Fight Club is the story of an unnamed
narrator (from here referred to as Jack) who unconsciously creates an alter ego
for himself in the form of revolutionary anarchist icon Tyler Durden. This
split in the personality of the hero manifests itself in a whole new person
being created who helps Jack to become free from the trappings of modern life.
However Tyler
is also an agent of control with great power over Jack and therefore Fight Club
is both about power and control as well as liberation.
Tyler is virtually a fascist. His ideology is centred on the idea that
pain and violence can be progressive. Fascists believed in the benefits of war,
particularly for men as war can bring out the best in people. War allows people
to come together to fight a common good, allows men to fight and be brave and
strong and also helps society to advance technologically. Tyler believes that by creating his own army,
he can change society for the better. These changes will include acts of
destruction, damage and violence or at least the very real threat of violence.
For example he intends to blow up credit card company buildings and threatens
to kill a man if he does not strive to reach his potential by becoming a vet.
Tyler also controls his army like a fascist dictator. He shouts slogans
at them like ‘you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake’, therefore
controlling what they think and taking away their individuality. He makes them
dress in an all-black uniform and shave their heads so they look the same. He
refers to them as space monkeys who should be willing to sacrifice themselves
for the greater good. He has great power over his army and controls their
actions, their words and their thoughts. Project Mayhem members begin behaving
like indoctrinated cult members, unable to think for themselves and chanting ‘His
name is Robert Paulson’ simply because they fail to question authority.
Fight Club itself turns into Project Mayhem
and the rules state that its members should not talk about it. Similarly Tyler insists that Jack does not talk about Tyler to Marla. Jack even
says that sometimes Tyler
spoke for him, almost like he is an abused and silenced housewife. Tyler may have some
revolutionary politics and appear as a liberator but he is also a very
controlling and domineering force in the film.
On the other hand, Tyler is also a liberator, a revolutionary
and an anarchist. He is created by Jack because Jack is unhappy with the state
of his current life, desperate for an escape from the boring existence of the
modern corporate man. Tyler
offers him freedom in the form of giving up his possessions, his job and
learning to live without the trappings of IKEA catalogues and comfy living. Tyler teaches Jack to let
go and ‘hit bottom’. This seemingly cures Jack of his insomnia and allows him
to speak up for himself at work, scaring his boss and finally leaving his job. Tyler believes that
having unnecessary possessions and media marketing keep people enslaved in
their jobs and consuming products that they do not actually need. Tyler attempts to
convince young men that they do not need to work boring jobs and keep buying
whatever advertising tells them to buy. He wants men to free themselves from
the comforts of modern living.
Tyler also tries to start a revolution against capitalism and the culture
it has created. He wishes to blow up credit card companies in order to erase
the debt record. In this way he is a socialist as he wants everyone to be free
from debt so that all human beings can be equal again. He believes that
destroying these companies, he can bring about real change in an unfair and
unequal society. Marxists believe that a revolution will be necessary in order
to bring about social change and to redistribute the wealth of the world to all
people equally. Tyler
appears s to be a revolutionary but he has to be a dictator to begin the
revolution. The question is, in a freer and more equal society after erasing
the debt record, would Tyler
relinquish his power, leaving society to run itself or would he become an even
more tyrannical dictator?
The film is also critical of corporate
control over men in the modern world. Jack is bored and depressed because of
the monotony of his job. His boss talks to him like a faceless robot and it
seems that much of Jack’s life is dictated by work. He has to travel where work
tells him and do as he is told. This allows him to afford the life he lives and
the life that Tyler
tries to get him to reject. Jack even mentions in his voice over that when space
exploration develops, it will be the corporations that take control of the
planets, naming them after themselves like ‘Planet Starbucks’. This shows that
he thinks that corporate control is total and that their profits will allow
them to explore and dominate the universe in the future. It is the banks that
control the debt that keeps people working all their lives in order to pay it
back and that Tyler
wants to overthrow.
Advertising also is a key form of control that Tyler criticises for telling people what to buy, what to wear, where to eat and drink and how to look. Fight Club seems to stand against these sorts of control but in the end, the protagonist Jack rejects Tyler so perhaps it is more complex than to say Fight Club is simply anti-capitalist and against corporate control.
Marla appears to be the most liberated
character in the film. She does not fear death, she does not let her gender
stop her from attending testicular cancer support groups and she steals from
others with reckless abandon. Jack/Tyler does seem to have some control over
her as he manages to mess with her mind and she keeps coming back to him. She
is also literally restrained and dragged back to Jack in the final scene of the
film, showing that again, Project Mayhem is as much about power and control as
liberating the masses.
The question of whether Fight Club is all
about power and control or liberation really comes down to the intentions of
Tyler and Project Mayhem. On the one hand their intentions to make a more equal
society can appear noble and could help to set free a lot of the wage slaves of
the world. On the other hand Tyler
is a dictatorial presence and a hypocrite and it is only once Jack destroys him
that he can truly be free. Fight Club is therefore about power, control and
liberation. It questions corporate control over the world and has a character
that advocates revolution but it also represents the revolutionary as a
character to be critical and cautious of. Tyler
is as much of a dictator as he is an anarchist and contrary to his demands, Tyler must be discussed. We have to talk about Fight Club.
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