Fight Club - Reading Between the Lines

In 1996 Chuck Palahniuk wrote a book called Fight Club. In 1999 David Fincher turned it into a major motion picture. Tyler Durden; in Tyler we trust. The first time Tyler met the Narrator he told him “A person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.”

The Narrator or “Jack” never had an actual name. Chuck Palahniuk never gave him a name because he didn’t feel that he needed one. “Jack” represents an entire piece of society “Generation X” the average working class. “Jack” was never given a name because society no longer recognises Mr. Average Nobody. But, Tyler Durden wasn’t the average nobody. He didn’t exist, true. But, he took an empty shell of a man and turned him into a person who was respected, someone with power. “Jack” says himself on page 174 “I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not.” This tells us that Tyler is everything the Narrator isn’t. Tyler is the Narrator’s ideal view of what a man should be like, what he should be like.

The first time Tyler and “Jack” meet in the film is on the plane. Tyler is seated next to the Emergency Exit door reading the safety card, which tells him “If you feel you are unable or unwilling to perform this procedure please ask the flight attendant to reseat you.” the Narrator tells Tyler “It’s a lot of responsibility” Tyler asks “Jack” if he wants to switch seats to which “Jack” respond “No, I don’t think I’m the man for that particular job.” What the Narrator doesn’t realise is that Tyler isn’t talking about the Emergency Exit door, he’s giving “Jack” his final opportunity to opt out of the situation. But “Jack” says he doesn’t want that responsibility, Tyler can have it, and in that moment, his fate is sealed.

Deep down, somewhere buried in his subconscious, “Jack” always knew that Tyler wasn’t real, and, although “Jack” created Tyler, Tyler is like a cancer. “Jack” even says so himself on page 106 “The cancer I don’t have is everywhere now. I don’t tell Marla that. There are a lot of things we don’t want to know about the people we love.” This is direct reference to Tyler’s relationship with "Jack". It tells us the line between Tyler and "Jack" is becoming thinner and thinner and slowly but surely they’re just becoming the same person. The last sentence “There are lots of things we don’t want to know about the people we love” explains that "Jack" knows Tyler doesn’t exist, but he is refusing to admit it to himself because he doesn’t want it to be true. How would you feel? Suddenly one day, your best friend; they’re not gone, but they were never there.

Maybe Tyler was simply a relief from the pain of “Jack” not knowing himself. For the first homework assignment Tyler tells the members of Fight Club “You’re going to go out and start a fight with a total stranger, and you’re going to lose.” Initially we think “Jack” is going to fight his boss, but “Jack” ends up beating himself. This implies he is a stranger to himself. This is not the situation the Narrator faces with Tyler, as we see them fighting outside the bar.

In the end you will thank him. Tyler wanted to create the perfect society. Now maybe his idea on how to get there weren’t ideal, but his vision, it was perfection. Surely the end must outweigh the means? A ”cultural ice age.” Tyler wanted to “blast the world free of history,” and what Tyler wanted became what "Jack" wanted, after all they are the same person.

In their final minutes together Tyler tells "Jack" “I will bring us through this, as always. I will carry you kicking and screaming, and in the end, you will thank me.” Tyler thinks of himself as a sort of God, and often subliminally compares himself to a kind of new-age Jesus. Careful use of the words “I will carry you,” implies it here and this is not this is not an isolated incident. On page 70 Tyler justifies what he’s doing to "Jack" by telling him “If you don’t fall all the way, you can’t be saved. Jesus did it with the whole crucifixion thing.” What he is trying to say is that only after you have lost everything, only when you have nothing to fall back on, no-one to turn to, no safety net, it’s only then when you are truly dependent on yourself, only when you are truly no-one are you free to become someone. There are no more restrictions, no borders or boundaries, you are an empty shell and you are free to become anything. The lower you fall the higher you’ll fly, the farther you run the more God wants you back.

Tyler is trying to save "Jack’s” life. On page 68 Marla talks about the Animal Control Center she says it’s a place where “even if someone loves you enough to save your life, they still castrate you.” This is symbolic of what Tyler has done to "Jack" he has changed "Jack" into somebody important, someone who matters, and although that is what "Jack" wanted, it’s not who he is, it’s Tyler. "Jack" knows this because Tyler knows this, but what Tyler is trying to do is convince him that it’s worth it. Tyler talks about “Sacrificing yourself to the greater good.” When Tyler realises it’s not going to be that easy and "Jack" discovers that Tyler doesn’t really exist "Jack" tells Tyler “I was here first.” Tyler replies, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll just see who’s here last.” When Tyler can’t mould the part of "Jack" he doesn’t already have control over into who Tyler wants him to be, he threatens to take him over completely.

In the film when “Jack” is driven home underneath the title of the apartments it says “A place to be somebody”, that’s why Tyler blows up “Jack’s” condo. He has to get “Jack” out of there, he can’t be somebody until he is nobody, and he’s still a long way from hitting bottom. Tyler did the same to “Jack’s” apartment as he did to “Jack”. You’re a normal person, Mr. Average and then you meet someone like Tyler Durden, and everything you’ve ever known, all you own; burn it down, blow it up, let it go. In another Jesus-like act Tyler makes “Jack” do all these things before he can follow him.

“Jack” seems to have problems with telling Tyler the truth. “Tyler asks, is this a problem for me?” Is it a problem? Yes it’s a problem “No, I say, it’s fine.” What do you think “Jack?” “Put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains. Just great, I say. Really.” But just as there are some things you really don’t want to know about the ones you love, there are some things you don’t want them to know about you either.

Marla. On page 198 the Narrator tells us the reason for all of this “The guns, the bombs, the revolution,” is a girl named Marla Singer. Tyler loved Marla. "Jack" couldn’t express how he felt, because he wasn’t that kind of guy. So he needed someone who was that kind of guy, but he wanted Marla. And, that’s where Tyler comes in. Tyler Durden was that kind of guy. Tyler was the answer to all of “Jack’s” everything. The Narrator could suddenly have everything he ever wanted minus the responsibility. The embodiment of “be careful what you wish for.”

In the car crash scene Tyler teaches “Jack” the treachery of empty words. “Jack” tells Tyler he basically doesn’t care about anything anymore, “F*** you! F*** Fight Club! F*** Marla! I am sick of all this s***.” Tyler calls what happens next a near-life experience – he lets go of the wheel, “Jack” grabs it but Tyler tells him to stop being pathetic, to let go, I don’t think he just means it in the literal sense. The crashes the car into another car that has broken down and they both roll down the verge. For the first time “Jack”, not Tyler has let go of everything and everyone, he can survive on his own now, he’s hit rock bottom. The next morning he wakes up and Tyler is gone, theoretically “Jack” should never see him again. Tyler has taught him to say what he means and to mean what he says.

We do see Tyler again, but not until “Jack” realises they are the same person. Tyler helped “Jack” hit rock bottom, but he isn’t done yet. He wants his “cultural ice age”, he decides he wants to start by erasing the debt record and send everyone back to zero. In order to do this he successfully endeavours to blow up the headquarters of all the major credit card companies. “Jack” finds out and doesn’t know what to do. Now he has a difficult choice to make.

How far have you come because of me? If you could be God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose? This is the choice “Jack” had to make. Fight Tyler and return to being Mr. Average, or give up and let go, sacrifice himself to the greater good, lose all his identity and just let himself become... Tyler Durden.