Fight Club Essay Multiple Identity
“I know this because Tyler knows this” Identity is the distinct personality and the set of unique characteristics of an individual regarded as a persisting entity. The sense of identity and understanding of selfhood are what make each human being unique and able to take their own decisions. The plot of the book Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, revolves around the enigmas of identity and the difficulties to understand the concept of Selfhood. In the story, the narrator suffers of a multiple personality disorder which permits his other Self to emerge and be seen as a whole different and separate identity by the narrator. Roy F. Baumeister explains in his work, The Self and Society: Changes, Problems, and Opportunities, the three essential principles that lead to the understanding of the Self and how there are several experiences that need to be met for an Identity to exist. Baumeister mainly talks about the effects that society has upon people’s identity and vice versa, but throughout his essay, he explains several points that form the basis of the psychological self. I posit that the ideas that Baumeister depicts in his work are contradicted and rejected by the realistic and independent existence of Tyler Durden’s character in Fight Club.
Fight Club tells the story of an unnamed narrator who’s boring and pathetic life changes radically when he meets and befriends a man named Tyler Durden. The narrator, whose identity remains anonymous throughout the story, and Tyler create a strictly ruled fighting club that meets once a week, where men come to let out their emotions on each others’ faces and body. Fight Club attracted many people and, from this, a sort of revolutionary group, called Project Mayhem, branched out, lead by Tyler Durden. The actions of this group were questioned by the narrator shortly after one of his friends dies during an operation. The narrator begins his attempts to destroy this organization, only to discover that it his himself who is running
Fight Club tells the story of an unnamed narrator who’s boring and pathetic life changes radically when he meets and befriends a man named Tyler Durden. The narrator, whose identity remains anonymous throughout the story, and Tyler create a strictly ruled fighting club that meets once a week, where men come to let out their emotions on each others’ faces and body. Fight Club attracted many people and, from this, a sort of revolutionary group, called Project Mayhem, branched out, lead by Tyler Durden. The actions of this group were questioned by the narrator shortly after one of his friends dies during an operation. The narrator begins his attempts to destroy this organization, only to discover that it his himself who is running
Cited: Palahniuk, Chuck, Fight Club, (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London) Baumeister, Roy F., The Self and Society: Changes, Problems, and Opportunities.