Comparative analysis of two literary works

Fight Club & Francis Macomber

Comparison between Fight Club and the Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

In the film Fight Club, David Fincher constructs the white American male as feminized, uncertain and insecure with his masculinity after losing touch with their masculine side. The white American male is no longer the traditionally powerful male with big muscles; with a bruised ego, he has become feminized largely due to the capitalistic society and in part, due to the absence of his father thus being brought up by his mother. He strives to define, test and assert his masculinity by engaging in violent acts, as is also the case in Ernest Hemingway's The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, such as fist-fighting and eventually wreaking havoc to bring down the primary institutions which propagates and encourages the loss of his masculine identity.

While Fight Club explores the effects of capitalism to an average gray-collared white American male, represented by the Narrator played by Edward Norton, it digs deep into how the Narrator defines himself as a man in the midst of capitalism. The film takes us back to how the Narrator was before he ended up with a gun in his mouth. It shows us an average white male who defines himself by the things he buys and consumes, obsessed with a lifestyle, consumed by consuming.

The protagonist of the film, the Narrator, is not your traditional masculine white American hero. He doesn't have a big, strong body with bulging muscles nor does he use his body for work. He doesn't have to work physically hard to earn a living. Instead, he is what the present-day male workforce has become -- male office workers who define themselves by the things that they own. Tyler Durden said, who was later on revealed to be the Narrator himself, the present-day male is "an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." (Fincher)

He is man who has lost his masculine identity; a man who tries to reconstruct his masculinity while he desperately searches for things to give him some semblance of meaning in his life. Totally devoid of power, he is a slave to the corporation he works for. He works for money; money which he uses to buy the things that defines him. Jack is consumed by the consumer culture. He fills his life with things which he probably thinks will help him regain his masculinity. He focuses on his condo and lives a domesticated life, which is traditionally not considered as masculine. Consumerism, buying things, is considered as feminine, and this Tyler points out to Jack, "Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra." (Fincher)

He also works for the promise of someday making it big. It is this loss of power -- the act of serving someone -- that is one of the ways the American masculinity has been constructed in the film. The American male has lost his power. He is now controlled by big corporations, capitalists. Power is considered as masculine by tradition. A traditional male is a powerful and dominating. He is more powerful than females and he dominates his wife. Meanwhile, serving others has been traditionally considered as a feminine role. By tradition, females serve their husbands and their family. In the film, the male is depicted to be powerless; a man who serves his big bosses. This role constructs the American male as feminized as he works to serve, a traditionally female task. This loss of power and the responsibility of serving others puts a strain on the protagonist of the movie, which later on adds up to his frustrations.

Digging deeper to what reinforces the strong responsibility of serving others, we learn in the film of the relationship Jack, the Narrator, has with his father. His father was distant to him and disengaged in raising him up and parenting him. What should've been his primary source of masculine identity has left him. Brought up by his mother, it was no wonder that he was framed to think one day he will also make it big if he continues to work for the capitalist corporation that he works for. It was his lack of a strong masculine role model that encouraged his slavery to the capitalists, eventually causing him his loss of masculine identity. As Tyler Durden said, "We're a generation of men raised by women." (Fincher)

The threat to masculinity is also revealed in the film when the Narrator joins a support group of males who have testicular cancer and whose testicles have been removed. The film portrays the degradation of masculinity in the present-day capitalistic society with the scene of men weeping and with the introduction of the character, Bob, who has breasts such as that of a woman. We see how men have become feminized, weeping like women do. Gone were the days when crying was considered as a feminine act, an act of weakness. Bob was also a representation of the feminized male who is in agony of his current state.

In order to assert and reconstruct his masculinity, Jack joins Tyler in forming the Fight Club. This allowed him to define his masculinity through violence, which is similar to how manhood and masculinity is proven in Ernest Hemingway's The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber wherein Francis Macomber finally felt alive for the first time in his life when he shot at the buffalo. As violence was the only way for Francis Macomber to validate his masculinity, so it was for Jack. Encouraged by Tyler Durden as he represented what everything that is masculine is supposed to be, Jack evolves. Jack turns away from his possessions and his obsession with the consumer lifestyle. He moves in an abandoned and dilapidated old house and lives ruggedly. He begins to construct is masculine identity by involving in violent acts. He gets into a fight for the first time and afterwards, continues to fist-fight for fun.

The Narrator defends his masculinity by engaging heavily in fights. He later defies his boss as well, as he begins to rebel against conforming. He asserts his masculinity by going out with Marla Singer and engaging in sexual acts with her. It is in the violent acts that he engages in that he finds the proof of his masculinity.

The film also argues that there are no avenues or areas where men can prove their masculinity. Tyler Durden said, "We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives." (Fincher) Unlike in old times, there are no opportunities for men these days to prove their masculinity; there are no avenues for them to engage in violent acts, no arenas for them to ward of the softening of their masculinity.

This engagement in violent acts to prove one's masculinity is also shown in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. In this story, Francis felt really bad when he ran away from the lion they were hunting. And although his wife, Margaret, and the English hunter, Robert Wilson told him that it was alright, both felt deep within that Francis's act of cowardice was shameful. Francis felt the same way too. It was only when he took his first shot at the buffalo did he truly felt how masculine he was. Both this story and the film Fight Club express that violence is an expression of masculinity.

In Fight Club, Jack and Tyler continued to prove their worth as men as well as their toughness by continuously engaging in violent acts and by shunning everything that can be associated with what is feminine. They lived in a derelict building with the other white males they recruited -- the army they recruited. They created their own world where everything was masculine and they plotted against the capitalists in order to redefine their masculinity. They continued to engage in violent acts which grew more and more destructive. Through these, they were able to gain back their power, the power they have lost through the feminization of society.