In the first five chapters of fight club, we meet the narrator, "Jack." We learn that Jack suffers from insomnia: "This is how it is with insomnia. Everything is so far away, a copy of a copy of a copy. The insomnia distance of everything, you can't touch anything and nothing can touch you" (21).
We also learn that he cannot sleep unless he goes to support groups for people who are terminally ill and sees what "true suffering" looks like: "This should be my favorite part, being held and crying with Big Bob without hope. We all work so hard all the time. This is the only place I ever relax and give up. This is my vacation" (18), "This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. If I didn't say anything, people in a group assumed the worst. They cried harder. I cried harder. Look up into the stars and you're gone" (22). Still, he isolates himself further at these support groups: "I never gave my real name at support groups" (19).
Jack's ability to isolate himself is threatened when another "faker" starts coming to all of his support groups. Her name is Marla. "Until tonight, two years of success until tonight, because I can't cry with this woman watching me. Because I can't hit bottom, I can't be saved. My tongue thinks it has flocked wallpaper, I'm biting the inside of my mouth so much. I haven't slept in four days" (22). Jack and Marla divide up the support groups so that they don't see each other.
After this point, it seems like Jack isn't isolated, but it really just becomes the devolution characteristic in isolation's place.
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