of the modern lifestyle.
Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short it is about the pride and the horror of being an American, (http://www.wenreading.com/q0805076476/Fight_Club_A_Novel.html).
Adrienne Redd analyzes the novel Fight Club on several themes. First, she talks about the morality of the American Society. She thinks that the Fight Club talks about the society and the use of violence as its moral consciousness which differentiate the classes, between the bourgeois and the gray-collar workers, with different moral values and unity among them. The novel also shows the real values of being masculine. The novel Fight Club addresses morality and society by using the motif of violence. Nonetheless, Fight Club will inspire wringing of hands as critics and commentators call it a mirror held up to an empty and tormented contemporary consciousness. Fight Club is also about masculinity, but with the crucial proviso that it is about masculinity among a specific class of American men: the burgeoning stratum of service or gray-collar workers. There was a time when blue-collar workers could invest in a kind of honor and mythology of hard physical work, but “the world has changed”, and now former steelworkers are parking cars, and watching security monitors. They have not even the solace of big muscles and the solidarity of unions from which to construct their identities and with which to salve their bruised egos. And as a character, they lack a great cause, like a war or depression, in which to test themselves. (http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html).
Redd thinks that the novel Fight Club tells about how a person should be
“a man for others”. It means that a man should sacrifice for the sake of others’. It will finally build such an identity and an understanding of life towards people.
Fight Club is really about what it is to be a man who serves others (as women have traditionally) and how such men construct identity and meaning in their lives. That woman now can take most of the jobs that a man is certainly a background fact, but the novel explores other issues or sources of masculinity (http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html).
Redd also thinks that the novel is about shattering the American Dream.
The author wants to criticize that working hard for working class people will not make them getting higher status or success. On the contrary, they will get nothing, and, even, trapped in consumptive lifestyle made by the rich that make the poor live under pressure.
Palahniuk wants to criticize the mythology that anyone can become rich or become president. Part of the way that the working poor are lulled into cooperating and staying in the service of richer classes is by this unspoken promise that if they work hard they will ascend to higher security and status (http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html).
The last theme of her study is that the novel seems to accept the reality of one’s mortality and living life to the fullest. It is also about escaping conventional society. Representative of escaping out the top of a cold and constrictive society are the references to be a millionaire or a celebrity. Representative of escaping out the bottom are the constant references to “trying to hit bottom” to attain a freedom that does not come until one has nothing to lose
(http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html).
From the criticisms above, we have not seen the theme which the writer uses in this study. Therefore, the writer will analyze the effects of the main character’s life pressures as seen in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club.
B. Review of Related Theories
In this part, the writer presents some theories related to the study in analyzing the novel. They are Theory of Character and Characterization and
Theories of Psychology.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
There are many writers who discuss on the term of character. Rohberger and Woods (1971: 19) state that characters have an important role in a story since they help the readers to participate vicariously in the experience on the story by sharing imaginatively the feelings or the activities of the character in the story. It means that character is the important feature in the novel, and a novel will be invaluable and worthless without it. Abrams (1981: 20-21) defines characters in a dramatic or narrative work, who are presented by the author as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that can be evaluated from the dialogue and the action among the persons. He also says that a character may remain essentially stable or unchanged in his outlook dispositions, from the beginning to the end of the work, or he may undergo a radical change, either through a gradual development or as the result of an extreme crisis.
In understanding the novel we still need another element that is known as characterization. Characterization helps us to build a complete description of the character, either psychologically or physically. Rohberger and Woods (1971: 20) states that characterization is the process, by which an author creates character, the devices by which he makes us believe a character is the particular type of person he is.
Murphy (1972: 161-173) mentions nine ways of how an author attempts to make his characters understandable to, and they come alive for, his readers. There are nine ways of characterization
a. Personal Description
The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body, and clothes of the character. He can describe clearly using adjective, what characters are like and tell the reader the details of the character’s appearance; for example the clothing. The personal description is very important because it can give clues to the characters’ personalities.
b. Character as Seen by Another
The author can describe his character through the eyes and opinions of other characters. The author describes the character’s appearance and personalities by letting other characters tell and comment about the other characters that they encounter.
c. Speech
In this part, the author gives the reader an insight or clues toward the character of a person in the novel through what a person says. Whenever that a person speaks or puts forward an opinion or is in conversation with another, that person is giving the readers some clues to his or her characters.
d. Past Life
The author can give the readers clues to the character by allowing the readers to learn something about the character’s past life. The events in the past life may have contributions to shape the personalities of the character. This way can be done by observing the direct comment from the author, through the character’s thought, and his conversation.
e. Conversation of Others
The author can give the reader clues to a person’s character through the conversation of other people and the things they say about him or her. Some people often talk about other people. The things the people say about a person can give clues to that person’s character.
f. Reactions
With this way, the author describes a person’s character by letting the reader know how the person reacts to various situations and events. The reader gets clues from the character’s attitude.
g. Direct Comment
It is the way of the author to describe or comment on the character of a person directly.
h. Thought
The author can give the reader knowledge of what a person is thinking about. It can be seen through the reader but cannot be seen by other characters in the story.
i. Mannerism
The author describes a person’s mannerism and habits, which may also tell us something about his or her characters. It sometimes is not explicitly stated on the novel.
2. Theory of Psychology
The writer uses three theories of psychology. They are theory of Stress, theory of Multiple Personality Disorder and theory of Insomnia. a. Theory of Stress
Sue et al. (1986: 216) define stress as a sort of mental pressure placed on an individual by a hard situation, or the individual’s internal reaction to that pressure. There are, in general, three kinds of stressors. They are biological stressors such as trauma, disease, fatigue; psychological stressors such as threats of physical harm, attacks on self-esteem; and social stressors, such as economic pressures. Besides, there are adjustment disorders which result from the more common situations of everyday life, including financial difficulties, sadness, etc.
b. Theory of Multiple Personality Disorder
Several definitions of Multiple Personality Disorder are introduced.
However all of them have the same idea that is “the existence of two or more personalities in one individual”.
Sue et al. (1986: 194) define Multiple Personality Disorder as a dramatic disorder in which two or more relatively independent personalities exist in one individual. Each ego state has its characteristics attitudes, perceptions, memories, associations, and behavior. The relationship between the personalities is often complex. Only one personality is evident at any one time, and the alternation of personalities usually produces periods of amnesia in the personality that has been replaced. However, one or several personalities may be aware of the existence of the others. The personalities involved are usually quite different from one another and, in some cases, are direct opposites.
However, Huffman and Vernoy (1997: 506) define Multiple Personality
Disorder as a person who has two or more distinct personality systems that become dominant at different times. Each personality has unique memories, behaviors, and social relationships. Transitions from one personality to another occur suddenly and often associate with psychological stress. In order to identify whether one suffers from Multiple Personality
Disorder or not, it is introduced several symptoms of Multiple Personality
Disorder. Here, the writer puts only the symptoms that are necessary to analyze the main character of the novel. The symptoms are Anxiety, Hysterical, and
Affective symptoms (Sue et al., 1986: 198).
1. Anxiety symptoms
The anxiety symptoms are characterized by the feelings of fear and apprehension. Some theorists see anxiety as a response to threatening situations, mild worry to panic. Severe attacks can bring death to the sufferers. Inability to concentrate or make decisions and a preoccupation with the unknown danger are the behavior patterns of this symptom, particularly the cognitive manifestations
(Sue et al., 1986: 198).
2. Hysterical symptom
Hysterical symptom is characterized by amnesia. Amnesia is the partial or total loss of memory, due to either organic or psychological causes. There are two domains to describe the amnesia namely the psychogenic amnesia and the psychogenic fugue. Psychogenic amnesia is the psychologically based inability to recall information that is significant. This disorder usually occurs suddenly after a traumatic event. The disturbed individual may forget for example his or her name, address, friends, and relatives. Psychogenic fugue is the amnesia accompanied by flight. The affected individual leaves the area in which he or she lives and works and establishes a new identity (Sue et al., 1986: 198). 3. Affective symptoms
Depression is the major element in the affective disorders that are severe mood disturbances. In these disorders, severe depression may be accompanied by and alternate with mania, an emotion state characterized by great elation, seemingly boundless energy and irritability. It consists of two parts, namely symptoms of depression and symptoms of mania.
Symptoms of Depression can be observed through affective symptoms
(depressives experience feelings of sadness, an excessive and prolonged mourning, feelings of worthlessness and loss of the joy of living), behavioral symptoms (dirty and untidy clothing ), cognitive symptoms (emptiness and a sense of “giving up”, self-depreciation, a profound pessimism and loss of motivation, suicidal ideation).
Symptoms of Mania can be observed through boundless energy, uninhibited, engaging impulsively in sexual activities or abusive discourse. In the most severe form of mania, confused mania, the individual is uncontrolled
(aggressive) and frequently dangerous to self or others (Sue et al., 1986: 199).
c. Theory of Insomnia
Davison and Neale (1980: 510) explain that 14 percent of adults in 18-34 ages suffer from insomnia. The most common problems are awakening of at night, difficulty falling asleep, daytime fatigue, and frequent early-morning awakenings. The insomnia is influenced by stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, various illness, medications, lack of activity, caffeine, and aging. Sleeping problem sometimes can also be worsened by medications that are taken to deal with them. The consumers of sleep aids will rapidly lose their effectiveness, with continuous use. It is not the appropriate treatment for the chronic insomniac of any age. Some people are given relaxation training to help them fall asleep and instruction to help them develop good sleep habits, avoiding activities at bedtime that are inconsistent with falling asleep.
C. Theoretical Framework
In this research, the writer uses theories of literature and psychological theories. Theories of character and characterization are used because this research analyzes the main character’s double personalities. These theories are used to analyze the personality differences of the main character. Then, psychological theories are used to analyze the main character’s psychological disorder and also his life pressures.
First, we need to understand theories of character and characterization.
The aim is to give us a deep understanding in analyzing the main character’s characteristics. It can reveal the main character’s characteristics and find his other personality’s characteristics. Thus, their personality differences can be revealed.
Then, we have to understand the psychological theories, which consist of theory of Stress, theory of Multiple Personality Disorder, and theory of Insomnia. The theory of Stress is used to reveal the main character’s life pressures. Then, theory of Insomnia is used to analyze the symptoms which indicate the main character’s insomnia. Multiple Personality Disorder theory is used to identify the main character’s Multiple Personality Disorder symptoms. Thus, we can find out the effects of the main character’s life pressures.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter covers three parts. They are object of the study that describes the work analyzed, approach of the study that is psychological approach, and method of the study which shows the procedure taken in analyzing the work.
A. Object of the Study
The literary work that is analyzed in this thesis is Fight Club, a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, first published in 1997. It was the second edition and published by Vintage. The novel consists of 208 pages. It is divided into 30 chapters. From this novel, Palahniuk has successfully won several prizes. They are Pacific Northwest Book-sellers Association Award on 1997, and also Oregon
Book Award for Best Novel on 1997. The novel Fight Club was also adopted into box-office movie that is directed by David Fincher on 1999. It has been successfully performed all over the world and becomes the target of many critics and writers in America.
The novel itself talks about a man who is trapped on the consumptive life style. He spends his money to buy \things that he does not really need. He wants to be like other people who follow consumptive lifestyle. Actually he does not find happiness from his lifestyle because of financial difficulty and several other reasons. He forces himself to have consumptive lifestyle and sacrifice his happiness. It makes the main character to live under pressure. Besides, he also has a lot of problems in his job. He works hard for the company without getting rights or protection. He is exploited. The complex problems in his life make the main character to experience Multiple Personality
Disorder. This psychological disorder brings him to be a criminal that opposes consumerism.
B. Approach
In order to understand the main character’s life pressures and the effects of the main character’s life pressures, we have to use the psychological approach.
Rohberger and Woods state Psychological approach as the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern. This approach draws a different body of knowledge. We can apply certain psychological theories in analyzing the content of the story in a work of literature (1971: 13). Here, the writer uses the theory of
Stress, theory of Insomnia and theory of Multiple Personality Disorder.
The writer chooses psychological approach because the writer studies the psychological side of the main character of the novel. The approach will be supported by some psychological theories. These theories would help the writer in analyzing the problems. Thus, psychological approach would be applied in this thesis.
C. Method of the Study
In this study, the writer conducted library research to analyze the work.
Library research was a way to get information by collecting books and sources that we were needed in this research. The primary source of this study was the novel Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk. While the secondary sources were books and articles related to the topic in this thesis. They were literature books, such as Reading and Writing about Literature by Rohberger and Woods and also psychological books, such as Understanding Abnormal Behavior by Sue et al., and Psychology in Action by Huffman and Vernoy, and also several articles taken from internet websites.
The method of the study consisted of steps taken in doing the analysis, so that the writer could find the solution for the problem formulation and achieve the aim of this study. There were some steps taken in order to answer the questions stated in problem formulation. First, the writer read the novel many times in order to understand the content of the story. The writer made notes of the important description of the main character’s characteristics, and any other important points that might help to understand the content of the novel, such as the location or place, the situation or condition at that time.
Second, the writer read some references related to the theory of literature and theories of psychology concerned with problem formulation. The writer also found some criticisms on Chuck Palahniuk and his works from books and Internet websites.
On the third step, the writer analyzed the main character’s characteristics.
Then, the writer also analyzed what kinds of life pressures were experienced by the main character. In order to understand the main character’s life pressures we needed to know his characteristics and the reasons of his life pressures. The writer also focused attention on the effects of the main character’s life pressures. In this part the writer tried to answer the problem formulations, which were stated above, so that the writer could reach the aim of this study.
Finally, the writer drew the conclusion from the analysis.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter analyses the main character’s characteristics, the main character’s life pressures and the effects of his life pressures. In the first section, the writer will talk about the main character’s characteristics. The next section, the writer will analyze the main character’s life pressures. The last section, the writer will talk about the effects of the main character’s life pressures.
A. The Main Character’s Characteristics
The main character’s characteristics have big role that make him under pressure. Therefore, the writer is going to analyze his characteristics. There are several characteristics that become triggers of the main character’s life pressures.
The main character likes to force himself to do things that he does not enjoy. It can be seen through his consistency to work on the jobs that he hates.
Every trip from one city to another in order to reply the customers’ recalls, he feels very depressed and a suicidal idea always comes up to his mind.
Every take off and landing, when the plane banked too much to one side, I prayed for a crash. That moment cures my insomnia with narcolepsy when we might die helpless and packed human tobacco in the fuselage (p. 25).
In a trip, he wants to die so that he will be free from insomnia. But, he keeps working on his job and undergoes depression. He does not have an initiative to leave his job because he still needs the money to buy products advertised by the companies. The other example is his consumptive lifestyle which actually makes him to live under pressure. The money he hardly gets is spent to buy products that are unnecessary (p. 149). Consumptive lifestyle makes the main character stress.
Nevertheless, he keeps living on that way.
The next characteristic is that he is eager to reach a better life. Therefore, he works hard in order to get money. Besides, he also wants to purchase things, such as stereo, concrete floor, etc (p. 43) that basically in order to make his life more comfortable. This eagerness to reach a better life is also shown in his past life. After graduating from college, he would rather find a job than get married.
After college I called him long distance and said, now what? My dad didn’t know, so he said get married. I’m twenty-five-year-old-boy, and I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer I need (p. 51).
It shows that he thinks about his future, especially how to get money and property
(p. 70).
Usually, people who want to improve their life will have high hopes in their minds. The main character also has too many hopes in his mind because of a desire to get a better life. For example, he hopes to have complete things in his condominium. It is proved by a marketing brochure that he keeps, which means that he has intention to buy its products. He hopes to have a foot of concrete floor, ceiling and wall, any adjacent stereo or turned-up television and also air conditioning in his condominium (p. 41).
The main character is also a perfectionist. The main character’s desire to reach a better life makes him to be a perfectionist. It can be seen through his statement when he meets Tyler, his other personality, for the first time. I feel trapped. I was too complete. I was too perfect (p. 173).
The example of his perfection is that as a common worker, he chooses to live in a condominium (p. 41). His perfection can also be seen through his desire to complete his condominium with high quality material objects (p. 43-44).
This perfection can also be observed through the things that he brought in every trip. He never forgets to bring all things that he needs. (p. 41). It is relevant to his job as a recall campaign coordinator whose job is to do presentation.
The main character is also easily influenced. It can be observed through the consumptive lifestyle which is highly influenced by other people in his society. He will do or buy what those people do or buy. The main character is also easily influenced by the advertisement. He wants to have high quality products that are offered in a catalogue (p. 43). Most of the products he owns have famous brand names, such as Njurunda coffee tables, Haparanda sofa group by Erika
Pekkari, etc. It indicates that he is a victim of the advertisements because those products are very expensive and he does not really need them.
He is a lavish person because he has wasted his money to buy many expensive and high quality products that are not really important in his life (p. 43).
He admires high quality products which are very expensive. Consequently, he loses a lot of money in order to buy them.
The main character is also a weak person. He is not able to fight against bad condition that makes him to live under pressure. The example is that the main character does not dare enough to complain or refuse bad treatments from his boss. He accepts to do his boss’ responsibilities whereas his boss takes leisure (p.
138). This causes stress. But, the main character is not able to fight and move from his terrible condition which makes him to live under pressure.
I hated my life. I was tired and bored with my job and my furniture, and I could not see any way to change this (p. 172).
The main character is also a stupid man. It is proved by his statement bellow.
I am helpless. I am stupid, and all I do is want and need things. My tiny life. My little shit job. My Swedish furniture. I never, no, never told anyone this, but before I met Tyler, I was planning to buy a dog and name it “Entourage" (p. 146).
After he meets Tyler in his hallucination, the main character realizes that he is stupid man. He becomes the victim of exploitation. He calls himself with a dog’s name that is Entourage. Entourage means accompany important person. He only does his boss’ orders, just like a servant.
He is not able to analyze what make him to live under pressure and find the solutions. But, he keeps living on that way and sacrificing his happiness. His hope to quit from his job shows his hatred to his job (p. 144). Nevertheless, he just sighs and does not know what to do. He should have just left his job and find things that make him happy. But, it even does not come up to his mind.
He also finds difficulty to build relationships with other people. So, the main character only has few friends. They are Big Bob, Marla, and Tyler. Big Bob is a friend in Remaining Men Together, a testicular cancer support group. Big Bob considers the main character as his friend because he thinks that the main character’s testicle is removed too. In fact, the main character is a faker. If Big
Bob knows the truth, they might not have that close relationship.
Bob loves me because he thinks my testicles were removed, too (p. 17).
Then, the main character has close relationship with Marla because she is a friend in support group, too. First, they have conflict because the main character feels threatened with her present and it makes him unable to find relaxation (p.
24).
This is the one real thing in my life, and you’re wrecking it. You big tourist. The next time we meet, I’ll say, Marla, I can’t sleep with you here. I need this. Get out (p. 24).
Then, they are closer because Marla loves him (p. 170).
The narrator’s last close friend is Tyler. He is the narrator’s other personality. Tyler is considered as the narrator’s friend (p. 11) because they can talk to each other. Actually Tyler is the narrator’s hallucination, not real. But, in the beginning, the main character has not realized that Tyler is his split personality.
The narrator’s inability to make friends is shown through his statement that since college he loses friends because they get married (p. 62). During his life, he does not have close friends. He is not able to keep up his relationships.
Their relationships end because of a marriage.
B. The Main Character’s Life Pressures
Before we discuss the main character’s life pressures, it is important to describe the background of society of the main character, because it gives contribution which makes him under pressure.
The society of the novel is described as a modern country where the civilization develops rapidly. There are many buildings, such as hotels, Hein
Tower, National museum, Parker-Morris building (p. 118) decorating the cities of that country. The buildings, with hundreds of floors, become the beautiful landscape. There are also companies that produce plenty of high quality modern products. Those products include furniture, plants, equipments, clothes, etc.
This development has influenced people’s way of life. They become consumers of those products. It is proved by the main character’s statement that he is not the only slave of the material objects (p. 43). The influence of consumer culture widely spreads in the country. Although they come from different classes with different financial conditions, they try to follow consumptive lifestyle.
Consumerism exists in the society. It brings negative effect to the main character of the novel. Consumptive lifestyle, combined with life problems and characteristics, becomes trigger to undergo stress.
In the following explanation, the writer will discuss the main character’s life pressures.
According to Sue et al. (1986: 216), stress is a sort of mental pressure placed on an individual by a hard situation, or the individual’s internal reaction to that pressure. There are, in general, three kinds of stressors. They are biological stressors such as trauma, disease, fatigue; psychological stressors such as threats of physical harm, attacks on self-esteem; and social stressors, such as economic pressures. Besides, there is adjustment disorder as cause of stress. It is including financial difficulties and sadness.
1. Financial Difficulty
The main character belongs to the working class people. He works in an unnamed company as a recall campaign coordinator (p. 31). As a person who is easily influenced by his surrounding, he also practices consumptive lifestyle. He spends his wage to buy high quality products and they are very expensive.
However, his wage as an employee is not enough to buy those things. Therefore, he faces financial difficulty. The narrator states that he is hundred of dollars overdrawn (p. 53). Besides, he also says that without money to worry about, he could quit his job (p. 87). He really needs the money in order to buy things. He earns it by doing the job he hates. All he does is to satisfy his lavish characteristic.
The stress is caused by his hatred to his job (p. 172). The job makes the main character tired and bored. It brings him stress.
The stress is also influenced by his characteristic that likes to force himself. Although he does not have enough money to purchase those expensive products, he still has desire to buy them (p. 44). However, he cannot buy all those products because of the limited money. Consequently, those unfulfilled hopes make the narrator to live under pressure. He is stressed by his own inability to buy all products he wants. The main character’s characteristics, which are perfectionist and easily influenced by the advertisement has worsened the stress. He wants to have high quality and expensive products, such as Johanneshov armchair, Audi, etc that are offered in brochures. His desire to purchase those products is uncontrolled (p. 43-
44). Unfortunately, the main character does not have enough money to satisfy his desire. As a result, his unfulfilled desires make the main character to live under pressure.
2. Fatigue
Most of the time, the main character suffers from great tiredness.
Physically, it is caused by his job that forces him to fly from one city to another every time (p. 157). He has to accomplish his boss’ order, such as leading a presentation to their clients (p. 47). Psychologically, his consumptive lifestyle absorbs his life and his mind (p. 44). He never stops to think of how to buy new products, just like what he says that there is tornado in his head (p. 99). He never relaxes his mind, so it makes him experience fatigue psychologically.
Many people have ever experienced fatigue and sometimes it can cause stress. For the main character, it is because of the influence of his characteristics.
The main character’s characteristic, which likes to force himself to do things he does not enjoy, is the obvious proof. Although the main character feels daytime fatigue and stress with his job and lifestyle, he keeps living on that way (p. 149).
This condition leads the main character to suffer from stress. The main character’s stress is also influenced by his eagerness to reach a better life. He wants to live in luxury, and it is done by buying complete and high quality products (p. 43-44). In order to buy these things, he needs a lot of money.
This reason forces the main character to work hard. However, it finally brings him into stress because of daytime fatigue (p. 149).
3. Inability
Other reason of the main character’s pressure is that he does not have capability to reach his hopes (p. 146). His weaknesses have made his hope unfulfilled. Further, his characteristics do not support him to reach his dream. For example, he is a stupid and having weak characteristic. The stupid and weak characteristics make the main character hardly reaches success. He is not able to think what can bring him into success and do it. On the other hand, he just accepts the bad condition that makes him live under pressure (p. 172). Sometimes, success needs intelligence and supporting characteristics, like powerful, brave, and also lucky. The main character is a stupid man. So, it is hard for him to reach success.
The main character has a lot of hopes in order to be successful, but it is unfulfilled because of his inability. The unfulfilled desires make him stress.
4. Victim of Consumptive Lifestyle
The main character is a victim of consumer culture in his society. His characteristic influences the main character to be a consumer. He is a person who is easily influenced by his surrounding. So, the condition where all people are consumers makes the main character becomes a consumer, too. He works hard to get money in order to buy different things. As he admits that buying all those stuff takes his whole life (p. 44). Further, the main character is never satisfied, and he wants to buy new products.
The Vild hall clock made of galvanized stell, oh, I had to have that. You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug (p. 43- 44).
The main function of material objects is to make human’s life easier and more comfortable. But, somehow, it has become destructive. The main character becomes a person who lives for material objects.
Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you (p. 44).
The main character’s purpose to buy those things is to show to the world that he can be like the other people in his society. He wants to prove that he also has ability to live in consumptive lifestyle and become part of his society.
“A lot of young people try to impress the world and buy too many things, “the doorman said (p. 45).
Consumptive lifestyle brings the main character into deeper pressure. He is not able to satisfy his desire to buy many things. The material objects’ purpose which is basically to make life easier becomes burden toward his life. He cannot find happiness from it, but stress. The main character wants to escape from his lifestyle. It is expressed in the statement to Tyler.
I called Tyler. Oh, Tyler, please deliver me. Oh, Tyler, please rescue me. Deliver me from Swedish furniture. Deliver me from clever art. Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete (p. 46).
Consumptive lifestyle has made the main character stress. So, he creates
Tyler to save his life from consumptive lifestyle.
5. Victim of the Company’s Exploitation
The main character’s life pressures are also influenced by the problems in his work. The company where he works tries to get profit by doing crime. It produces cars with incomplete and awful materials that endanger their customers.
What I don’t have to say is I know about the leather interiors that cause birth defects. I know about the counterfeit brake linings that looked good enough to pass the purchasing agent, but fail after two thousand miles I know about the air-conditioning rheostat that gets so hot it sets fire to the maps in your glove compartment. I know how many people burn alive because of fuel-injector flashback. I’ve seen people’s legs cut off at the knee when turbochargers start exploding and send their vanes through the firewall and into the passenger compartment. I’ve been out in the field and seen the burned-up cars and seen the reports where cause of failure is recorded as “unknown” (p. 99).
The company tries to get profit as much as possible. They do not want to suffer a financial loss. On the other hand, they do not give good treatments and services to its employees. The employees are forced to do a lot of duties and there are also rules that they must obey. It can be seen through what has happened to the main character.
The main character has to obey the rules. He only initiates a recall if the total cost is greater. So, the company will get profit. The main character has to keep this secret (p. 30). Further, the main character’s boss does not appreciate his loyalty and his hard work well. He does not give to the main character leisure or rewards, but a lot of jobs to do (p. 30). The main character should handle many responsibilities, while his boss is going for a vacation.
My boss is gone on vacation. He sent me an E-mail and then disappeared. I’m to prepare for a formal review in two weeks. Reserve a conference room. Get all my ducks in a row. Update my resume. That short of thing. They’re building a case against me. I’m Joe’s Complete Lack of Surprise. I’ve been behaving miserably (p. 138).
He also has to be discipline. His boss does not agree if the main character uses company’s time to do things that do not relevant to his job. It is clearly seen through his anger when the main character abuses the copy machines.
My boss shakes the paper under my nose. What about it, he says. Is this some little game I’m playing on company time? I’m paid for my full attention, not to waste time with little war games. And, I’m not paid to abuse the copy machines (97).
The main character becomes a victim of exploitation. His boss considers him not as an employee who has to get good treatment and privileges such as leisure, but slave whose energy is sucked. The exploitation makes the main character hates his job and lives under pressure. The main character’s hatred to his job is seen when the mechanic asks him about his wish before he died. He said that he wants to quit from his job.
“What, “he says, “what will you wish you’d done before you died?’ With the oncoming car screaming its horn and the mechanic so cool he even looks away to look at me beside him in the front seat, and he says, “Ten seconds to impact. “Nine. “In eight. “Seven. “In six.” My job, I say. I wish I’d quit my job (p. 144).
The pressure gets worse because he forces himself to keep working in a job that he hates.
“You have a class of young strong man and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need (p. 149).
The main character of the novel belongs to the people who work for the jobs they hate. They want to struggle just so they can get money and buy material objects they do not really need.
His hatred to his job actually has made the main character to live under pressure. But, the pressure gets worse because he is also stupid, weak and likes to force himself. Although he feels under pressure, the main character keeps working on that job. He does not try to find the other job to gain money. Consequently, the continuous pressure makes the main character experience stress.
He keeps working in a job he hates is because he needs the money in order to satisfy his consumptive lifestyle desire. He also wants to reach a better life. So, he is willing to struggle in order to get money. Consequently, he lives under pressure. Other than that, the main character is a weak and stupid person. So, he does not have the ability and bravery to rebel from his terrible condition. He does not have an initiative to move from it and, even, he cannot see any other way to change the condition (p. 172).
6. Companionless
The next reason is that he finds difficulty to build relationships with other people. As we know that having friends to talk and share is really important in our life, a person should have one to fulfill it. Because sometimes, by sharing our problems to our friends, our burden might be lighter. And we also do not feel lonely but having the feelings of being cared and loved. So, it can reduce our burden.
The main character’s loneliness can be a trigger of his stress. He does not have friends to share his burdens with. He also bears the problems by himself which also a trigger of his depression. Someone who sits beside the main character in a trip to a city asks him to make connection (p. 31). He might know that the main character is having problems. He may see it through his face or his behaviors. What he says that is to make connection means that the main character should have friends to share because it might reduce his burden.
The main character is also too busy with his job and his life (p. 44). He spent most of the time to work and think of how to complete his condominium with material objects. He does not have time to make relation and have fun with other people. He never relaxes his mind and his body. It brings him to live under pressure.
C. The Effects of the Main Character’s Life Pressures
The effects caused by the main character’s life pressures are discussed bellow.
1. Insomnia
The effect of the main character’s life pressures is insomnia. This ailment often appears in his life. It, even, disturbs his daily activities. There are several indications to prove that he suffers from insomnia. They are awakening at night, difficulty falling asleep, daytime fatigue, and frequent early-morning awakenings
(Davison and Neale, 1980: 510). Most of nights, he finds difficulty to sleep.
Three weeks and I hadn’t slept. Three weeks without sleep and everything becomes an out of body experience (p. 19).
The insomnia is also seen through his daytime fatigue that can be noticed through the sighs in every trip. Like what he says that he was very tired and crazy and rushed, and every time he is on air travel, he wants the plane to crush (p. 172).
For a normal people, board a plane might not become a big burden because it does not need too much energy. And what make the main character tired are burdens and pressures in his mind.
The main character’s insomnia is also shown by being awake at night and at early of the morning.
Last Thursday night, I was awake all night with the insomnia, wondering was I awake, was I sleeping. I woke up late Friday morning, bone tired and feeling I hadn’t ever had my eyes closed (p. 158).
The insomnia is influenced by stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep habits, and aging (Davison and Neale, 1980: 510).
One of the triggers of the insomnia is anxiety and stress. It is shown when he meets Marla in Remaining Men Together, the testicular cancer support group.
He cannot cry with her watching him (p. 18). He feels threatened because she reflects his lie and he is afraid to lose a chance to get relaxation. The anxiety and stress make the main character insomnia.
Until tonight, two years of success until tonight, because I can’t cry with this woman watching me. Because I can’t hit bottom, I can’t be saved. My tongue thinks it has flocked wallpaper, I’m biting the inside of my mouth so much. I haven’t slept in four days (p. 22).
Depression can also cause insomnia. The depression is caused by his hatred to his job and lifestyle. Then, he has poor sleep habit. He often says that he wakes up at Sky Harbor International and sets his watch back two hours or at
O’Hare and takes shuttle into Chicago and sets his watch ahead an hour (p. 157), etc. The effect of frequent trips across multiple time zones causes him exhausted and having poor sleep habit. Whenever it is time to take a rest and sleep, he still works. The uncomfortable place might become reason why he does not sleep. The writer analyzes that in every trip he cannot sleep but feels tired and stress. It makes him suffers from insomnia.
Next, the main character’s insomnia is influenced by his age. He is a thirty years old man. Usually, a man whose age is above thirty years old will have heavier burdens than those whose age is bellow thirty. It is because in the age of thirty, a man will begin to think of his future and think of how to reach better life, like the main character that has many hopes in his life. He wants to be successful in job and in life. Too many hopes, combine with life pressures, make the main character experiencing insomnia.
2. Multiple Personality Disorder
In this part, the writer will give the evidences that the main character suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. This ailment is an effect of the main character’s life pressures. The evidences include the symptoms of Multiple
Personality Disorder and the explanation of the different behaviors, social relationships, perceptions, associations, characteristics and memories of the two personalities.
The main character’s life pressures make him to experience Multiple
Personality Disorder.
“I said that if you talked about me behind my back, you’d never see me again, “Tyler said. “We’re not two separate men. Long story short, when you’re awake, you have the control, and you can call yourself anything you want, but the second you fall asleep, I take over, and you become Tyler Durden” (p. 167).
It is proved by the existence of his other personality, namely Tyler
Durden. They do not ‘appear’ at the same time, like Sue et al. state that the existence of the two personalities is not at the same time (Sue et al., 1986: 194). It is observed through the personality that is shown. Whenever, the narrator takes control, he will show passive and weak characteristics. Conversly, whenever Tyler takes control, he will show active, powerful, brave and optimistic characteristics.
When one of them appears, the other one is amnesia. Like what Sue et al state that one of personalities may be aware of the existence of the other. Tyler is aware that he is the other personality of the narrator (p. 167) while the narrator is not.
Sue et al (1986: 194) and Huffman et al (1997: 506) state that Multiple
Personality Disorder is the existence of two or more personalities in one individual that each personality has different behaviors, social relationships, perceptions, associations, characteristics, and memories. a. Behavior
Both personalities have different behaviors. The narrator is a person who has a good manner. He is kind, gentle, nice, and respectful while Tyler is a cruel, rough, and disrespectful. The narrator gentleness is proved by his behavior that never fights with anybody, as he had never hit anybody (p. 52). The narrator’s nice behavior is seen through his obedient, politeness and respectful attitude toward his boss and his father. The narrator never expresses his disagreement to his boss’ order. To his father, he never tries to do revenge as his father has left the narrator since he was six years old. Besides, he also admits that he used to be such a nice person (p. 98).
On the other hand, Tyler is a cruel person. He has killed the narrator’s boss
(p. 195) and also Patrick Madden. Madden is killed because he wants to shut down the Fight Clubs and Project Mayhem.
Tyler shot the mayor’s special envoy on whatever (196). His name was Patrick Madden, and he was the mayor’s special envoy on recycling. His name was Patrick Madden, and he was an enemy of Project Mayhem (p. 198).
Tyler also threatens police commissioner (164-166). It shows that Tyler does not respect his boss.
Tyler behaves impolitely through blackmailing the president of national united projectionists.
Oh, that wasn’t problem, Tyler said, and grinned. As long as the union kept sending a paycheck, he’d keep his mouth shut. Tyler said, “Think of this as early retirement, with pension” (p. 113).
His roughness can be seen through the violence that he makes, such as fighting, pouring chemical lye to the narrator’s hand and burn it, etc (p. 74).
b. Social Relationship
The narrator has bad social relationship. He does not have time to make a social life because the narrator is too busy with his life. As he says that buying the material objects takes his whole life (p. 44). Besides, his job needs much time. He has to fly from city to another city every day in order to replay the customers’ callings. So, the narrator does not have time to socialize with other people.
Consequently, he does not have a lot of friends. There are only several people that have close relation with the narrator. They are Marla, Big Bob, and Tyler.
In contrast to the narrator, Tyler has good social relationship. Although he is a night worker, he still has time to make friends. Tyler’s characteristics that are smart and powerful make his socialization with other people easier because people admire him. The proof can be seen through a lot of friends that Tyler has in many cities. Tyler’s friends are all members of Fight Clubs in the country, and friends from his working place as projectionist and as a waiter.
c. Perception
They have different perception of life. The narrator views consumptive lifestyle as something that has to be achieved. The proof is seen through his desire to possess material objects (p. 41). He is willing to suffer from stress in order to reach it.
Related to Tyler’s plan to explode the buildings, the narrator sees it as a crime, because it can kill a lot of people.
My point being, I say, I fall asleep and Tyler is running off with my body and punched-out face to commit some crimes (p. 173). Whenever Tyler is in charge, he orders his members to do crimes. One of the crimes is exploding buildings. However, the narrator struggles to prevent the booms exploding because it endangers many people.
And if I do fall asleep, Marla has to keep track of Tyler. Where he goes. What he does. So maybe during the day, I can rush around and undo the damage (p. 175).
On the other hand, Tyler views that exploding buildings is a way to cure
Project Mayhem’s members from consumptive lifestyle. He does not care if it can kill other people.
According to Tyler, consumerism is a disease. So, it has to be brought down. The proof is that Tyler explodes the narrator’s condominium with its luxurious material objects (p. 44-45). Those material objects are symbols of consumptive lifestyle.
The other example is shown through Tyler’s statement.
Tyler says I shouldn’t just abandon money and property and knowledge. I should run from self-improvement (p. 70).
The quotation above indicates that Tyler asks the narrator to leave his consumptive lifestyle.
d. Association
They have different associations. The narrator is a day worker on an unnamed Company (p. 30). He also joins in several support groups in his country, such as Remaining Men Together, Above and Beyond support groups, etc.
She was in my melanoma round table Wednesday night. Monday night she was in my Firm Believers leukemia rap group. My Thursday evening group for blood parasites, it’s called Free and Clear. The group I go to for brain parasites is called Above and Beyond. And, Sunday afternoon at Remaining Men Together in the basement of Trinity Episcopal (p. 18).
On the other hand, Tyler is a night worker as movie projectionist and waiter in Pressman Hotel (p. 27). Tyler also forms many Fight Clubs and builds an army that is called Project Mayhem in many cities. When the narrator looks for
Tyler in a city, he is surprised because most of men he meets in bars have known him. They buy the narrator a beer and throw an arm around him (158). It indicates that Tyler has built many Fight Clubs in many cities and the narrator does not realize it.
e. Memory
Although they share the same body, they have different memories. The obvious example is that Tyler does not know and never knows about his father (p.
49), while the narrator knows his father and his family.
Then, the narrator does not remember what Tyler has been done related to the activities of Fight Clubs with their Project Mayhems in other cities. He finally knows about the cruel plan to explode many buildings in his country from a member of Fight Club (p. 158).
f. Characteristic
Here, the writer will only focus on the characteristics that show the contrast between them. The narrator’s characteristics have been described in the previous part, while Tyler’s characteristics will be explained bellow. Tyler Durden is a night jobs worker. He works as movie projectionist and also as banquet waiter.
His name was Tyler Durden, and he was a movie projectionist with the union, and he was a banquet waiter at a hotel, downtown, and he gave me his phone number (p. 33).
He also has very disorder appearance.
…his hair wet and stringy (p. 32).
However, he is a smart man and has wide knowledge. It can be proved by his ability to make soaps from fat.
“First, “Tyler says and jumps from the kitchen doorway to digging in the freezer. “First, we need to render some fat.” This fat has a lot of salt so the more water, the better. Put the fat in the water, and get the water boiling (p. 66-68).
Tyler also builds Paper Street Soap Company (p. 87) which produces high amount of soaps in order to be sold. He is able to make dynamite, and build
Project Mayhem. The narrator also says that Tyler is full of useful information (p.
65). It shows that Tyler is smart.
Other than that, he is very cruel and sadistic. Tyler pours lye to the narrator’s hand. According to Tyler, it is a way to show their physical power.
Tyler tilts the can of lye an inch above the shinning wet kiss on the back of my hand (p. 73).
He also kills the narrator’s boss and Mr. Patrick Madden.
If she means my boss, I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, the police know, everyone’s looking for me to lethally inject me, already, but it was Tyler who killed my boss (p. 195).
Tyler builds Fight Club and Project Mayhem in order to train its members to make terrible activities, for instance exploding Parker-Morris Building, National museum, Hein Tower (118), developing computer viruses (145) and making soaps from fat. He also causes problems in the companies he works for, for example taking a pee on the foods, giving urine in the perfumes that the hostess and her friends used (p. 81-82), and blackmailing the manager.
Tyler is also a rebellious person. Through Project Mayhem that he builds, its actual purpose is to attack the consumptive lifestyle. He disagrees with the consumer culture that exists in his society.
When Tyler invented Project Mayhem, Tyler said the goal of Project Mayhem had nothing to do with other people. Tyler didn’t care if other people get hurt or not. The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world (p. 122).
The purpose of forming Project Mayhem is to teach each member so that they do not follow consumptive lifestyle and become its victim. Instead, they should use their power to determine their own life. However, in this case, Tyler uses the violence to show their power.
Tyler is a powerful man. It is proved by his successfulness to take over the control of the narrator’s personality in the beginning and unconsciously influences him. The narrator always does Tyler’s orders, for example, Tyler asks the narrator to get rid of Marla (p. 66). Tyler influence can also be seen through the narrator’s statements concerning his boss.
My boss looks at the rules and looks at me. Maybe, I say, this totally diseased fuck would use an Eagle Apache carbine because an Apache takes a thirty-shot mag and only weighs nine pounds. The Armalite only takes a five-round magazine. With thirty shots, our totally fucked hero could go the length of mahogany row and take out every vice-president with a cartridge left over for each director. Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth (p. 98).
The other example is that he is able to unite many men to join the Fight
Club and Project Mayhem and influence them to follow his idea that is to bring down the consumer culture through violence (p. 125).
Tyler is also an independent and brave man. It is proved by the narrator’ statement about Tyler.
I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not (p. 174).
He dares to make protest against consumer culture.
This was the goal of Project Mayhem, Tyler said, to complete and right- away destruction of civilization (p. 125).
Tyler’s protest to consumer culture is also shown through pouring urine in the perfumes which is made from whale. It has very expensive price and used by high class people (p. 83). Then, he explodes buildings in the cities and the narrator’s condominium, too. Those buildings symbolize modern society and narrator’s condominium symbolizes consumptive lifestyle.
It is important to explain the symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder because it is used to recognize whether someone suffers from Multiple Personality
Disorder or not.
There are three symptoms that indicate someone suffers from Multiple
Personality Disorder. Those are anxiety, hysterical and affective symptoms (Sue et al., 1986: 198).
The main character suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. It is recognized through the symptoms that he has. The anxiety symptom is the feeling of fear and apprehension. It is shown through inability to concentrate. It is proved by the main character’s anxiety if he cannot get relaxation because of Marla coming. Marla’s lie reflects his lie.
Further, the main character finds difficulty to concentrate. So, his chakras stay closed.
In guided meditation, I open my arms to receive my inner child, and the child is Marla smoking her cigarette. No white healing ball of light. Liar. No chakras. My chakras stay closed (p. 37).
Hysterical symptom is characterized by amnesia. The main character only shows the psychogenic fugue that is the amnesia accompanied by flight (p. 168).
Tyler leaves the country in order to form others new Fight Clubs. He meets many new people. But, the narrator does not remember what Tyler does. He does not know that Tyler has builds many Fight Clubs in cities (p. 158).
The last symptom is affective symptom. It consists of two parts. They are symptom of depression and symptom of mania.
The symptom of depression can be shown through affective, behavior, and cognitive symptom. Affective symptom is the feeling of sadness, worthlessness, and loss joy of living (Sue et al., 1986: 199). It can be seen through most of his statements such as his hope to suicide, his hatred to his life and his job, etc. It seems that he always feel sad and depressed. The writer cannot find any clue which shows his happiness.
Behavior symptom can be seen through his appearance. The insomnia has made his face looks pale.
The bruised, old fruit way my face had collapsed, you would’ve thought I was dead (p. 19).
Cognitive symptom is seen through his suicidal idea that always comes to his mind whenever he is on flight (p. 26). It shows that he cannot put up with his life pressures anymore. He has lost motivation of life that makes it difficult to cope with everyday situations, and he just wants to die. In addition, he is very pessimistic and facing self-depreciation. It is proved by his statement that he has tired and bored with his life and his job and he could not see any way to change things (172). His job and his life have made him experiencing spiritual depression.
His inability to find any solution shows his pessimistic and giving up.
The second are symptom of mania. It is characterized by boundless energy, aggressive behavior, doing things that endanger himself or others, and engaging in sex activity. All of those features can be found in Tyler’s characteristics. Tyler has boundless energy to do many things. Therefore, he becomes waiter and projectionist in the night (p. 27). He also organizes many
Fight Clubs and Project Mayhems in many cities. Then, he trains his army to make soaps, homemade bombs, etc. Tyler is also engaging in sex activity with
Marla Singer. They have made love many times.
After Tyler and Marla had sex about ten times, Tyler says, Marla said she wanted to get pregnant. Marla said she wanted to have Tyler’s abortion (59).
The narrator also injures himself. Whenever he is fighting with Tyler, normal people will see that he fights to himself, because Tyler is his hallucination, not real. Besides, the main character also explodes buildings in the cities. He does not think that it will kill many people. Then, the main character’s aggressiveness can be seen through Tyler’s desire to fight. CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
There are three points that can be concluded based on the analysis done in this thesis. The first conclusion is about the main character’s characteristics. The second conclusion is the main character’s life pressures. The third conclusion is the effects of the main character’s life pressures.
The first conclusion is concerned with the main character’s characteristics.
There are nine characteristics that have role to make the main character stress.
Those nine characteristics are forcing himself to do things that he does not enjoy, being too eager to reach a better life, having many hopes, being a perfectionist, being easily influenced, lavish, weak, stupid, and unsociable.
The second conclusion is concerned with the main character’s life pressures influenced by his characteristics. First, financial difficulty has caused his hopes to satisfy his lavish characteristic to be unfulfilled. This is also influenced by the fact that he likes to force himself. Although he does not have enough money to purchase those expensive products, he still has the desire to buy them. However, he cannot buy all those products because of his limited money.
These unfulfilled desires make him stress. The main character’s characteristics, which are perfectionist and easily influenced by advertisements has worsened the stress.
Daily fatigue also causes the main character to be under pressure. His job and his unfulfilled desire to purchase high quality products make the main character experience fatigue physically and psychologically. The main character’s characteristics, being that he likes to force himself to do things he does not enjoy and his eagerness to reach a better life have worsened his stress.
He does not have ability to reach his dreams because he is stupid and weak. Those characteristics do not support him to be successful. The main character has a lot of hopes and desires, but they are unfulfilled because of his inability to attain them. The unfulfilled desire makes him stress.
The main character is a victim of a consumptive lifestyle. His characteristic that is easily influenced by his surroundings causes him to be a consumer, too. His consumptive life style makes him stress because he cannot fulfill all of his desires.
He is also a victim of exploitation done by the company where he works.
Bad treatments and a lot of tasks make the main character stress. The stress is also influenced by forcing himself and having desire to reach a better life. He is willing to struggle in order to obtain money. However, the continuous pressure makes him experience stress.
Next, he is companionless. He bears all of his problems by himself because he does not have friends to share. That causes him to live under pressure.
The third conclusion is concerned with the effects of the main character’s life pressures. There are two effects of the main character’s life pressures. First, the main character suffers from insomnia. It is shown through the symptoms that he has. The main character often awakes at nights and at early in the morning. He also finds difficulty to asleep and experiences daytime fatigue. The main character also suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. The main character has another personality, namely Tyler Durden. The two personalities have different behaviors, social relationships, perceptions, associations, characteristics and memories.
The main character also shows several symptoms that indicate Multiple
Personality Disorder. He shows anxiety, hysterical and affective symptoms.
The anxiety symptom is shown through his inability to concentrate because of the feeling of fear.
The hysterical symptoms are shown through the loss of memory when the main character becomes Tyler. Tyler leaves the city in order to form others new
Fight Clubs in other cities. The people in those cities know the main character as
Tyler who is smart, brave and powerful, not as the narrator who is stupid and weak.
The main character also shows the affective symptoms. An affective symptom consists of symptoms of depression and symptoms of mania. Symptoms of depression are shown through his wish to commit suicide, bad appearance, his pessimism and self-depreciation. Symptoms of mania are shown through the main character’s aggressive behavior, bad attitudes that endanger the other people and eagerness to engage in sexual activity.
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APPENDIX
THE SUMMARY OF FIGHT CLUB
The book centers around a nameless narrator who hates his job and the way his life currently is. He works for an unnamed company, organizing product recalls on defective models if, and only if, the cost of the recall is less than the total cost of out-of-court settlement paid to relatives of the deceased. At the same time, he is becoming disenchanted with a “nesting instinct” consumerism that absorbed his life, causing him to define himself as a person based on the furniture, clothes, and other material objects that he owns. These aspects of life, combined with frequent trips across multiple time zones (due to his job) disturb him to the point that they cause him to suffer from chronic insomnia.
At the recommendation of his doctor, he goes to the support groups of men with testicular cancer which there he can find that cry and listen to emotional outpourings from suffering individuals allows him to sleep at night, he becomes addicted to attending them. Although he doesn’t really suffer from any ailments that the other attendants have, he is never caught being “tourist” until he meets
Marla, a woman who also attends the support group without needing them fro their original purpose. Her presence reflects his ‘tourism’. It causes him unable to cry and consequently cause him to hate Marla. He is again unable to control his insomnia.
Then his life change radically after he meets Tyler Durden, who works low-paying jobs at night in order to perform deviant behavior on the job. On the other hand, an explosion destroys the narrator’s condo and he asks Tyler if he can stay at his place. Tyler agrees but he asks for one favor that is to hit Tyler as hard as he can. This fight attracts more disenchanted males, and anew form of support group, the first”fight club” is born. It becomes the therapy through bare-knuckle fighting, controlled by a set or rules.
As the first fight club’s membership grow (unbeknownst to the narrator, spread to other cities across the country). Tyler begins to use it to spread anti- consumerism ideas and recruits its member to participate in attacks on corporate
America. Tyler gathers the most devoted fight club members and from “Project
Mayhem”, an organization-like that trains itself an army to bring down modern civilization. It is controlled by a set of rules. The narrator starts off as a loyal participant in Project Mayhem, seeing it as the next step for fight club. However, he becomes uncomfortable with the increasing of the destructiveness of their activities after the result for the death of his friend.
As the narrator tries to stop Tyler and his followers, he learns that he is
Tyler; Tyler is not a separate person, but a separate personality. As the narrator struggles with his hatred for his job and his consumerist lifestyle, his mind begins to form a new personality that was able to escape from the problems of his normal life. Tyler’s personality has been slowly taking over the narrator’s mind, which he planned to take over completely by making the narrator’s personality more like this. The narrator’s previous cases of insomnia had actually been Tyler’s personality surfacing. Tyler would be active whenever the narrator was ‘sleeping’.
This allowed Tyler to manipulate the narrator into helping him create fight club; he learned recipes for creating explosives and used this knowledge to blow up his condo.
The narrator also learns that Tyler plans to blow up several buildings in the downtown area of the city using homemade bombs created by Project
Mayhem. During these explosions, he plans to die as martyr for Project Mayhem, consequently taking the narrator’s life with his. Realizing this, he tries to stop
Tyler. He is eventually forced by Tyler to confront him on the roof of the tallest building, which is about to be destroyed along with the other buildings that
Project Mayhem targeted. There, the narrator convince Tyler that he has no control over him anymore and that he will be the only one making decisions for himself from now on. This causes his hallucinations of Tyler to stop, ridding the narrator of his second personality for good.
While Tyler is gone, the narrator waits for the bombs to explode and kill him. However, the bombs turn out to be duds due to the facts that Tyler used the paraffin recipe, which never worked for the narrator, and thus Tyler as well. Still alive, and holding the gun that Tyler used to carry on him, the narrator decide as to make the first decision that is truly his own; he puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself. Some time later, he awakens in a mental institution. The novel ends with members of Project Mayhem who works at the institution telling the narrator that their plans to change the civilization are continuing to go through, and that they are expecting Tyler to make a return.