Character & Storytelling | "Fight Club" (1999)

Fig. 1 "Fight Club" Poster

The movie “Fight Club (1999)“ written by Chuck Palahniuk and directed by David Fincher is about a man the audience refers to as “The Narrator” who suffers from multiple personality disorder. As life is not going well for him he subconsciously wants to change its course of action. He meets Tyler Durden, a smart good looking guy who eventually ends up accompanying and helping him whenever needed. Soon The Narrator finds out that Tyler is part of himself his split personality who tries to change the society with radical methods. This review will mainly focus on the analysis of the two opposing characters Tyler Durden and The Narrator.

The Narrator
Personal History and Internal/External Traits:

The Narrator or as he refers himself as Jack from a book series is a middle aged man around 30 years old. He works as a recall specialist for a major car company and due to the jetlag from numerous business trips around the world he suffers from insomnia. Jack is around 180cm high, has a slim/skinny figure due to his insomnia and does not eat much. As a result he always has a tired face expression, has rather big eye bags and Jack seems to lack motivation for his job obviously as he states at the beginning of the movie that he hates his job and his boss in particular. However he dresses himself moderately for his job and always does his given tasks. He has no other choice but to force himself to work in a job he does not like to maintain his current life situation. He is single and lives alone in an apartment filled with expensive furniture. His fridge is always empty as he rarely buys food.

Fig. 2 Jack

Throughout the movie the audience gets hints that Jack actually wants to control everything what is happening in his life. He wants to know everything that is going on around him and does not like when something is happening around him without him noticing or without informing him for example: Tyler did not tell him about his plans for Project Mayham.
His father left him at the age of only six and never came back. Apparently he had a normal childhood until his father left. According to The Narrator his father would repeat this every six years: move from one city to another create a family and leave after six years and so on. His father has never finished college, but demands him to do it. After college Jack did not know what to do so he asked his father again for advice who only told him to get a job and get married.
The loneliness and sense of betrayal may be the cause of his insomnia since visiting support groups for various death causing diseases and crying in the arms of another person who seems to understand Jack helps him tremendously.

Personal World View/Inherited World:

Jack sees the world as it is: a capitalistic world. He is blurred by the illusion of the various advertisements on TV that every person must buy various things to be happy. This materialistic image is the cause for him to buy expensive furniture for his apartment since only then he will feel this illusion of completion, perfection and happiness. However, he subconsciously tries to change his way of living to find true happiness by creating this imaginary friend Tyler Durden. Throughout the movie Tyler has a huge impact on The Narrator’s world view. Tyler teaches him to let go of his possession since they will end up owning you instead of the opposite.
He says himself that due to his lack of sleep he perceives the world as not real but as a copy of a copy of a copy.

Fig. 3 Jacks perception

Wants and Needs (and Flaws):

He does not really have a clear goal since he is partially accepting the way of living in the modern society. One can say his goal may be to find true happiness by either altering his way of living or by adapting completely to the materialistic world. The lack of having a real goal is one of his flaws as well. He lacks confidence which leads him to follow stronger figures in his environment. “Why do weak individuals always latch onto strong ones?” He is even asking himself this question in the movie proving that he (the weak one) is latching onto Tyler (the strong one). That is probably the reason why was blinded that easily by the advertisements on TV or magazines as he perceives them as a message from the society. What he truly needs is confidence and love both due to his father leaving him at a young age.

Story Arc and The Conflict:

Fig. 4 Jack and Tyler at the bar

The Narrator (Jack) is leading his boring and normal life suffering from insomnia. On the suggestion of his doctor he visits support groups for cancer and realizes that crying helps him to sleep like a baby and becomes addicted to those groups. After meeting Marla Singer at all the support groups he is visiting as well his insomnia returns again. They decide to visit different groups and he is able to sleep again. He then meets Tyler Durden on a business trip who gives him his business card (Paper Street Soap Co.). Shortly after Jack’s arrival at home he realizes that his apartment is burned to the ground and calls Tyler for help who in return wants him to punch him which becomes routine as they both enjoy fighting. This leads to other people wanting to join as well and so they found the “Fight Club” where people fight against each other. Fight Club becomes a substitute for the support groups for Jack. He finds more and more about Tyler Durden who eventually turns Fight Club into Project Mayham whose goal it is to change the society with extreme methods. At first Jack goes with the flow, but eventually he perceives those actions as too cruel and starts to act against Tyler. At this point his values change: he becomes more compassionate and caring as he tries to save Marla even though he hates her from the members of Project Mayham hurting her. Jack finds out that he and Tyler are the one and the same person. In order to stop Tyler from destroying certain buildings Jack decides to shoot himself in the head in the hope of Tyler’s disappearance. In the end the audience notices that the fight between Tyler and The Narrator is actually an inner conflict of The Narrator. Tyler who wants to free the society and teaching them the meaning of equality by using vandalism as a method versus The Narrator who still possesses the ideas and ideals of the modern society even though Tyler had a big impact on his way of thinking.

Tyler Durden:

He is as the movie reveals itself the split personality of The Narrator. He represents everything that Jack wanted to be: intelligent, free, confident, handsome, courageous, rebellious, wild, manipulative and different from the rest of the society. Tyler aged 25 is just like Jack around 180cm big, but has a very muscular/sporty figure as opposed to Jack’s appearance. His chaotic and wild hairstyle also indicates his rebellious mindset. He always walks and acts with confidence. He seems to be not bound or does not follow the ideals and ideas of the society he is living in. He questions everything what the society tries to tell him. His world view of every person is equal to another as they are all organic matter and the “crap of the world” tells the audience clearly that his mind is communistic. Tyler is different to Jack a night worker therefore as Jack is sleeping Tyler is active and vice versa. He does not possess a house or apartment to live in, but instead he is living in a house which is supposed to be abandoned and in the near future destroyed. As one can see he has nearly no possessions at all only clothes and the stuff in that rotten building where he spends a majority of his time.

Fig. 5 Tyler Durden

Tyler‘s goal is to apply his ideals to the rest of the world as he is convinced that his world view is correct. Possibly it was his plan from the start to form Fight Club which transforms into Project Mayham, the organization which he abuses to fulfill his ideals.
Tyler Durden is in the eyes of The Narrator a perfect being that he looks up to and therefore sees in him no flaws at all. The only obvious flaw is that Tyler only exists in Jack’s mind. To overcome this flaw Tyler tries to manipulate Jack to that point that his behavior and way of thought will resemble Tyler’s. To a certain extent Tyler achieves this goal as Jack becomes sloppier with his clothing over time matching his rebellious mind. He feels no longer any connection to the materialistic world the longer he is living together with Tyler. In the end he actually becomes very similar to Tyler, but the radical methods Tyler is using to fulfill/achieve his goal does not please Jack’s mind at all and starts rebelling against Tyler. This can be seen, as mentioned before, as an inner conflict of The Narrator between himself and Tyler. This is a mental, emotional and spiritual inner conflict which is not only processed in his mind but also physically as he shoots himself in the head at the end of the movie in order to make Tyler disappear.

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Fight Club" Poster. At: http://www.flore-maquin.com/wp-content/uploads/Fight_club_RVB_72.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 2 Jack. At:  http://smhttp.32478.nexcesscdn.net/80E972/organiclifestylemagazine/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/fight-club-insomnia.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 3 Jacks perception. At: https://anyakordecki.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/fightclub_0099.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 4 Jack and Tyler at the bar. At: https://dionwynhughes.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/film_3237_pic_22732_big.jpg (Accessed on 22/10/2017)
Fig. 5 Tyler Durden. At: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/167932529289068544/372027723100717056/Tyler_Durden_by_TBennet.png (Accessed on 22/10/2017)