The life philosophy of Tyler Durden in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk could be considered as a literary protest piece due to the variety of concepts featured in the book. The author has talked about consumerism, capitalism, class distinction, hierarchy, mechanization, among many other topics. Capitalism is the most prominent ideology covered where the book seems to lean on mostly. Additionally, capitalism is an essential topic in the modern world; therefore, it is safe to conclude that Fight Club serves the purpose of criticizing the idea. The book seems to mostly confront matters on capitalism and other ideologies as the story builds up. However, inflow the book takes a different stance where it becomes what it has been criticizing all along. The Fight Club is not only a product to be consumed as a movie or novel, but it also carries along so many ideas that could be considered as no longer functional when it comes to changing the already “evil” system.
The role of Fight Club seems to criticize primary institutions and other elements within the 20th century. The movie focuses on the adverse effects that come with taking the capitalist mentality as a problem. The narrator is a perfect example of the American Dream. This is evident in the excellent job, an ideal home, and a great source of income and the description of being a “normal” member of the consumerist society. However, behind this façade of an “ideal” life, the narrator has struggles of his own. The narrator continually has insomnia, with a myriad of problems on the inside (Palahniuk 211). The introduction of the “the dark side” is made at this point where the emphasis is put on the adverse effects of capitalism despite its celebration. Concepts of inequity, isolation, discrimination, alienation, physical and psychological discomfort, and violation discussed to bring awareness of how pathetic the situation has become.
Concepts of consumerism and commodification are two intertwined concepts of capitalism. These concepts are similar in a manner that is almost impossible to tell them apart. Consumerism has various connotations that create an interaction between consumers and markets. This is through consumer production policies that protect consumers from exploitation and any harm as well as allusions coined by anti-consumerists and minimalist advocates. According to cultural studies, consumerism is based on the consumer’s reanimation definition of the practice of excessive consumption. Reanimation, in this sense, is through the commodification of objects and qualities to sell them in the marketplace. The view is propagated by German theorist Jurgen Habermas who argues commodification not only regenerates cultural meanings but also turns people into commodities.
An example of this is how flipping through a magazine, or an unrealistic advertisement was in the beginning, a silly idea is promoted and sold to the reader. At the same time, the next page another refutes it. The paradox of hiring slim models to advertise fast food is undoubtedly unacceptable where the ideal body and the product being advertised are both presented as the commodities to be sold.
Fight club has so many different instances of commodification, such as the portrayal of the narrator’s life as perfect. The narrator eventually gives this up by the symbolic destruction of the flat to start over by joining the club. The Fight Club is described as an organization to get away from the meaningless life, apparently what the narrator had in his life. The idea of selling the narrator’s life is conflicted by how he gives this up for a much more simple life is a paradox on its own and an example of commodification. The club is focused on the ideology of having no rules and is more of a protest against the system of “order”. From this point of view, it evident that the club is against everything that comes with capitalism. However, as the story progresses, various contradictions come up. The club eventually evolves into the system it vehemently criticized through the emergence of “Project Mayhem”. The project is critical of capitalism through the mode of production of the products and the end products. Under the project, soap is produced for sale, which directly contributes to capitalism.
Furthermore, the process of soap making is supervised at all times where workers have to work under strict guidelines of what to wear, how to shave their heads, with no names and scars on their heads as the mark for being members. According to the project, questions should never be asked as it is the first rule to be observed at all times. It is evident that this style of governance mimics the existing order instead of creating alternatives. The people in Project Mayhem are no longer portrayed as a human, where instructions should never be negotiated, and work should be completed according to them. Soap production is also done using human body fat extracted through liposuction, which is also an operation in capitalism (Connolly 97). The narrator speaks about the members of the project as being the “saved,” ones terming capitalists continuously use the human body, unlike their club.
Members of Project Mayhem continued getting more aggressive as time went by, making it evident that they no longer fitted into contemporary society. There is no place to suit the group considering their inability to adopt a traditional way of life. Cases of buildings exploding, constant violation of things and production of bombs are all perpetrated by the members of the club. The club is described as the embodiment of “the return of the repressed,” where the members felt victimized by American capitalist ideas, the American democracy, working conditions, among other things. This can be expressed as the return of “modern Frankensteins” as members acted without any conscious like rational human beings. Each of these members seems to have given up on life and resorted to violation, harm, and order, which is precisely what capitalism is all about. In addition to this, the narrator is much engrossed in the idea of imperialism, where, according to Edward Said’s concept of imperialism (Said 14), the description matches. The narrator seems to have a knack of control evident in the constant need to travel associated with the desire to control and conquer new places.
Concepts of mental health are also evident in the movie, where both the narrator and Tyler create an alter personality full of self-hate, depression, frustration, and low self-esteem. Alter egos refer to multiple characters. An individual may develop a way of escaping reality. The disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personalities that take control of human behavior and often accompanied by a loss of memory of crucial personal information. Every alter ego has their perceptions on the self and the society as it is seen in the narrator and how he evolved into the different alter egos.
Kristen Stirling describes Palahniuk’s concerns about the consequences that will result from society determining the role of each person. She goes on to describe how split personality is portrayed throughout the fight club as an allusion to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stirling 85). Just like Mr. Hyde, Tyler only appeared at night, a time that sins are committed. Nonetheless, using figurative language, Kristen describes Mr. Hyde as a devil while Tyler is portrayed as a charismatic man who becomes a role model to angry young men (Stirling 86). Additionally, daylight is always associated with good while night with evil and darkness. Shadows are associated with every human during the day; however, they disappear in the night, making it a point in the dark in which most sins are committed under its cover (Jacobi 236).
In conclusion, the movie begins with the expectation of presenting solutions to the “oppressed,” although it eventually becomes the ideology that was to be criticized. In the first speech that Tyler Durden makes after the establishment of Fight Club, there is a ray of hope for the frustrated youth, which is snatched almost immediately. All the criticism becomes the mechanism of operation within the club. The club has order despite their disregard on hierarchy, they oppose capitalism yet, and soap is made from human fat extracted through liposuction. Members of the club also believe to be free and not space monkeys, yet they work in factories under strict order; they even leave behind the obsession for order and harmony and yet they work within a “perfect order”. Finally, the narrator is against capitalism, yet he travels and always relocate to new places like a man full of imperialistic aspirations. Through this, the Fight Club loses its critical attitude and becomes a parody of social orders.
Reference
Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London, Sage Publications Ltd, 1998.
Connolly, William E. Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2008. PDF.
Jacobi, Jolande, ed. “Between Good and Evil.” C. G. Jung: Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of His Writings, 1905-1961. 2nd ed. Great Britain: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971. 231-253. Print.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Afterword. Fight Club. London: Vintage Books, 2006. 209-218. Print.
Stirling, Kristen. “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jackass”: Fight Club as a Refraction of Hogg’s Justified Sinner and Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Refracting the Canon in Contemporary British Literature and Film. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. 83-94. Print.
Rodriguez, Francisco Collado. Introduction. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, Choke. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 19-75. PDF file.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Michigan: Pantheon books, 1978, 2008.