Kurelich 1

Skyler Kurelich
Mr. Phillips
CML Honors
23 May 2016
Miss America And Her Winning Smile
The truth is, being ugly isn't the thrill you'd think, but it can be an opportunity for
something better than I ever imagined (Palahniuk 260). Looking like a supermodel is an
unrealistic aspiration in todays society. The concept of beauty has shifted from personality to
public appearance. For instance, the popular dating phone application, Tinder, works off of a
basis of swiping left or right, judging on a persons profile picture, forgoing substance for
superficiality; however, this is not the only example. American society as a whole has conformed
to that of a beauty empire whose laws are dictated by the media--not just through one app. Award
winning author, Chuck Palahniuk, challenges this higher importance of appearance in his
gripping fiction novel, Invisible Monsters. Through the unconventional writing style that straps
the reader in from page one, until the end, Chuck Palahniuks book, Invisible Monsters, reflects
the shallow concept of aesthetic beauty over character and personality in todays society.
Though Palahniuks theme relates to todays culture, the events of Invisible Monsters date
back to the Twentieth Century. Deceptively simply written as all of Palahniuk's books are, this
is still a book very difficult to sum up in a quick or pithy manner (Sherrod N.p.). Coinciding
with the AIDS epidemic, the narrator, a former supermodel, is recovering in the hospital from her
lower jaw being shot off in an accident when she meets the love of her life, the Queen
Supreme Brandy Alexander, a transgender woman who is regaining her health from a surgery in
the same ward. While in the hospital, the narrator only wishes for anyone to notice her, to ask her

Kurelich 2

what happened to her face. The narrator craved any kind of the white hot attention she used to
achieve effortlessly as a model, then, Ill get on with my life. (Palahniuk 45). Brandy, after
taking not only the narrators past, but her identity, shows her a stash of Vicodins and in doing
so, gave her the strength to not to get on with my former life. This is how I found the courage to
not pick up the same old pieces (Palahniuk 61). Together, the two of them, along with Brandys
latest arm candy, Seth Thomas, tour big real estate up and down the coast and across the
Canadian Border, scamming houses and stealing drugs. Like the modeling world that the
narrator comes from, however, nothing in this novel is exactly what it seems (Emma N.p.).
Drowning the reader in physical descriptions to distract from the characters identities,
motives, and morals is a vital technique Palahniuk utilizes in Invisible Monsters in order to show
how, in society, style matters over substance. Details are overblown in such a way that the big
picture becomes distorted; overlooked in exchange for frivolous and often deceptive
appearances. Instead of the narrator focusing on the situation of Brandy Alexanders insides
gushing out through a bullet hole in her amazing suit jacket (Palahniuk 11), she instead turns
her attention towards the suit, describing it as: this white Bob Mackie knock-off Brandy bought
in Seattle with a tight hobble skirt that squeezes her ass into the perfect big heart shape. You
would not believe how much this suit cost (Palahniuk 12). The focus on the knock-off suit
distracts from the situation and sets a theme of understatement throughout the entirety of the
novel. Palahniuk also brings a high level of complexity to the narrative, writing the story in a
non-linear format (Emma N.p.). A life or death situation played down to the cost of a jacket and
whether or not dabbing a little club soda would take care of the bloodstain certainly fits the
criteria of non-linear.

Kurelich 3

When the narrator later becomes jealous of Seths affection towards Brandy, she finds
that Brandys features are too garish right now, too saturated, too intense. Lurid. You think of
cartoon characters (Palahniuk 115). Suddenly, the impact of color and detail overwhelm the
senses and block the narrator from seeing beyond her jealousy. When the sensory descriptors
take over, there is no room left for in depth analyses. A barrage of the senses can be noted with
all that color. A whole shift in the beauty standard so that no one thing really stands out. The
total being less than the sum of its parts. All that color in one place. (Palahniuk 54) When
everything is decorated and flashing for attention, no one thing stands out. It becomes a blur of
color, a collective cloud of information impossible to sort through, so it is easier to ignore. With
so much color all in one place--so many people wearing flashy clothes or makeup in order to get
noticed--nothing gets recognized. The total being less than the sum of its parts. This technique
also applies to the theme of Americas concept of beauty being so obsessed with outward
appearances that insight and personality are often left unaccounted.
Considering the narrators perspective and turmoil, Chuck Palahniuk successfully
captures societys twisted ideology of beauty standards that stretches beyond its generation, into
today. The narrator serves as a hyperbole of dissociation from ones character as a result of
conforming to a code of beauty that has not left cultures expectations. Invisible Monsters
provides a one of a kind writing style and rollercoaster plot line where the protagonist sets out
on a weird continental journey with a transexual and a male companion that takes her through
plutography and pornography while leading her ever closer to accepting reality (Sherrod N.p.).
Chuck Palahniuks Invisible Monsters is so impactful when it comes to physical appearance, that
the reader does not even realize the narrators name, Shannon McFarland, was not revealed until
the very end.

Kurelich 4

Works Cited
Emma. "Invisible Monsters Remix." Goodreads. N.p., 20 Oct. 2007. Web. 23 May 2016.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Invisible Monsters. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. Print.
Sherrod, Kate. "Invisible Monsters Book Review Summary." All Readers. N.p., n.d. Web. 24
May 2016.