Fight Club Existentialism

This movie explores issues of greed, human relationships, betrayal and redemption, personal innocence and responsibility as well as the effects on the human mind

This movie Directed by Paul Haggis who also directed Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby" and had also won an Academy Award for this movie as well puts a twisted story in this film. This movie is trying to symbolize what goes on in the world today in regards to racism and stereotypes. He tries to make a point on how societies view themselves and others in the world based on there ethnicities. This movie intertwines several different people's lives, all different races, with different types of beliefs. Such ethnicities include Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Eastern. This movie includes conflicts on both sides of the picture from cops and criminals as well

Quentin Tarantino’s films are always controversial, and Pulp Fiction is no exception. The film depicts graphic violence and overt drug usage, while shying away from politically correct language. The film’s controversial topics such as racial stereotypes, has led some critics to hail the movie as racist; however, the movie denies many of these stereotypes, portraying character and character relationships as not exclusive to their stereotype. Furthermore, the movie mocks many of societies stereotypes, and it is not afraid to address, or not to address, uncomfortable racial topics. Thus, Pulp Fiction challenges racial barriers.

Tyler is a nihilist because he does not believe in the value of friendship or loyalty. Tyler's main drive is to destroy the narrator's life. Tyler has not emotional connection to people, and he also has no regrets. He, eventually, forces this philosophy onto the narrator and thereby transforms him into Tyler Durden. In the first chapters of the novel, it is difficult to distinguish the narrator and Tyler because of the effect that Tyler had on the narrator's personality. Tyler emphasizes this point when he says, “I used to be a nice person” (Palahniuk 98). Eventually, Tyler destroys the narrator's humanity and pulls him from the senses that control societal actions.

The first hints of his rebellion surface when he hides books in his home. His wife completely disagrees with this and fears that he will get them killed. Though he is put in danger by his actions he is steadfast in his search for the truth. Once he begins to question the authorities he becomes even more determined to alter his ways so that he can be a source of positive change for others who are willing to join him.

Throughout the movie though it seems that everything that Tyler did, he (Edward) did as well. Like everything was always was done together. Everything that needed to be expressed came from Tyler as if he was speaking for him (Edward). But then became the recruiting of their members from the fight club. When he started

I believe Jack created Tyler in order to find his masculinity. When Jack loses everything he has, he does not know how to cope with such an excessive amount of stress. At this point, he turns to Tyler. Together, the two of them create Fight Club, a new way for men to relieve their stress and find their strength. Jack confesses to Tyler that he never really knew his father because he abandoned him when he was about six years old. Since he was raised by his mother, this becomes the movie’s best indication of why he suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. Jack never had a male role

Analysis of the Themes in Fight Club It is easy to understand how and why many who view Fight Club (Fincher, 1999) would argue that is in essence a critique of post modern consumer culture within America or indeed the western world. After all we are faced with Character(s) Jack (Edward Norton) who seems to gain no cultural sustenance from the world in which he inhabits. More over it seems to do him harm in the form of insomnia.

His second epiphany occurs when he shoots Tyler, and thus himself. On the first level, the narrator acknowledges his death instincts by confronting his fear of pain and death. He accepts Tyler’s ideas of experiencing death so as to be fully conscious of his physical existence. When he shoots Tyler, he does so with the awareness that he is shooting himself. This is the final step he needs to take in order to be fully aware of what he is. On the second level, by rejecting Tyler’s nihilistic ideas of destroying institutions and value systems, he chooses what values to stand for and thus creates his own purpose for himself. “In choosing his ethics, Man makes himself.” He also translates the belief in these values into the actual action of shooting Tyler, thus defining his existence through actual action. On the third level, by shooting Tyler, he assumes responsibility for all of Man, not just himself. He assumes responsibility for Man because he invents what Man should be: one who does not act in an uncaring and destructive manner towards others. On the fourth level, shooting Tyler allows the narrator to be defined in a way he wishes to be defined in the eyes of the “other”. Shooting Tyler is crucial towards removing the existence of Project Mayhem. He does not want Marla to find out about Project Mayhem because he will then lose his connections with her. It is important to the narrator to have a

Fight Club can be viewed with many interpretations, all of them true. It is a great love story. It is an anti-consumerism rant. It is a spiritual piece against materialism. It is anarchist literature. It is a commentary on our ‘lost’ generation. At first viewing of the movie, very little of this can be seen and it appears violent and chaotic. However much thought was put into providing the movie with depth and development that only become apparent after multiple screenings.

The film represents violence of destruction as associated with masculinity, and it shows this as a negative attitude, and

By the definition of existentialism, it is the theory that one gives an action a value by the virtue of choosing said action to begin with. It is an approach that emphasizes any existence of an individual that is “condemned to be free” (McCutcheon, p. 91) and are therefore agents who have no other choice but to be accountable for those actions in which they produce. In a way, it is as if existentialism is contrary to essentialism. The idea that existence precedes essence manifests itself in the movie Fight Club. This movie shows many themes of existentialism, where the main character struggles between his “everyday self” and the “inner self” he longs to become. The Narrator soon learns that it is only when one strips away everything they thought they knew about themselves—down to an empty shell of who they are—that you may build back up into a new and complete person with a real identity and the capability of decision making. The three themes of existentialism that the movie portrays are: (1)) the awareness of what you are and assuming responsibility, (2) the aspect of choosing how one may define themselves with respect to the world they exist in, and lastly, (3) the confrontation of mental pain in order to reach a genuine state of “being for itself”.

Fight Club challenges the typical American consumer identity by creating two contradicting characters. Jack starts out as a consumer defining his life by possessions, while Tyler lives his life on his own terms. One of the better

He lives in an old house that was most likely condemned a century ago. It sits in front of an old factory. His nearest neighbor is a mile and half away. Tyler makes and sells soap. He also has other jobs that afford him time to do not so pleasant things such as urinate in soup at high class restaurants and splice objectionable images into family films in major theater chains. Tyler has no rules, no limits, but he gives no breaks either, you either follow him or are against him. Tyler tries to better people in weird off the wall ways. Whereas Jack is such the sheep that he follows everyone else as compared to Tyler who is the one who tries to change society and Jack follows him because Tyler is the way he is not. Jack is intoxicated by Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, who lacks inhibition, just as Jack lacks personal freedom.

Durden on the other hand is a man with little scruples. He is not an evil man. He just wants to wake people up from the perpetual dream world that they live in and he will go to any lengths to achieve his vision of setting people free. He lives in an old house that was most likely condemned a century ago. It sits in front of an old factory. His nearest neighbor is a mile and half away. Tyler makes and sells soap. He also has other jobs that afford him time to do not so pleasant things such as urinate in soup at high class restaurants and splice objectionable images into family films in major theater chains. Tyler has no rules, no limits, but he gives no breaks either, you either follow him or are against him. Tyler tries to better people in weird off the wall ways. Whereas Jack is such the sheep that he follows everyone else as compared to Tyler who is the one who tries to change society and Jack follows him because Tyler is the way he is not. Jack is intoxicated by Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, who lacks inhibition, just as Jack lacks personal freedom.