Fight Club

Having both seen and read Fight Club, I would have to say that I liked the book more. Although I did gain a greater appreciation for the movie the second time I read it, I still do not think that it compares to the depth and the intrigue of the novel.

I felt that with the novel, it was a little harder to infer that Tyler and the narrator are in fact the same person. I believe this enhanced the punch of the ending. I could be completely wrong, though, because I knew the ending before reading the book.

Another aspect that I think was better represented in the book was Tyler’s goal of breaking people down so that they could experience freedom. The movie does not express the sense of breaking down societal barriers and inciting men to tap into their repressed animalistic powers. The movie does not communicate Fight Club’s purpose to raise the average man to a higher plane. This is evinced in the book’s scene with the narrator’s “Zen” experience, which was not given the attention it deserves in the movie.

All in all, I thought that the movie, though not quite as good as the book, did the book justice, unlike so many others before it. The movie beautifully recreated the troubled nature of the narrator’s mind as produced with the sporadic writing style in the book. The major themes of the novel were left intact while keeping the movie entertaining. The transition from book to movie, in this case, was a success.