William Carlos Williams ends In the American Grain’s final chapter on Abraham Lincoln with the end of a violent, contradictory nature and the establishment of an identity “it was the end of THAT period” (Williams 234) . America has matured past adolescence but contemporary society finds itself in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Young adult males live without purpose or meaning and struggle against a conditioned, preexisting identity defined by history. As Tyler Durden restrains the narrator in Fight Club and reflects on the history of violence in the foundations of contemporary America, he argues the necessity of violence to create identity, “everything up to now is a story, and everything after now is a story” (Palahniuk p.75).... [tags: Movie Film Analysis]
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