Fight Club: An Alter Ego's Philosophy against Modern Civilization

Fight Club was released 23 years ago. Even watching it today, the audience still finds the film both entertaining and thought-provoking. It conveys a message that resonates with audiences so much that a lot of people(especially Men) find the film a catharsis to the problems they face in mundane daily life.

Quoting Tyler(Brad Pitt) ：

“God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.”

Why is the film timeless and started a cult following for more than 20 years? Does the movie offer a solution to depression and the purposelessness of life?

David Fincher makes Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) so appealing that a lot of audiences didn’t see what the larger movie was going for. Let’s have a thorough analysis of the movie and Tyler's philosophy without getting carried away by his massive magnetic field due to his charismatics.

plot recap:

Fight Club, based on Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name, follows an unnamed narrator (Edward Norton), an employee of a large car company, who finds life and job depressing and meaningless and suffers from severe insomnia. The narrator initially attends support groups for the emotional catharsis they provide, which stops working when he encounters Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), who’s also a “faker.” Once again he couldn’t sleep. The narrator eventually crosses paths with Tyler Durden, a masculine charming soap dealer who wears a leather jacket and appears to be confident at all times.

After the narrator’s apartment explodes, Tyler agrees to offer him to live in his shabby house on the account that the narrator hit him in the face. They become addicted to hitting each other, which makes them feel really alive. With more and more people joining them together to fight each other, Fight club is founded, at first Fight Club offers men a way to get their masculinity back and connect to each other. But later it transforms into Project Mayhem which revenges against society. The journey of destruction evolves from self-destruction to the destruction of the whole society. The narrator eventually realizes that Project mayhem has gone out of control and must be ended. He argues with Tyler and realizes that he is Tyler Durden, the masculine side of the narrator that has been oppressed all his life. When he finds himself a slave to work and consumerism and craving for a way to get his masculinity back, Tyler bursts out and offers him a solution. To stop blowing up the credit companies. The narrator shoots himself in the face, killing Tyler but survives miraculously. But the explosion is unstoppable. At last, holding marla’s hand, the narrator finally accepts that he loves Marla while the credit card companies around them are blown up, which possibly brings the end to modern society.

2:Why is the movie timeless?

Fight Club has one of the best first acts in movie history. The problem the narrator faces resonates with the audience so much that the audience really has a connection with the film, which makes the film intriguing. Tyler’s philosophy is thought-provoking by pinpointing the problem we all face in our tedious life and offering a solution.

The narrator is a lost soul who finds life meaningless, and Job boring. His job is to treat people like they are just numbers. He’s the guy who applies the formula for car recalling when there’s an accident. Whether to recall the car or not due to malfunctions, may look like a life or death situation to us, but to his company, it all depends on whether the recall will lose money or save money. The job treats him like he’s a tool while at the same time, by carrying out his job, he treats people like figures, just applying the formula for the sake of bringing the profit of the company to the extreme. Which in return, makes him suffer because of the inhumanity of what he does.

He’s addicted to products that he doesn’t need due to TV commercials. Suffering from insomnia, his half-awake watching TV commercials on the sofa when he’s supposed to sleep in bed also indicates that he’s kind of hypnotized by the TV. “An entire generation raised by TVs ”, as Tyler puts his words. His purpose in life is to make his condone perfect with full of IKEA furniture. Even though materially he almost has everything, something is missing in his life. He feels like a living zombie with no soul. He’s a slave to civilization and consumerism.

His insomnia is caused by his lack of deep connection to people. That’s why he became addicted to support groups with dying desperate people. In a way, he’s also dying, not materially, but spiritually. “When people think you are dying, they really listen to you instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.” He finds a deep connection there and finally, he can sleep again. He becomes addicted to all kinds of support groups, for the Guided Meditation, for the emotional catharsis the groups provide, and for deep connections to others.

But with Malar the faker touristing all the support groups including the group of men with testicular cancer, whose presence reveals his own lies, the narrator feels like a faker himself and loses the deep connection to the people in the group who are sincerely dying, again, he couldn’t sleep.

3: The Philosophy of Tyler: Tyler offers a solution, but goes too much across the line.

David Finch did such a good job of making the audience empathetic with the problem the narrator faces, problems we can all relate to, that the audience really wants the narrator to stand up and solve his problems. The narrator needs a father figure to lead him and show him a way out of his sufferings. That’s when Tyler fills in. He’s everything the narrator lacks, charming, confident, charismatic, fearless, and most importantly, masculine.

Tyler’s use of his wise and sharp words pinpoints the problem, making both the narrator and the audience feel enlightened. Quoting Tyler:

“The thing you own ends up owning you.”

“Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

“Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!”

“The liberator who destroyed my property has realigned my perception.”

“Reject the basics assumption of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.”

To conclude, Tyler blames civilization and consumerism, which have made humans slaves to jobs and products, for the cause of the problems.

Tyler also offers his solution: If civilization consumerism is the problem, then the solution to the problem should be the end of civilization and consumerism.

So why fight club? Violence is the opposite of civilization, so to reject the basic assumption of civilization, he goes in the opposite direction with individuals hitting rock bottom.

Fighting each other in a way is self-destruction. Starting by destroying the human flesh and body by fighting each other, which leads to the destruction of self-egos. Then Tyler launches his campaign outside and aims for society. The narrator finally stands up to his boss. Till this point, everything seems to be in the right direction. The narrator finds both catharsis and a purpose in his life.

Then the violence exacerbates, from self-destruction towards the destruction of the society, and at last, The destruction of the whole civilization with Project Mayhem, which aims to blow up all the credit card companies, reset everyone to ground zero, turn the roots of modern civilization and materialism, which is the possession of money, into ashes.

“It’s only after we lost everything that we are free to do anything.” That’s Tyler's philosophy against modern civilization.

4: what’s the solution

Movies may contain thrilling plot conflicts on the surface, but it’s the philosophical conflicts beneath that really matter and lingers on for the audience. It’s all about what the character believes in. This brings the question.

Each character in movies believes in something and has his own philosophy. But is it the truth?

Since Tyler blames all the problems on civilization and consumerism. So he offers a solution to destroy civilization and consumerism. Is Tyler’s way the way out?

If after watching the film, you think that “We should start a fight club!” then congratulations, you have missed the point of Fight Club.

Most people choose religion or guided meditation to soothe the melancholy part of life, which is also shown in the film. But Tyler sees those ways as escape without facing the real problem which is civilization and what lies beneath civilization is the credit in the bank.

Yes, Tyler does a good job pinpointing the problems of the struggles of the world, which is the disconnect of the postmodern age fueled by capitalism and alienation. But the solution he offers is totally off the track.

The problem itself is a paradox. Our life is so convenient because of civilization and the things we own. And yet civilization is also making us its slaves, materially abundant and yet spiritually lacking. So if the problem is spiritually lacking and you choose to blame the material and civilization and find a solution to destroy civilization and the thing we own? If people’s problem is from the inner world of spiritually lacking, how is doing something outside your inner world a solution? Tyler’s campaign is unquestionably wrong from ground zero.

"Fight Club" itself does not advocate Durden's philosophy. It is rather a warning against it. What is the solution? Fight Club brings up the problem without giving a solution.

To solve the problem, we still need to find the right reason for the problem. Tyler did a good job pinpointing the problem which is alienation and lack of deep connection to others. But he doesn’t find the right reason for the problem. He blames society and civilization. If the problem is because of lacking deep connections to others and to the world. Then to solve it, is to gain the connections.

Deep connections are something we are all searching for our whole life. Every human being is a unique individual and yet yells for connections to others and to the universe. Most people turn to spouses or family members when facing depression. Some people turn to religion. For a lot of people, Meditation and turning your Chakra really helps. Some people go to support groups. Is going to a support group and crying your eyes out about your ego really the solution? I say the hell with the ego, but unplug yourself from your ego, free yourself from all the emotions like hatred, alienation, and self-pity, and thrive to find your true self who is abundant and fulfilled already and ready to give to the world.

But what if all of these solutions won’t work for you? Will you choose the solution of revenge and destruction as the narrator (Tyler) did?

Still, it’s enlightening to see someone else’s philosophy of trying to eliminate the dark side of our civilization.