Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk: Comparing Books

Introduction For Darkly Dreaming and Fight Club

Jeff Lindsay’s novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a novel produced in 2004. It is about Morgan Dexter a protagonist who works in the Miami-Dade police department. Besides working as a forensic blood spatter pattern analyst, Dexter also plays an important role to satisfy his feelings by killing and executing those people he feel will escape justice, have escaped justice, or are in the process of escaping justice (Lindsay).

Fight club is novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The novel involves an unnamed protagonist who suffers from insomnia due to intensive business trips he makes. His insomnia is related to the jet lags he experiences from the constant business trips he is making.  In order to relieve himself from this feeling he decides to see a doctor who directs him to a group of people suffering from testicular cancer to see what suffering means. By attending these meetings his insomnia disappears. The novel continues by the narrator establishing a fight club which they use to spread anti consumerist ideas (Palahniuk).

Thesis Statement

The above described stories carries instances of abject and cleanliness. Abject is what is viewed as the society observe as bodily fluids and would most likely be pushed to the borders. Abject can also mean the crap people buy, hoard, or throw away. Abject can also be consumerism ideas. Such abject requires cleaning. According to Dexter, blood is filthy, disgusting and chaotic and therefore requires cleaning. In Fight Club the narrator embraces bleeding and scarring as abject and cleanliness. According to the narrator and Tyler consumerism is an abject that needs cleaning through the introduction of fight club.

Abject vs Cleanliness

Darkly Dreaming Dexter a novel by Lindsay informs us about Morgan Dexter a detective who works as a forensic blood spatter pattern analyst. In his spare time Dexter turns to be a serial killer who wipes out those he believe will go unpunished. According to Dexter, his aim is to clean abject such as blood, robbery, rape, and other vices that have been done by people. His father was a detective and realized that his son would be a serial killer. While Morgan Dexter was growing up, his father taught him how to kill. He also taught him how to kill well and wipe out evidence. Harry Morgan his father noticed at an early age that Morgan would develop an innate sociopath to kill hence he taught him these skills to avoid mishaps in future. Dexter grows up and manages to lead a double life of killing and working as a detective as well. His urge of doing the cleaning work is as a result of a compelling voice from a dark passenger who keeps urging Dexter to kill in order to satisfy his homicidal urges. Whenever Dexter does this the sound disappears but it always comes back.

In Fight Club an anonymous person who works for an unnamed car company is suffering from insomnia due to stress he is getting from works. He travels a lot and due to jet lag he experiences insomnia. He decides to join a psychotherapy group after being directed by a doctor. The group is about people suffering from testicular cancer. The narrator joins the group despite not suffering from any cancer. According to the narrator bleeding and scarring is an abject. This is seen when the narrator decided to start a fight club. The narrator and Tyler use the club to clean abject like consumerism. They use the club to spread anti-consumerist ideas. As the story continues it becomes evident that Tyler and the narrator is one thing and that Tyler is only active when the narrator is asleep and suffering from insomnia. An evidence of abject is also seen when Tyler and Marla Singer both of whom are narrator’s personality are regarded as garbage or wastes since they can disappear. This is because despite playing a major role in contributing to the fight club they are narrator’s personality. Evidence of cleanliness is seen when the narrator becomes uncomfortable with the fight club after he learnt that one of his friend Bob from the testicular group is killed under the mayhem caused by the fight club members. Moreover, Tyler who is working at night engage in stealing left over drained human fats from liposuction clinics. He uses these fats to make soaps which earn him a living as part time business. As a co-founder of the fight club he believes that the by products from soap making will provide a good chance for making explosives which will also be used to clean the consumerism actions of the government.

Works Cited

Lindsay, Jeff. Darkly Dreaming Dexter. New York: Norton Publishers, 2004.

Palahniuk, Chuck. Darkly Dreaming Dexter. New York: Norton Publishers, 1996.