In
Fight Club, the primary character interaction is
Tyler Durden helping
Jack/the narrator to hit
rock bottom. The implication here is that
once one has hit rock bottom, one can be reborn better and stronger
than before. By hitting rock bottom, we reject
everything which
society asks of us, and rethink what we ask of society.
This is a theme which Chuck Palahniuk explores thoroughly in Invisible
Monsters, using different themes and different characters. It could
be argued that Fight Club is how Palahniuk thinks men should go
about trying to hit rock bottom, and that Invisible Monsters is about
how women and children go about it. Each of the four primary
characters in the book (the narrator, Brandy Alexander, Ellis Island,
and Evie) have been disfigured in some way, and have a hand in their
own disfigurement.
This is not clear at the beginning of the story, however. The
point A to point B of Invisible Monsters is about showing the reader
how these characters have been disfigured, and showing each character's
complicity in his/her own disfigurement.
This is not different from what we discover about narrator over the
course of Fight Club. Nor is it different from what we discover about
Marla Singer during that tale. Both books are about characters who
have rejected the way that they fit into society (not society itself), and
are trying to hit rock bottom so that they can change the way they fit.
It is interesting that in Palahniuk's stories, the only resolution we
get is that characters learn more about themselves. Nothing is resolved,
and nobody has a happy ending. The only thing any character gets out of
Chuck's stories (except maybe the shaft) is understanding, and maybe a
little bit of acceptance of their situation.