Hannah Stover
11-18-2013
movie vs. book Fight Club
After reading Fight Club the novel, and watching the movie, I think that there are more similarities than I expected there to be. Often, movies based on books are not similar and do not portray the point or characters as they are in the novel. One theme in the novel that was very prominent was consumerism, and how it is becoming a problem in society. The obsession the narrator has with his IKEA furniture and his belongings in his apartment are in my opinion, represented almost exactly the same in the novel and the movie. In the novel, Tyler’s goal is to have the narrator, all of his followers, and eventually the whole world hit their “rock bottom”, in both the movie and novel, Tyler is very adamant about this point and his quotes are identical in both versions. Another similarity in the novel and the movie is the rules fight club, project mayhem, and the rules of both organizations. The movie sticks very closely to the book’s portrayal of the importance of the rules of fight club and project mayhem, the narrator, and especially Tyler and his followers always recite the rules and carry out the missions the way they are recited and carried out in the novel.
One important difference between the book and the movie is the complicated relationship involving Tyler, the narrator, and Marla. In the novel, it is not as obvious that Marla is attracted to the narrator and that he is equally attracted to her, the movie shows Marla wanting to be with the narrator, but every morning he tells her to leave, because he is not the personality of Tyler at that time. This makes Marla upset and it is clear that she knows that the narrator is crazy, or really has a split personality now. The tension between the narrator and Marla is obvious from the beginning in the movie, he still is upset she is at the meetings, but the way it is seen by the audience is that in the future, the narrator and Marla will have some type of complicated relationship.
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