History Literature / FightClub

%% * BrokenAce: Tyler, being [[spoiler: the narrator's subconscious conception of his ideal self, which he manifests as an alternate personality.]]

--> '''Narrator:''' And clean food, alright?
--> '''Waiter in the Tyler-staffed restaurant:''' In that case, may I advise against the lady eating the clam chowder?

* LifeWillKillYou
--> '''Narrator:''' "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler: Tyler's plan is to bring down a skyscraper with him and the Narrator in it, crashing into a museum, causing it to kill hundreds.]]

%% --> "This isn't so much like a family as it's like he sets up a franchise."

* TheSnarkKnight: The narrator and Tyler, Tyler moreso, being [[spoiler: the narrator's uninhibited id manifested as a split personality.]]

--> '''Tyler Durden:''' Remember this. The people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you. We process your insurance claims and credit card charges. We control every part of your life. We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact. So don't fuck with us.

* WheresTheKaboom: [[spoiler: Tyler's plan to bring down a building fails, because he used [[ChekhovsGun paraffin mixed]] [[{{Foreshadowing}} with nitro]].]]

%% * GagBoobs: Bob is a rare male example.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The "foot cancer" the narrator talks about at one point is real; it's one of the early signs of AIDS.
** Fight clubs are also real. They're not so much anarchist cults as they are guys beating the shit out of each other and betting on it.
** There really was a series of articles titled "I Am Joe's [ORGAN_NAME]" (with "Jane" stepping in for organs like the uterus or ovaries) put out by ''Reader's Digest'' in the 1960s. They can be found [[https://archive.org/stream/IAmJoesBody-J.D.Ratcliffe/joebody_djvu.txt here]].

* BelligerentSexualTension: Marla and the Narrator.
** The Narrator and Tyler, more so in the book.
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: Tyler helping the Narrator.

* BrokenAce: Tyler, being [[spoiler: the narrator's subconscious conception of his ideal self, which he manifests as an alternate personality.]]
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:"Paraffin has never, ever worked for me."]]
* TheCommandments: The rules of Fight Club.

* GagBoobs: Bob is a rare male example.

* JekyllAndHyde: [[spoiler:The big twist of the story.]]

* MeaningfulEcho: A lot of them, too many to cite. Possibly as much as ten percent of the text.
* MentalStory: In large part, but a lot of interesting stuff happens in reality, too.
* MindScrew: The book is weird from the start, but after a certain point, [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore everything gets thrown out the window]].
* MissingTime: [[spoiler:The Narrator has some of these moments as Tyler takes greater and greater control of him.]]

* SecretOtherFamily: The narrator's father, repeatedly.
--> "This isn't so much like a family as it's like he sets up a franchise."

* WesternTerrorists: Project Mayhem. A rare case in that the fact that the terrorists are Western is the entire point.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"You have a birthmark, Mr. Durden."]]

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Members of Project Mayhem are given the title of "Space Monkey".

%%* TheTrickster: Tyler.

* ArcWords: Too many to count, this trope being a core part of Palahniuk's writing style (Palahniuk referred to them as "choruses".). They include...

''"People are always asking me if I know about Tyler Durden..."''

''"People were always asking did I know about Tyler Durden?"''
->'''--The Narrator'''

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The paraffin explosive has never worked...]]

-->'''The Narrator'''

[[caption-width-right:240:[-The last shot, the tower, all one hundred and ninety-one floors, will slam down on the national museum which is Tyler's real target.-] ]]

** "The first rule of fight club is you [[{{Masquerade}} do not talk about Fight Club]]. The second rule of Fight Club is you '''don't talk about fight club'''." Justified in-universe, since Tyler isn't joking -- you really shouldn't be telling anyone.

%%* {{Trickster}}: Tyler.

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: The fact that [[spoiler: The Narrator is Tyler.]]