Portrayal of Major Characters in Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' and Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club' Using Nihilism.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................... ............i
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................... ...........ii
ABSTRACT................................................................................................ .........iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study................................................................. ...........1
Statement of the Problem................................................................. ...........4
Purpose of the Study........................................................................ ...........4
Method of Research......................................................................... ...........4
Organization of the Thesis............................................................... ...........5
CHAPTER TWO: NIHILISM (THEORITICAL BACKGROUND)... ...........6
CHAPTER THREE: POTRAYAL OF THE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN IRVINE WELSH’S TRAINSPOTTING USING
NIHILISM...................................................................................... ...........9
CHAPTER FOUR: POTRAYAL OF THE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB USING
NIHILISM...................................................................................... .........22
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION.......................................................... .........33
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................... .........38
APPENDICES:
Summary of Trainspotting............................................................... .........40
Summary of Fight Club................................................................... .........41
Biography of Irvine Welsh............................................................... .........43
Biography of Chuck Palahniuk........................................................ .........44
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ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan skripsi untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh gelar
Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra Universitas Kristen
Maranatha, saya menganalisis dua buah novel, yakni karya Irvine Welsh yang
berjudul Trainspotting dan Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club. Hal yang akan saya
analisis dari dua novel ini adalah penokohan pada tokoh utama melalui nihilisme,
sebuah pendekatan ekstrinsik filosofikal. Secara umum, nihilisme merupakan satu
pemahaman filosofikal di mana nilai-nilai kehidupan tidak lagi dianggap
bermakna dan sudah seharusnya dibuat tiada. Melalui pemahaman ini, selain
menggambarkan bagaimana penokohan dua tokoh dari dua buah novel tersebut,
saya juga akan memaparkan dimensi penokohan dua tokoh ini yang begitu luas
akibat pemahaman nihilisme yang terkandung di dalamnya.
Tokoh utama dalam novel Trainspotting, Mark Renton, adalah seorang
pecandu heroin yang memiliki sifat sinis, pesimis dan cenderung menikmati
kekosongan akibat narkotika. Selain lingkungan yang tidak kondusif, sikap
Renton yang merepresentasikan nihilisme juga membuat ia tergiur akan sensasi
destruktif dan cenderung berakhir dengan solusi yang sia-sia.
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Di lain pihak, tokoh utama dalam novel Fight Club, Tyler Durden,
mempunyai sifat yang kritis, kaya dengan idealisme baru, dan cenderung
destruktif terhadap nilai-nilai yang ia anggap tidak semestinya berlaku. Namun,
akibat kecenderungan nihilisme yang ia anut, Tyler mampu mengemukakan
sebuah potensi untuk menciptakan nilai-nilai baru yang menurutnya lebih pantas.
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APPENDICES
Summary of Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh‟s Trainspotting is an episodic novel interrelated to the life of
its antihero Mark Renton. Rents, as his mates call him, is an 80‟s junky who
considers drugs the only “honest” objects that could help him find his sense of
well being. With his oldest friend, Sick Boy, and other junky comrades, like Spud,
Raymie, and Alison, Renton usually goes scoring in Johnny „Mother Superior‟
Swan‟s place.
Renton tries to prove to the guys that he can withdraw himself from his
dependency on drugs. He tries to show Sick Boy, and particularly Frank Begbie,
that whatever they stand by against him is false. Begbie and Sick Boy are
Renton‟s two so-called mates who occasionally bring him into their troubles.
Begbie is a psychopathic maniac, and Sick Boy is a kind of friend who dares to
sell his own mates to get what he wants. Renton does everything he could to
prevail over them, but, like his late attempts, he fails eventually and falls again
into the distressing point where he starts from.
Despite having a girlfriend, things still hardly get better for him. Renton‟s
first OD makes his relationship with his friends and family remoter than ever
before.
His
brother,
Billy,
dies
and
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Renton
is
having
an
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more complicated time to set the proper conduct. He feels things around him will
never be the same again and he needs to sort this hopeless boredom out.
Renton leaves for London to get a job, hoping that his life will get better,
and that he can escape from Leith where his inner adversity originates from.
Unfortunately, one mate‟s demise and other news force him to go back to the
place where he used to try to run away from, Leith. Like it or not, Renton has to
face the fact that it is difficult for him to get away from his origins.
Like other people around him, Renton once again has to deal with the
problematic days in the deprived and depressed underside of Leith, Edinburgh.
Besides his inner problems, he must spend most of his time dealing with random
events and people with relevance to his life as well. Family, relatives, mates who
are junkies, mates who are not junkies, mates who are on and off junkies, mates
with HIV positive, pimps, psychos, drunkards - they are altogether struggling
through their degrading conditions and social affairs which are so hard, that a man
like Renton would dare to do anything to get away from them.
Summary of Fight Club
In Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, the anonymous narrator, a recall
campaign coordinator for a car company, is suffering from severe illnesses and
depressions, including massive insomnia, identity disorder, and unhealthy suicidal
tendency. The suffering is not only due to his various mental illnesses, but it is
also summed up by his monotonous life of dull consumerism behaviour and
distressing working hours.
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After consulting to a doctor about the pain he suffers, the narrator is
suggested to visit a range of health groups in order to see the “real” pain. Every
health group he regularly visits once brings him to life, but soon he begins to feel
depressed again when the “vacation” on the groups is contravened by the present
of Marla Singer. Devastated and mentally desperate, the anonymous narrator
happens to “meet” Tyler Durden, a night-hour projectionist and a waiter who is
really exuberant with abundant of self-destructive principles.
The mental state of the anonymous narrator is getting worse and worse his condo exploded, along with all of his possessions and exotic furniture. He then
desperately asks Tyler for a place to stay. Tyler does not mind but he wants the
narrator to do him a favour first, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” Then
„Fight Club‟ is invented.
Along the way, Tyler also starts to build an army of people whom he
considers “God‟s middle children” – the people who have no place in life.
Without the narrator knowing anything about it, “Project Mayhem” is invented
and Tyler‟s destructive visions are getting bigger and stronger.
The narrator starts becoming anxious of his involvements with Tyler,
particularly Tyler‟s relationship with Marla. He gradually feels that Tyler starts
degrading his mind. The narrator feels that he needs to make Tyler gone and out
of his life. His confusion and distress become even bigger since Tyler strands him
alone without any certain answers.
And yet, not until he finds out that Tyler Durden is actually his other
personalities, has the narrator‟s world begun to turn upside down. How now he
could possibly make Tyler gone? He then decides to shoot himself.
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Biography of Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, on 27
September 1958. Welsh left Ainslie Park Secondary School when he was sixteen
and had various jobs. As he moves to London in the late seventies, he tried to
catch up on some of education he had missed while daydreaming about more
interesting things, such as enjoying the London punk scene. The jobs got better
and he got on the property ladder and made some money. Welsh eventually
returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the city council in the housing
department. He went on to study for an MBA at Heriot Watt University.
Energized by the rave scene, he started to write and his paths crossed with
the above. Digging out some old diaries, Welsh did a draft of what would become
Trainspotting. When Trainspotting was published in 1993 Irvine Welsh shot to
fame. His novel received as many good reviews as ones swathed in disgust and
outrage - establishing a tradition that continues to this day.
Since Danny Boyle‟s film adaptation of Trainspotting was released in
February 1996 Irvine Welsh has remained a controversial figure, whose novels,
stage and screen plays, novellas and short stories have proved difficult for literary
critics to assimilate, a difficulty made only more noticeable by Welsh‟s continued
commercial success.
More books have followed. A collection of three novellas, Ecstasy, is
becoming the first paperback original to go straight in at No.1 on the Sunday
Times best-sellers list, a feat emulated by Filth, which became Welsh's highest
selling book after Trainspotting. His first novel has now sold almost 1 million
copies in the UK alone and is a worldwide phenomenon. Books such as Glue,
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Porno and recent The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs have seen him
increase his profile in America and Canada.
He has recently branched into film and is a partner in two film production
companies. He joined Four Ways films, which was founded by Antonia Bird,
Robert Carlyle and Mark Cousins, and has recently set up Jawbone films with his
screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, and Phil John and Jon Lewis Owen.
In 2005 Welsh married for the second time. He promises that he will never
do it again. He lives mainly in Dublin but retreats to Miami Beach for a large part
of the winter. He visits his home city of Edinburgh regularly, usually to meet
friends, family and Hibernian FC at Easter Road.
Biography of Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk is a contemporary American author who is best known
for his first published novel Fight Club from 1996, which picked up cult status
after the release of the movie in 1999. He has a reputation for shocking his
readers, and has become increasingly popular since his initial success, with a huge
centralized fan base on the Internet. His novels often turn out to be a reference to
actual and made up urban legends.
Palahniuk was born in Pasco, Washington, of Ukrainian ancestry, on
February 21st, 1962. He grew up in Burbank, Washington, and went to Columbia
High, Burbank Washington Class of ‟80. In 1986, Palahniuk graduated with a BA
in Journalism from the University of Oregon.
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Palahniuk‟s initial step to become a writer was when Mr. Olsen in the fifth
grade said, 'Chuck, you do this really well. And this is much better than setting
fires, so keep it up'. Then he moved to Portland and began writing for a local
paper, soon after which he switched jobs to work for Freightliner as a diesel
mechanic. During this time he wrote manuals for fixing trucks and did a little
journalism, and began writing novels.
In the early 90's, a friend suggested he took a writing workshop with Tom
Spanbauer. His first novel, Invisible Monsters was rejected by publishers for
being too disturbing, which prompted him to write Fight Club in an effort to
disturb the publisher even more. At this stage, he was still working as a mechanic.
Palahniuk became a cult figure after the publication of Invisible Monsters and
Survivor in conjunction with the movie release of Fight Club in 1999.
The year 1999 may have been the time when Palahniuk became a cult
figure but it was also a difficult year for Chuck because his father and his father‟s
girlfriend were found murdered. The girlfriend‟s ex-husband was subsequently
charged and convicted for the murders, and Palahniuk apparently began the novel
Lullaby during all this time later stating that he used the writing process to help
him cope with his decision to help get the murderer a death sentence. Palahniuk
currently lives in Vancouver, Washington.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In his Writing about Literature, Edgar V. Roberts writes that a character in
fiction, particularly a character who takes a major proportion in the story, is a
portrayal of how a man would conduct himself into an affecting plot in his own
life. It is without doubt that a work of fiction acquires the ability to introduce its
readers to a character who could enhance their understanding of being a human.
His features, personalities, actions, interactions with life, and his thoughts are
expected to become a clear reflection for readers to relate not only to the character
and the narratives, but also to themselves and life surrounding them (Roberts 66).
The goal of literary characterization is to present not just externally
perceived person, but also – and primarily – the inner person, the secret
self: those expressed and unexpressed inner thoughts, aims, motives,
aspirations, joys, fears, obsessions, and frustrations that collectively make
up human personalities (Roberts 66).
When studying a major character in a fictional work, it is important to
clearly see what the author wants from the portrayal of his character. What
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outward appearances does the character have? How does he behave? How does
his mind work? But mainly, the reason that becomes the most necessary element
to study is what sort of knowledge and idea the author tries to distribute to his
readers through the portrayal of his character. M. J. Murphy in his Understanding
Unseens clarifies that a thorough characterization technique is an important effort
to uncover the concluding message of a narrative from a complete portrait of one
character. (Murphy 161)
Two major characters I have taken from two ground-breaking cult novels
by two controversial writers, Mark Renton in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and
Tyler Durden in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, can be methodically analysed to
fabricate such venerable acknowledgments through their gripping and bitter
characteristics towards life. I believe with a detailed characterization technique,
there will be more information about evocative viewpoints of one’s values and life
concepts based on the characteristics of Renton’s and Durden’s. I also have come
to a thorough understanding that they are presenting radical yet enthralling
characteristics as a new transcending reference in how to revalue one’s life,
because in my reading, I truly consider the influences of both major characters are
as powerful in the novels as they are for the readers.
David Foster Wallace, the author of Infinite Jest, declares Trainspotting as
a “marvelous mixture of nihilism and heartbreak, pinpoint realism (especially in
dialect and tone), and an archetypal universality” (Powell’s Book). On the other
hand, Fight Club is honored with an astonishing reputation by Seattle Times as “a
dark, unsettling, and nerve-chafing satire” (Powell’s Book). Having encountered
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such profound acknowledgements, I have compelled myself to dissect a broader
dimension of the two major characters portrayed in these two famous cult novels.
The major character of the first novel, Trainspotting, is Mark Renton, a
22-year-old junky living in the depraved underside of Leith, Edinburgh. The
portrayal of Mark Renton as a junky is well enhanced by his devaluation of one’s
concepts of life and all the “the spurious convoluted logic” (Welsh) invented by
society against him. For Renton, besides the “honest” drugs, other things are only
there to delude and divert him from the fact that life is just short and
disappointing.
The absurdity and insignificance of the concept of life against one’s strong
subjectivity are also put forth in Chuck Palahniuk’s outstanding cult novel Fight
Club. Palahniuk tries to devaluate against the dehumanizing ideas of life
structured by society, via one of the major characters, an anarchic and strongprincipled visionary, Tyler Durden.
From these tendencies portrayed by both characters, I learn that they
acquire strongly typical and obvious attributes of what have been associated with
the philosophical doctrine which has the nature to negate life’s meaning and
values: nihilism. These two distinguishing nihilistic depictions of both major
characters have thus challenged me to get involved in a further comprehensive
study of the concept of nihilism as well.
In order to obtain a thorough understanding of this subject, I am going to
make use of several reliable resources from the Internet and books dealing with
philosophical nihilism, particularly from Friedrich Nietzsche’s point of view. The
reason I draw my interest to Nietzsche’s principles of nihilism is that he is a
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prominent figure of nihilism, and extensively lays his greatest concern about the
effects of nihilism on society and culture (Cline).
Statement of the Problem
The problems I will discuss in my analysis are as follow:
1. How are the two major characters portrayed in both novels?
2. How are the portrayals of the major characters in both novels related to
nihilism?
Purpose of the Study
There are two purposes of this study:
1. To show how the two major characters are portrayed in both novels.
2. To show how the portrayals of the major characters in both novels are
related to nihilism.
Method of Research
The method I use is library research. First of all, I read Chuck Palahniuk’s
Fight Club and Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Afterwards, all the data related to
the portrayal of the protagonists are collected. Then, I analyse the texts by
referring to literary theories and using philosophical approach. I gather some
resources and references from the Internet and books that are able to support the
analysis and help me write the major thesis. Finally, I draw some conclusions of
what has been discussed.
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Organization of the Thesis
I divide this major thesis into five chapters, which are preceded by the
Acknowledgments, the Table of Contents and the Abstract. In the first chapter, I
present the Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, the
Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research and
the Organization of the Major Thesis. The second chapter discusses the general
theory of nihilism. The third and fourth chapters present the portrayal of the
protagonist using nihilism in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk’s
Fight Club. In the fifth chapter, I draw some conclusion of my analysis. The major
thesis ends with the Bibliography and the Appendices, which include the
biography of Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahniuk, and the synopsis of
Trainspotting and Fight Club.
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CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
After reading both novels and analysing both major characters in Irvine
Welsh‟s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, I conclude that the
portrayals of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed been enhanced by an
extensive aspect of nihilism, which reveals similarities and distinctiveness from
the end results of their nihilistic portrayals. First of all, in nihilism, man‟s question
about values and concept of life has been long considered to be a crucial
argument, and therefore it argues whether life is really valuable or it is just
ultimately trivial and meaningless. Related to the individual‟s extreme pessimism
and a radical skepticism (Pratt), a nihilist would “destroy” because he is deprived
of the most inaccessible of hope for a meaningful life, and consequently attaches
himself to a life of nothing more than sickness, decay and disintegration (Cline).
Friedrich Nietzsche has been renowned as one of the prominent figures of
nihilism. The reason he writes a great deal about nihilism, however, shall be a
steady reminder of the fact that his concern about nihilism only revolves around
its effects of improvement situated on society and culture. He argues that just
because such objective values do not apply in one‟s life, it does not mean that
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there will be no appropriate values at all for one‟s subjectivity (Cline) and thus
lets himself be victimized. Instead of advocating nihilism, Nietzsche develops it
as a significant standpoint to every individual in unveiling their valuable
potentials to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the
subjective perspectives of themselves” (Cline). By nihilism, one is supposed to be
able to implement his own creativity in “establishing a new „order of rank‟”
(Crowel).
From Nietzsche‟s radical standpoint of nihilism, I am thus able to extend
more my analysis on the portrayals of characters that are related to such
standpoint. The first character I have analyzed is Mark Renton, an antiheroic
junky and a cynical, self-withdrawing, pessimistic, rebellious, and self-destructive
character living in the deprived underside of Leith, Edinburgh. From his interview
in Aaron Kelly‟s Irvine Welsh, Irvine Welsh states that Trainspotting confronts
not only the related spread of HIV infection in his time, but also the dissolving
prospects in the working-class areas of Edinburgh where people at the time are
sort of dropping-dead because “they‟ve just been crushed by so many other things
like poverty and unemployment that HIV on top of that is just another thing to
deal with” (Kelly 37).
In other words, the futile circumstances stated in his interview contribute a
major deal to the trivial and meaningless situations Renton is put in as the major
character. Unfortunately, in Mark Renton‟s case, this kind of futility is converted
to a worse nihilistic state Nietzsche describes as victimizing, and thus it only bears
a weak outcome to a junky like Renton. In addition, still on the same ground,
Steven Crowell also writes that one might push himself all downhill to “despair in
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the face of nihilism” when he finds his true potential as dissatisfying and the
realization that life has no objective values (Crowell). So, from the discussion, I
can deduce that the portrayal of Mark Renton is a proper demonstration of a
nihilist who eventually falls into despair and emptiness due to his own deprived
disposition that overcomes his mind.
As deprived by life‟s values as Renton is, the second character, Tyler
Durden, has similar nihilist characteristics deriving from a monotonous life of dull
consumerism behaviour and distressing working hours. Caused by inner
devastation towards many suppressing life‟s values, Tyler, however, becomes a
destructive, idealistic, and skeptical character in order to set new and fulfilling
ideals of life. In one of his interviews, Chuck Palahniuk states that he does create
“very dysfunctional, dark characters” in most of his works, which is then followed
by the reputation of "torchbearer for the nihilistic generation” given by some
media critics. One of the characters is Tyler Durden, a well-rounded character
who is constituted with a radical nihilistic purpose of “reasserting their culturally
repressed generation” (Straus).
This kind of reassertion from Tyler is definitely what Nietzsche considers
to be effectively killing the “Christian notion of God” and any other shared
cultural believes in order to be independent and thus be able to construct better set
values freely (Cline). Consequently, instead of giving in, a nihilist character like
Tyler does not only vindicate his nihilistic attitude, but also reverses it into what
Nietzsche develops as a significant standpoint to unveil the valuable and truthful
potential for oneself.
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From what I have analysed, both portrayals of the nihilistic characteristics
of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed proved broader varieties of
nihilism demonstrated in both novels. Therefore, I conclude that when one
conducts the nihilism conceived in the portrayal of Mark Renton, the outcome is
surely more devastating and depressing instead of getting better. In addition,
Austin Cline also writes that the end result Renton gains is a typical outcome that
will occur mostly in every nihilistic individual, and it undoubtedly tends to be
suicidal (Cline). On the contrary, Tyler Durden cultivates a broader kind of
nihilism expanded by Friedrich Nietzsche, which is the nihilism that could be
converted into a source of encouragement or a trigger to radically construct a
better value of life. For that reason, Tyler successfully embodies a portrayal of
nihilist who perceives life without meaning and values, yet he also seeks the
potential to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the
subjective perspectives of themselves”, or as Tyler puts it, “to hit bottom”.
Both Mark Renton and Tyler Durden are in a state of denial and they
acquire doubtful attitudes towards all concepts of life due to their insignificances
these two characters cannot put up with. Therefore, to relieve these strains of life,
Renton relies his sense of honesty on drugs while Tyler conducts his own ideals.
For them, there is no access anymore to any forms of hope and as a result they
attach themselves to a determining act of dispute against the lives around them.
Nevertheless, I would also like to point out that both portrayals have
displayed two contrasting nihilistic characteristics. In both novels, Renton and
Tyler represent two distinctive nihilistic characters. On the one hand, Mark
Renton struggles to strip away all concepts of life by using drugs, but
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unfortunately, he merely tries to escape from life with the self-delusion of his own
nihilistic state of mind. I have learned that the nihilistic tendencies in Mark
Renton are liable to end up in a bleak self- despair. It is clear that when one is as
nihilistic as Renton, he would pose a destructive result out of delusive
characteristics that are developed within him.
Tyler Durden, on the other hand, refuses to fall into the abyss. He fights
back and “destroys every scraps of history” (Palahniuk) in order to produce a
better concept of life. Tyler‟s radical dogma is indeed an overpowering nihilistic
desire to annihilate all imposed values and meaning through a strong sense of
destruction. By destroying and redefining all the former values, Tyler is willing to
create a new place where he says, “even Mona Lisa is falling apart”; the place
where history does not apply to anyone, where society has no any significance,
and where one can truly belong to.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary texts:
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Vintage, 2006
Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting. London: Vintage, 2004
References:
Eastman, Richard M. A Guide to the Novel. San Fransisco: Chandler Publishing
Co, 1965
Kelly, Aaron. Irvine Welsh. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005
Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseens. London: Georger Allen & Unwin Ltd,
1972
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc,
2003
Internet Websites:
Cline, Austin. “Existential Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.
Cline, Austin. “Nietzsche and Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.
Cline, Austin. “God is Dead: Killing God.” About.com. 2009. 26 August 2009.
Crowell, Steven. “Existentialism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
27 August 2009.
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“Fight Club”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.
“Nihilism”. Wikipedia. 12 September 2009.
“Nihilism – Abandoning Values and Knowledge”. All About Philosophy. 2009.
27 August 2009.
Pratt, Allan. “Nihilism” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
27 August 2009.
“Trainspotting”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.
Straus, Tamara. “The Unexpected Romantic: An Interview with Chuck
Palahniuk.” AlterNet. 2009. 18 November 2009.
< http://www.alternet.org/story/11049/>
Woodward, Ashley. “Nihilism and the Postmodern in Vattimo’s Nietzsche.”
University of Limerick. 2002. 12 September 2009.
< http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol6/nihilism.html>
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................... ............i
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................... ...........ii
ABSTRACT................................................................................................ .........iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study................................................................. ...........1
Statement of the Problem................................................................. ...........4
Purpose of the Study........................................................................ ...........4
Method of Research......................................................................... ...........4
Organization of the Thesis............................................................... ...........5
CHAPTER TWO: NIHILISM (THEORITICAL BACKGROUND)... ...........6
CHAPTER THREE: POTRAYAL OF THE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN IRVINE WELSH’S TRAINSPOTTING USING
NIHILISM...................................................................................... ...........9
CHAPTER FOUR: POTRAYAL OF THE MAJOR CHARACTER
IN CHUCK PALAHNIUK’S FIGHT CLUB USING
NIHILISM...................................................................................... .........22
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION.......................................................... .........33
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................... .........38
APPENDICES:
Summary of Trainspotting............................................................... .........40
Summary of Fight Club................................................................... .........41
Biography of Irvine Welsh............................................................... .........43
Biography of Chuck Palahniuk........................................................ .........44
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ABSTRACT
Dalam penulisan skripsi untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh gelar
Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra Universitas Kristen
Maranatha, saya menganalisis dua buah novel, yakni karya Irvine Welsh yang
berjudul Trainspotting dan Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club. Hal yang akan saya
analisis dari dua novel ini adalah penokohan pada tokoh utama melalui nihilisme,
sebuah pendekatan ekstrinsik filosofikal. Secara umum, nihilisme merupakan satu
pemahaman filosofikal di mana nilai-nilai kehidupan tidak lagi dianggap
bermakna dan sudah seharusnya dibuat tiada. Melalui pemahaman ini, selain
menggambarkan bagaimana penokohan dua tokoh dari dua buah novel tersebut,
saya juga akan memaparkan dimensi penokohan dua tokoh ini yang begitu luas
akibat pemahaman nihilisme yang terkandung di dalamnya.
Tokoh utama dalam novel Trainspotting, Mark Renton, adalah seorang
pecandu heroin yang memiliki sifat sinis, pesimis dan cenderung menikmati
kekosongan akibat narkotika. Selain lingkungan yang tidak kondusif, sikap
Renton yang merepresentasikan nihilisme juga membuat ia tergiur akan sensasi
destruktif dan cenderung berakhir dengan solusi yang sia-sia.
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Di lain pihak, tokoh utama dalam novel Fight Club, Tyler Durden,
mempunyai sifat yang kritis, kaya dengan idealisme baru, dan cenderung
destruktif terhadap nilai-nilai yang ia anggap tidak semestinya berlaku. Namun,
akibat kecenderungan nihilisme yang ia anut, Tyler mampu mengemukakan
sebuah potensi untuk menciptakan nilai-nilai baru yang menurutnya lebih pantas.
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APPENDICES
Summary of Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh‟s Trainspotting is an episodic novel interrelated to the life of
its antihero Mark Renton. Rents, as his mates call him, is an 80‟s junky who
considers drugs the only “honest” objects that could help him find his sense of
well being. With his oldest friend, Sick Boy, and other junky comrades, like Spud,
Raymie, and Alison, Renton usually goes scoring in Johnny „Mother Superior‟
Swan‟s place.
Renton tries to prove to the guys that he can withdraw himself from his
dependency on drugs. He tries to show Sick Boy, and particularly Frank Begbie,
that whatever they stand by against him is false. Begbie and Sick Boy are
Renton‟s two so-called mates who occasionally bring him into their troubles.
Begbie is a psychopathic maniac, and Sick Boy is a kind of friend who dares to
sell his own mates to get what he wants. Renton does everything he could to
prevail over them, but, like his late attempts, he fails eventually and falls again
into the distressing point where he starts from.
Despite having a girlfriend, things still hardly get better for him. Renton‟s
first OD makes his relationship with his friends and family remoter than ever
before.
His
brother,
Billy,
dies
and
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Renton
is
having
an
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more complicated time to set the proper conduct. He feels things around him will
never be the same again and he needs to sort this hopeless boredom out.
Renton leaves for London to get a job, hoping that his life will get better,
and that he can escape from Leith where his inner adversity originates from.
Unfortunately, one mate‟s demise and other news force him to go back to the
place where he used to try to run away from, Leith. Like it or not, Renton has to
face the fact that it is difficult for him to get away from his origins.
Like other people around him, Renton once again has to deal with the
problematic days in the deprived and depressed underside of Leith, Edinburgh.
Besides his inner problems, he must spend most of his time dealing with random
events and people with relevance to his life as well. Family, relatives, mates who
are junkies, mates who are not junkies, mates who are on and off junkies, mates
with HIV positive, pimps, psychos, drunkards - they are altogether struggling
through their degrading conditions and social affairs which are so hard, that a man
like Renton would dare to do anything to get away from them.
Summary of Fight Club
In Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, the anonymous narrator, a recall
campaign coordinator for a car company, is suffering from severe illnesses and
depressions, including massive insomnia, identity disorder, and unhealthy suicidal
tendency. The suffering is not only due to his various mental illnesses, but it is
also summed up by his monotonous life of dull consumerism behaviour and
distressing working hours.
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After consulting to a doctor about the pain he suffers, the narrator is
suggested to visit a range of health groups in order to see the “real” pain. Every
health group he regularly visits once brings him to life, but soon he begins to feel
depressed again when the “vacation” on the groups is contravened by the present
of Marla Singer. Devastated and mentally desperate, the anonymous narrator
happens to “meet” Tyler Durden, a night-hour projectionist and a waiter who is
really exuberant with abundant of self-destructive principles.
The mental state of the anonymous narrator is getting worse and worse his condo exploded, along with all of his possessions and exotic furniture. He then
desperately asks Tyler for a place to stay. Tyler does not mind but he wants the
narrator to do him a favour first, “I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” Then
„Fight Club‟ is invented.
Along the way, Tyler also starts to build an army of people whom he
considers “God‟s middle children” – the people who have no place in life.
Without the narrator knowing anything about it, “Project Mayhem” is invented
and Tyler‟s destructive visions are getting bigger and stronger.
The narrator starts becoming anxious of his involvements with Tyler,
particularly Tyler‟s relationship with Marla. He gradually feels that Tyler starts
degrading his mind. The narrator feels that he needs to make Tyler gone and out
of his life. His confusion and distress become even bigger since Tyler strands him
alone without any certain answers.
And yet, not until he finds out that Tyler Durden is actually his other
personalities, has the narrator‟s world begun to turn upside down. How now he
could possibly make Tyler gone? He then decides to shoot himself.
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Biography of Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, on 27
September 1958. Welsh left Ainslie Park Secondary School when he was sixteen
and had various jobs. As he moves to London in the late seventies, he tried to
catch up on some of education he had missed while daydreaming about more
interesting things, such as enjoying the London punk scene. The jobs got better
and he got on the property ladder and made some money. Welsh eventually
returned to Edinburgh where he worked for the city council in the housing
department. He went on to study for an MBA at Heriot Watt University.
Energized by the rave scene, he started to write and his paths crossed with
the above. Digging out some old diaries, Welsh did a draft of what would become
Trainspotting. When Trainspotting was published in 1993 Irvine Welsh shot to
fame. His novel received as many good reviews as ones swathed in disgust and
outrage - establishing a tradition that continues to this day.
Since Danny Boyle‟s film adaptation of Trainspotting was released in
February 1996 Irvine Welsh has remained a controversial figure, whose novels,
stage and screen plays, novellas and short stories have proved difficult for literary
critics to assimilate, a difficulty made only more noticeable by Welsh‟s continued
commercial success.
More books have followed. A collection of three novellas, Ecstasy, is
becoming the first paperback original to go straight in at No.1 on the Sunday
Times best-sellers list, a feat emulated by Filth, which became Welsh's highest
selling book after Trainspotting. His first novel has now sold almost 1 million
copies in the UK alone and is a worldwide phenomenon. Books such as Glue,
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Porno and recent The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs have seen him
increase his profile in America and Canada.
He has recently branched into film and is a partner in two film production
companies. He joined Four Ways films, which was founded by Antonia Bird,
Robert Carlyle and Mark Cousins, and has recently set up Jawbone films with his
screenwriting partner Dean Cavanagh, and Phil John and Jon Lewis Owen.
In 2005 Welsh married for the second time. He promises that he will never
do it again. He lives mainly in Dublin but retreats to Miami Beach for a large part
of the winter. He visits his home city of Edinburgh regularly, usually to meet
friends, family and Hibernian FC at Easter Road.
Biography of Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk is a contemporary American author who is best known
for his first published novel Fight Club from 1996, which picked up cult status
after the release of the movie in 1999. He has a reputation for shocking his
readers, and has become increasingly popular since his initial success, with a huge
centralized fan base on the Internet. His novels often turn out to be a reference to
actual and made up urban legends.
Palahniuk was born in Pasco, Washington, of Ukrainian ancestry, on
February 21st, 1962. He grew up in Burbank, Washington, and went to Columbia
High, Burbank Washington Class of ‟80. In 1986, Palahniuk graduated with a BA
in Journalism from the University of Oregon.
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Palahniuk‟s initial step to become a writer was when Mr. Olsen in the fifth
grade said, 'Chuck, you do this really well. And this is much better than setting
fires, so keep it up'. Then he moved to Portland and began writing for a local
paper, soon after which he switched jobs to work for Freightliner as a diesel
mechanic. During this time he wrote manuals for fixing trucks and did a little
journalism, and began writing novels.
In the early 90's, a friend suggested he took a writing workshop with Tom
Spanbauer. His first novel, Invisible Monsters was rejected by publishers for
being too disturbing, which prompted him to write Fight Club in an effort to
disturb the publisher even more. At this stage, he was still working as a mechanic.
Palahniuk became a cult figure after the publication of Invisible Monsters and
Survivor in conjunction with the movie release of Fight Club in 1999.
The year 1999 may have been the time when Palahniuk became a cult
figure but it was also a difficult year for Chuck because his father and his father‟s
girlfriend were found murdered. The girlfriend‟s ex-husband was subsequently
charged and convicted for the murders, and Palahniuk apparently began the novel
Lullaby during all this time later stating that he used the writing process to help
him cope with his decision to help get the murderer a death sentence. Palahniuk
currently lives in Vancouver, Washington.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
In his Writing about Literature, Edgar V. Roberts writes that a character in
fiction, particularly a character who takes a major proportion in the story, is a
portrayal of how a man would conduct himself into an affecting plot in his own
life. It is without doubt that a work of fiction acquires the ability to introduce its
readers to a character who could enhance their understanding of being a human.
His features, personalities, actions, interactions with life, and his thoughts are
expected to become a clear reflection for readers to relate not only to the character
and the narratives, but also to themselves and life surrounding them (Roberts 66).
The goal of literary characterization is to present not just externally
perceived person, but also – and primarily – the inner person, the secret
self: those expressed and unexpressed inner thoughts, aims, motives,
aspirations, joys, fears, obsessions, and frustrations that collectively make
up human personalities (Roberts 66).
When studying a major character in a fictional work, it is important to
clearly see what the author wants from the portrayal of his character. What
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outward appearances does the character have? How does he behave? How does
his mind work? But mainly, the reason that becomes the most necessary element
to study is what sort of knowledge and idea the author tries to distribute to his
readers through the portrayal of his character. M. J. Murphy in his Understanding
Unseens clarifies that a thorough characterization technique is an important effort
to uncover the concluding message of a narrative from a complete portrait of one
character. (Murphy 161)
Two major characters I have taken from two ground-breaking cult novels
by two controversial writers, Mark Renton in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and
Tyler Durden in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, can be methodically analysed to
fabricate such venerable acknowledgments through their gripping and bitter
characteristics towards life. I believe with a detailed characterization technique,
there will be more information about evocative viewpoints of one’s values and life
concepts based on the characteristics of Renton’s and Durden’s. I also have come
to a thorough understanding that they are presenting radical yet enthralling
characteristics as a new transcending reference in how to revalue one’s life,
because in my reading, I truly consider the influences of both major characters are
as powerful in the novels as they are for the readers.
David Foster Wallace, the author of Infinite Jest, declares Trainspotting as
a “marvelous mixture of nihilism and heartbreak, pinpoint realism (especially in
dialect and tone), and an archetypal universality” (Powell’s Book). On the other
hand, Fight Club is honored with an astonishing reputation by Seattle Times as “a
dark, unsettling, and nerve-chafing satire” (Powell’s Book). Having encountered
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such profound acknowledgements, I have compelled myself to dissect a broader
dimension of the two major characters portrayed in these two famous cult novels.
The major character of the first novel, Trainspotting, is Mark Renton, a
22-year-old junky living in the depraved underside of Leith, Edinburgh. The
portrayal of Mark Renton as a junky is well enhanced by his devaluation of one’s
concepts of life and all the “the spurious convoluted logic” (Welsh) invented by
society against him. For Renton, besides the “honest” drugs, other things are only
there to delude and divert him from the fact that life is just short and
disappointing.
The absurdity and insignificance of the concept of life against one’s strong
subjectivity are also put forth in Chuck Palahniuk’s outstanding cult novel Fight
Club. Palahniuk tries to devaluate against the dehumanizing ideas of life
structured by society, via one of the major characters, an anarchic and strongprincipled visionary, Tyler Durden.
From these tendencies portrayed by both characters, I learn that they
acquire strongly typical and obvious attributes of what have been associated with
the philosophical doctrine which has the nature to negate life’s meaning and
values: nihilism. These two distinguishing nihilistic depictions of both major
characters have thus challenged me to get involved in a further comprehensive
study of the concept of nihilism as well.
In order to obtain a thorough understanding of this subject, I am going to
make use of several reliable resources from the Internet and books dealing with
philosophical nihilism, particularly from Friedrich Nietzsche’s point of view. The
reason I draw my interest to Nietzsche’s principles of nihilism is that he is a
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prominent figure of nihilism, and extensively lays his greatest concern about the
effects of nihilism on society and culture (Cline).
Statement of the Problem
The problems I will discuss in my analysis are as follow:
1. How are the two major characters portrayed in both novels?
2. How are the portrayals of the major characters in both novels related to
nihilism?
Purpose of the Study
There are two purposes of this study:
1. To show how the two major characters are portrayed in both novels.
2. To show how the portrayals of the major characters in both novels are
related to nihilism.
Method of Research
The method I use is library research. First of all, I read Chuck Palahniuk’s
Fight Club and Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Afterwards, all the data related to
the portrayal of the protagonists are collected. Then, I analyse the texts by
referring to literary theories and using philosophical approach. I gather some
resources and references from the Internet and books that are able to support the
analysis and help me write the major thesis. Finally, I draw some conclusions of
what has been discussed.
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Organization of the Thesis
I divide this major thesis into five chapters, which are preceded by the
Acknowledgments, the Table of Contents and the Abstract. In the first chapter, I
present the Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, the
Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research and
the Organization of the Major Thesis. The second chapter discusses the general
theory of nihilism. The third and fourth chapters present the portrayal of the
protagonist using nihilism in Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk’s
Fight Club. In the fifth chapter, I draw some conclusion of my analysis. The major
thesis ends with the Bibliography and the Appendices, which include the
biography of Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahniuk, and the synopsis of
Trainspotting and Fight Club.
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CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
After reading both novels and analysing both major characters in Irvine
Welsh‟s Trainspotting and Chuck Palahniuk‟s Fight Club, I conclude that the
portrayals of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed been enhanced by an
extensive aspect of nihilism, which reveals similarities and distinctiveness from
the end results of their nihilistic portrayals. First of all, in nihilism, man‟s question
about values and concept of life has been long considered to be a crucial
argument, and therefore it argues whether life is really valuable or it is just
ultimately trivial and meaningless. Related to the individual‟s extreme pessimism
and a radical skepticism (Pratt), a nihilist would “destroy” because he is deprived
of the most inaccessible of hope for a meaningful life, and consequently attaches
himself to a life of nothing more than sickness, decay and disintegration (Cline).
Friedrich Nietzsche has been renowned as one of the prominent figures of
nihilism. The reason he writes a great deal about nihilism, however, shall be a
steady reminder of the fact that his concern about nihilism only revolves around
its effects of improvement situated on society and culture. He argues that just
because such objective values do not apply in one‟s life, it does not mean that
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there will be no appropriate values at all for one‟s subjectivity (Cline) and thus
lets himself be victimized. Instead of advocating nihilism, Nietzsche develops it
as a significant standpoint to every individual in unveiling their valuable
potentials to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the
subjective perspectives of themselves” (Cline). By nihilism, one is supposed to be
able to implement his own creativity in “establishing a new „order of rank‟”
(Crowel).
From Nietzsche‟s radical standpoint of nihilism, I am thus able to extend
more my analysis on the portrayals of characters that are related to such
standpoint. The first character I have analyzed is Mark Renton, an antiheroic
junky and a cynical, self-withdrawing, pessimistic, rebellious, and self-destructive
character living in the deprived underside of Leith, Edinburgh. From his interview
in Aaron Kelly‟s Irvine Welsh, Irvine Welsh states that Trainspotting confronts
not only the related spread of HIV infection in his time, but also the dissolving
prospects in the working-class areas of Edinburgh where people at the time are
sort of dropping-dead because “they‟ve just been crushed by so many other things
like poverty and unemployment that HIV on top of that is just another thing to
deal with” (Kelly 37).
In other words, the futile circumstances stated in his interview contribute a
major deal to the trivial and meaningless situations Renton is put in as the major
character. Unfortunately, in Mark Renton‟s case, this kind of futility is converted
to a worse nihilistic state Nietzsche describes as victimizing, and thus it only bears
a weak outcome to a junky like Renton. In addition, still on the same ground,
Steven Crowell also writes that one might push himself all downhill to “despair in
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the face of nihilism” when he finds his true potential as dissatisfying and the
realization that life has no objective values (Crowell). So, from the discussion, I
can deduce that the portrayal of Mark Renton is a proper demonstration of a
nihilist who eventually falls into despair and emptiness due to his own deprived
disposition that overcomes his mind.
As deprived by life‟s values as Renton is, the second character, Tyler
Durden, has similar nihilist characteristics deriving from a monotonous life of dull
consumerism behaviour and distressing working hours. Caused by inner
devastation towards many suppressing life‟s values, Tyler, however, becomes a
destructive, idealistic, and skeptical character in order to set new and fulfilling
ideals of life. In one of his interviews, Chuck Palahniuk states that he does create
“very dysfunctional, dark characters” in most of his works, which is then followed
by the reputation of "torchbearer for the nihilistic generation” given by some
media critics. One of the characters is Tyler Durden, a well-rounded character
who is constituted with a radical nihilistic purpose of “reasserting their culturally
repressed generation” (Straus).
This kind of reassertion from Tyler is definitely what Nietzsche considers
to be effectively killing the “Christian notion of God” and any other shared
cultural believes in order to be independent and thus be able to construct better set
values freely (Cline). Consequently, instead of giving in, a nihilist character like
Tyler does not only vindicate his nihilistic attitude, but also reverses it into what
Nietzsche develops as a significant standpoint to unveil the valuable and truthful
potential for oneself.
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From what I have analysed, both portrayals of the nihilistic characteristics
of Mark Renton and Tyler Durden have indeed proved broader varieties of
nihilism demonstrated in both novels. Therefore, I conclude that when one
conducts the nihilism conceived in the portrayal of Mark Renton, the outcome is
surely more devastating and depressing instead of getting better. In addition,
Austin Cline also writes that the end result Renton gains is a typical outcome that
will occur mostly in every nihilistic individual, and it undoubtedly tends to be
suicidal (Cline). On the contrary, Tyler Durden cultivates a broader kind of
nihilism expanded by Friedrich Nietzsche, which is the nihilism that could be
converted into a source of encouragement or a trigger to radically construct a
better value of life. For that reason, Tyler successfully embodies a portrayal of
nihilist who perceives life without meaning and values, yet he also seeks the
potential to become something else as “fulfilling and purposeful from the
subjective perspectives of themselves”, or as Tyler puts it, “to hit bottom”.
Both Mark Renton and Tyler Durden are in a state of denial and they
acquire doubtful attitudes towards all concepts of life due to their insignificances
these two characters cannot put up with. Therefore, to relieve these strains of life,
Renton relies his sense of honesty on drugs while Tyler conducts his own ideals.
For them, there is no access anymore to any forms of hope and as a result they
attach themselves to a determining act of dispute against the lives around them.
Nevertheless, I would also like to point out that both portrayals have
displayed two contrasting nihilistic characteristics. In both novels, Renton and
Tyler represent two distinctive nihilistic characters. On the one hand, Mark
Renton struggles to strip away all concepts of life by using drugs, but
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unfortunately, he merely tries to escape from life with the self-delusion of his own
nihilistic state of mind. I have learned that the nihilistic tendencies in Mark
Renton are liable to end up in a bleak self- despair. It is clear that when one is as
nihilistic as Renton, he would pose a destructive result out of delusive
characteristics that are developed within him.
Tyler Durden, on the other hand, refuses to fall into the abyss. He fights
back and “destroys every scraps of history” (Palahniuk) in order to produce a
better concept of life. Tyler‟s radical dogma is indeed an overpowering nihilistic
desire to annihilate all imposed values and meaning through a strong sense of
destruction. By destroying and redefining all the former values, Tyler is willing to
create a new place where he says, “even Mona Lisa is falling apart”; the place
where history does not apply to anyone, where society has no any significance,
and where one can truly belong to.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary texts:
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. London: Vintage, 2006
Welsh, Irvine. Trainspotting. London: Vintage, 2004
References:
Eastman, Richard M. A Guide to the Novel. San Fransisco: Chandler Publishing
Co, 1965
Kelly, Aaron. Irvine Welsh. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005
Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseens. London: Georger Allen & Unwin Ltd,
1972
Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc,
2003
Internet Websites:
Cline, Austin. “Existential Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.
Cline, Austin. “Nietzsche and Nihilism.” About.com. 2009. 27 August 2009.
Cline, Austin. “God is Dead: Killing God.” About.com. 2009. 26 August 2009.
Crowell, Steven. “Existentialism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
27 August 2009.
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“Fight Club”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.
“Nihilism”. Wikipedia. 12 September 2009.
“Nihilism – Abandoning Values and Knowledge”. All About Philosophy. 2009.
27 August 2009.
Pratt, Allan. “Nihilism” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
27 August 2009.
“Trainspotting”. Powell’s Books. 2009. 6 September 2009.
Straus, Tamara. “The Unexpected Romantic: An Interview with Chuck
Palahniuk.” AlterNet. 2009. 18 November 2009.
< http://www.alternet.org/story/11049/>
Woodward, Ashley. “Nihilism and the Postmodern in Vattimo’s Nietzsche.”
University of Limerick. 2002. 12 September 2009.
< http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol6/nihilism.html>
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