What are the unique and interesting structural elements of the novel Fight Club? How does Chuck Palahniuk use sentence structure, sentence...

Chuck Palahniuk uses a number of structures to show the chaotic inner world of the narrator of Flight Club. The story is structured as a flashback; it begins as the narrator is with Tyler Durden on the top of the Parker-Morris Building as Tyler is putting a gun in his mouth. The narrator counts down from ten, interspersing the countdown, such as "five minutes," between paragraphs. The narrative then cuts to an earlier scene in...

Chuck Palahniuk uses a number of structures to show the chaotic inner world of the narrator of Flight Club. The story is structured as a flashback; it begins as the narrator is with Tyler Durden on the top of the Parker-Morris Building as Tyler is putting a gun in his mouth. The narrator counts down from ten, interspersing the countdown, such as "five minutes," between paragraphs. The narrative then cuts to an earlier scene in which the narrator is at a testicular cancer support group. In short, the reader is at first placed with Tyler and the narrator on the top of a building about to explode. When the narration begins the flashback to the support group, the reader has no idea what will happen to the narrator, who is stuck on the top of a building about to explode. These types of jumps in the narration leave the reader with the sense of shock and dislocation that the narrator himself feels.

Palahniuk uses short, abrupt sentences such as those in the following paragraph that begins the novel: 

"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. For a long time though,Tyler and I were best friends. People are always asking, did I know about Tyler Durden."

The sentences are short and choppy, and they are not punctuated correctly. These types of sentences capture the randomness and disorientation of the narrator. Here is another example from the second chapter:

"Bob cries because six months ago, his testicles were removed. Then hormone support therapy. Bob has tits because his testosterone ration is too high. Raise the testosterone level too much, your body ups the estrogen to seek a balance."

Again, the sentences are short and end abruptly, and the narration is jumpy, conveying a nervous tone. There is a great deal of repetition in the novel, such as, "This is as close as I've been to sleeping in almost a week. This is how I met Marla Singer." The words "This is" or "This isn't" begin many sentences, conveying the narrator's attempts to define his world and his place in it--attempts that are largely futile.