Sula: Extended Journal

For my extended journal for Toni Morrison's Sula, I decided to describe the movie Fight Club. While that may seem to have no connection whatsoever at all, it is actually relative. First of all you have to understand the opinion debated in discussion that Sula and Nel are one and the same person. Growing up, Nel was a girl without any ambitions or feelings. Because of her mother Nel, "became obedient and polite. Any enthusiasms that little Nel showered were calmed by her mother until she drove her daughter's imagination underground" (Morrison 18). But that all changed the day she met Sula; "her new found me-ness, gave her the strength to cultivate a friend in spite of her mother" (19). They had became instantaneous friends are were inseparable from then on. That is where my point comes in that Nel and Sula are alter-egos of each other. According to Freudian Psychology, Nel is the Superego portion of the young girl; responding to morals and trying to please others by behaving and doing what she's expected to do. Sula on the other hand, represents the Id portion; which reeks of lust and other desires that all humans have to some degree. So basically Nel is the 'good girl' and Sula is the 'bad girl' of the same entity.

Now to relate to Fight Club:
http://aram.free.fr/divx/images/fight_club_front.jpg (shows both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton's Characters, the Id and Superego of the single person "Jack" or Tyler Durton)

Fight Club, based off the novel by Chuck Palahnuik, directed by David Fincher, begins with Edward Norton's character, who doesn't really ever have an official name. He is incredibly sleep deprived, and there's nothing that can help him, until he discovers support groups. By crying in front of random people, he can free himself and finally sleep. He gets addicted to support groups, changing his name, identity, and story for each group. That's the first hint that he himself might not know who he really is.

As the movie progresses, He meets Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, on an airplane. After the flight, the main character returns home to find that his apartment has been blown apart. He calls Tyler Durden and ends up living with him in a run-down house. The two start fighting and hitting each other just to see what it feels like, and enjoy doing it. They then fight often after leaving bars, occasionally drawing crowds. Eventually, they get enough people into the fights that they start the actual fight club in the basement of the local bar. This is when the movie really picks up.

1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB.
2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.
3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over.
4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight.
5th RULE: One fight at a time.
6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes.
7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to.
8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.
(taken from http://www.diggingforfire.net/FightClub/)

I'm not going to completely ruin the movie, because it is a great movie that I strongly recommend watching to anyone who is interested in strange movies. But basically Edward Norton's character, I'll call him "Jack" is stuck in a rut. An entirely Superego-made rut. He has to be at work, do his job right. All his furniture has to be perfect. Everything in his life must be "single-serving" and organized. All of this changes when he meets Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden. Tyler is very much a completely Id fueled person. He never thinks twice about what his actions do to others; he steals cars, has lots of sex, vandalizes property, contaminates restaurant industries, etc.


*SPOILER* SKIP IF YOU'RE GOING TO WATCH THE MOVIE
At the end of the movie, when "Jack" realizes that he is Tyler Durton, and that this person he has been around for so long is just his "imaginary friend" whose Id takes over the body whenever Jack's Superego loses conscious, such as when he 'sleeps'. Jack finds out that as Tyler Durden, he has organized a terrorist group that is blowing up many gigantic office buildings in the middle of the city. He is doing this to make a point to everyone, based purely off of desire, the Id portion of the brain. Jack realizes the only way to get rid of Tyler is to "kill himself". So he takes a gun, puts it in his mouth, and shoots. Tyler dies, but Jack is only wounded. Why? Because Jack angled the gun, without Tyler's understanding, so that he shot through his cheek, rather than through his head. Although it is too late to save the buildings from being destroyed, Jack destroys his purely Id self and in the process makes his purely Superego self understand that there needs to be a reasonable balance between the two
*END SPOILER*

Fight Club is a very deep, confusing movie, but it is an excellent movie. I'd recommend watching it twice to fully understand what is going on. But from what I understand from the movie Brad Pitt/Tyler Durden is relatable to Sula because of their Id-based decisions. Furthermore, Edward Norton/Jack and Nel both are dominated by their Superego mindsets. I have learned from both Fight Club and Sula that both Id and Superego exist in everyone, but it is very dangerous for the person's mental state if one side overpowers the other. The ideal would be a perfect balance between the two, where one still can have fun, but is smart and thinks logically as well.

Here's a site with many quotes from Fight Club. This moive has a TON of very memorable and interesting quotes: http://imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes Enjoy!