'Fight Club' and Violence

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that it has been suggested and argued from a variety of camps that one of the most salient causes of school violence is the primacy of violent media content in the lives of the perpetrators. The writer discusses that a film such as David Fincher's 1999 'Fight Club' offers an interesting point of consideration to this subject, weighing in on the balance between the availability of anecdotal evidence as the relationship between violent content and violent behavior and the absence of empirical evidence connecting them in a patterned sociological way. The writer points out that this discussion on 'Fight Club' is directed by the observation which Sobhack offers concerning the ways that film can be used to reflect violence already inherent in society. The writer maintains that 'Fight Club' argues that the violent society creates violent behavior. The writer concludes that as 'Fight Club' argues, violence is a symptom of a greater social or psychological ailment, but it is always the case that one must be pragmatic in diagnosing that ailment if one is to understand the symptom.

From the Paper:

"According to a bulk of studies on the topic, such exposure is to media violence is presumed to render an individual predisposed to violent behavior, absent of sensitivity to crime and the anguish of others, accepting of violent solutions to problems and generally comfortable in the presence of violence and advocates of violence. Test cases comparing groups of children, wherein a control group is exposed to 'appropriate' media content such as the above mentioned cartoons and situational comedies and a test group is presented with images of violence and vulgarity, have found that the children in the latter group do develop many of these characteristics. These characteristics are measured in observational settings, providing researchers with a short-term window into the responses children will undergo depending upon incoming media ideas. This may not be a fully satisfactory method for determining causality though."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Fight Club, (1999) David Fincher
• Fleischer, Helmut. (1973). Economic Determinism. Wikipedia. Online at < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_determinism>
• Palanhiuk, Chuck. (1996). Fight Club. Owl Books.
• Park, Michelle. (2005). NAWL Supports Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. National Association of Women Lawyers. Online at < http://www.abanet.org/nawl/news/2006/releases/021006.html>.
• Salazar, Laura F.; Charlene K. Baker; Ann W. Price & Kathleen Carlin (Dec. 2003) Moving beyond the Individual: Examining the Effects of Domestic Violence Policies on Social Norms. American Journal of Community Psychology., Vol. 32(3-4):253-64.

More papers on 'Fight Club' and Violence:

• Book Review # 107093 : "Fight Club: Reclaiming the Self"
• Film Review # 103211 : "Film: David Fincher's "Fight Club"
• Analytical Essay # 8451 : "The Fight Club"

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