A Study Of “Fight Club”

Logan Antio

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Fight Club, released in 1991, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, directed by David Fincher, is a film about an office worker with insomnia who meets a mysterious soap maker and salesman named Tyler Durden. Early in the film, the narrator explains how his life does not seem real. He describes everything as “a copy, of a copy, of a copy.” After returning home on a flight from a business trip, the narrator discovers that his apartment room has been blown up. He then calls the soap salesman, Tyler, whom he had met on the flight. After they had spent the evening together at a bar, they exchanged strikes. The narrator then asked Tyler if he could stay at his place, and they quickly became friends and started an underground fighting club together. The two characters' time together exposes many real-world topics, such as consumerism, egotism, and self-improvement.

The film shows how consumers are controlled by social norms, celebrities, clothing brands, and television. Tyler believes that people should reject the basic assumptions of society, especially the importance of material possessions, stating that we are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. The narrator began to realize that special furniture, clothing, and other possessions do not matter. Tyler also states, “The things you own, end up owning you.”

Self-improvement is also addressed in the film, suggesting that self-destruction or the destruction of the false self is a greater way to approach life, as self-improvement usually refers to the growth of external things like cars, houses, clothes, jobs, and money. The narrator eventually detaches from his materialistic lifestyle.