As always, be sure to follow all MLA, course, and essay-specific guidelines. Include a proper works cited page at the end of your essay. It should be on the page following the end of your essay. Failure to include this will result in a loss of 5 pts. from the final essay grade (in addition to rubric penalties). Also, your outside support can be about Fight Club or about conformity, rebellion, and/or anything else that’s relevant and useful. In other words, don’t feel obligated to find outside sources about Fight Club only.
As we’ve seen, Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel—1996’s Fight Club—explores many topics and themes. Specifically, each of the three main characters—Tyler Durden, Marla Singer, and the narrator—represent different compromises between conformity and rebellion (in terms of both inward and societal/outward expectations). In a short MLA format essay (including in-text citations) of at least 5 full, double-spaced pages, use this novel—as well as at least four outside sources (one of which must be scholarly)—to write an essay in which you examine the thoughts, actions, speech, and/or interactions (with other characters) of one of these three characters to explore what they represent about conformity and rebellion in American society, as well as how much or how little we’re still expected to adhere to those expectations (considering that the book was published roughly twenty-five years ago). Ask yourself: What is this character conforming to at the start of the book, and how? Are they also rebelling against anything, and how? As the book goes on, do they change their thoughts and actions in terms of conformity and rebellion? At the end of the book, have they changed in terms of what they were conforming to and/or rebelling against? From start to finish, how do they represent real life reactions to real life situations/expectations?
"societal norms" AND conformity AND masculinity
"societal norms" AND rebellion AND masculinity
"Tyler Durden" AND "Fight Club"
On a larger scale, consider everything about the book as you write a short MLA format essay (including in-text citations) of at least 5 full, double-spaced pages, use this novel—as well as at least four outside sources (one of which must be scholarly)—in which you examine what Palahniuk is saying about conformity and rebellion in American society. Ask yourself: What kinds of conformity and rebellion do the characters—Tyler Durden, Marla Singer, the narrator, Bob, and/or others, too—
represent from start to finish? How do their thoughts, actions, and growth as characters represent changes of attitude toward what they were conforming to and/or rebellions against? Are there any compromises between conformity and rebellion by the end of the book? To what extent are those expectations, insecurities, and the like still relevant in 2025?
"societal norms" AND conformity AND masculinity
"societal norms" AND rebellion AND masculinity
"Fight Club" AND "character development"
Research Log #3: For our third Research Log, I’d like you to submit the usual outside source outline, as well as a brief overview of your argument. Specifically, include the following:
1) MLA Works Cited citations for all your outside sources. 2) A few sentences about what each outside source is about and why it’s credible/useful/applicable. 3) A few sentences about how you’ll use each outside source in your paper.
4) At least one paragraph that offers an overview of your argument. (What is your thesis/overarching point? What leads you to that conclusion, and what support from Fight Club will you use to support that, be they scenes/moments or actual quotes?)