It is evident that society has created a sense of alienation for a generation of men who feel like lost boys and unsure of what it really means to be a man . Most of these men have not had a parental father figure in their lives. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and Regeneration by Pat Barker provide an analysis of men growing up without fathers and the effects this has on the man throughout their lives, including the effects of their sense of masculinity. Fight Club and Regeneration are a warning about what happens in a society where there is no father archetype for men to look up to. In an interview with the author, Palahniuk said he wanted the story to be a cautionary tale about what can happen when an entire segment of a culture is disenfranchised. He explains why he wanted to write this book: “I wanted to acknowledge what my friends were complaining about, their father's failure, and document what is happening in our lives. » (Singleton, 143) Regeneration and Fight Club are both about men lacking a parental father figure and how this affects their lives. From this analysis, it emerges that these men feel alienated, emasculated and seek guidance by participating in homosexual or homosocial activities. Men are looked down upon by their society because they do not follow the gender norms that society considers right. Men are not allowed to discuss their feelings or emotions without being classified as weak or feminine. Chuck Palahniuk and Pat Barker attempt to break the stereotype that men must be tough and emotionless and encourage men to express their feelings and, more generally, what it's like to grow up without a father. The alienation created by growing up without a father provokes the men in these novels. looking for a... middle of paper ......s their feelings and emotions, which emasculated men in their eyes. For example, Willard is the man who can't walk. He is so embarrassed and feels so emasculated by his condition that he refuses to believe he has anything other than a physical problem. Rivers assures Willard that "a coward needs his legs." (Barker, 112). Despite the fact that patients feel emasculated by the treatment methods, Rivers achieves positive results, which helps his patients return to normal lives. Ultimately, Barker's exploration of emasculation in the novel challenges traditional notions of manhood. Works Cited Barker, Pat. Regeneration. London: Penguin Books, 1991. Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight club. New York: Norton and Company, 1996. Singleton, William. “Pacifica University Institute.” The archetype of the father and the myth of the fatherless son 12 (2007): 135-145.