Individualism In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

Popularized from the theory of mercantilism, capitalism has become the modern day American system of economics and has ultimately shaped the core foundation of America’s development. Operated on a system directed towards profit maximization, capitalism thrives off of a strong degree of competition between privately owned sectors for the consumer market. As a result, the economic system has also developed a classist society in which the wealthy, bourgeoisie, hold the power over the middle and lower class, considered by men such as Karl Marx as the proletariat. Such examples of individuals who dwell within the proletariat are blue-collar workers such as the protagonist of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club, known as Joe. Considered by his audience
as a representative American who maintains a stable lifestyle, Sigmund Freud would argue that the protagonist mentally stores feelings of depression, anxiety, and resentment. Fight Club includes several Marxist ideas of social and economic injustice including elements of consumerism, conspicuous consumption, classism, and class struggle as well as explores various Freudian psychoanalytic elements such as family dynamics, emasculation, and aspects of death.
American society celebrates individualism: freedom of speech, independence, and the worth of an individual, yet many Americans seem to desire to attain one goal in life: a high income that can provide a lavish lifestyle.
In a society that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-greater amounts, Fight Club describes the protagonist’s resentful dedication to this philosophy, “they have trapped [you] in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you” (Palahniuk 44). The protagonist experiences the dark side of consumerism, an endless search for a feeling of wholeness using the products one purchases to find a satisfactory justification and reason worth living for. Consumerism in Joe’s life has not only led to a feeling of worthlessness once he finds his home and possessions destroyed, but as Marx would argue, has also brought enlightenment in that it has broken free the “shackles” of consumerism that have chained the protagonist for years. Acting as a means of social and economic criticism, Fight Club reveals the pettiness of American’s addiction to what they own. Similar to the protagonist, by losing an expendable possession such as a smart phone, tablet, television, or expensive couch, many would struggle to adjust to such a small change. All in all, Palahniuk uses recurring Marxist ideas of consumerism to perhaps get the readers to identify with the character’s lifestyle and challenge their current “shackles” that may be formed by
society’s pressure to embrace the ideals of consumerism.
What are often witnessed in everyday American society are perfect examples of conspicuous consumption, those who purchase and display their costly possessions in order to impress others with their wealth. While in many cases these users of impressive goods are not truly part of the associated class for their possession, these possessions are part of an ultimate illusion to prove to others that they deserve respect based off of what they own. For example, in the adapted film of Fight Club the protagonist asks himself, “What kind of dining set defines me as a person?” (Fincher). In a society that is always judging one another based upon visual displays of wealth, Karl Marx offers his opinion. “For Marxism, a commodity’s value lies not in what it can do (use value) but in the money or other commodities for which it can be traded (exchange value) or in the social status it confers on its owner (sign-exchange value)” (Tyson 58). In other words, an item’s worth is what it is valued in relation to other products and the image it represents. “Under private property.... Each tries to establish over the other an alien power, so as thereby to find satisfaction of his or her own selfish need” (Marx). To sum things up, from a Marxist perspective, because of consumerism in American society, sign-exchange value is promoted as our primary mode of relating to the world around us; in an effort to feel good about ourselves, we acquire valuable possessions to promote the false idea to others that we are greater than who we truly are.
According to the idea of Class Theory developed and popularized by Karl Marx, “ever since human society emerged from its primitive and relatively undifferentiated state it has remained fundamentally divided between classes who clash in the pursuit of class interests” (Bancroft and Rogers). In this respect, the modern world today resembles the world of the first civilization, in relation to how societal expectations are interpreted; those who have little look up to those who have greater. Fight Club continuously parallels this thought process by describing to the reader the protagonist’s resentment to his “superiors” as a dinner party waiter. “My view is about a cockroach above the green linoleum…past half-open doors where titans and their gigantic wives drink barrels of champagne and bellow at each other wearing diamonds bigger than I feel” (Palahniuk 80). By glimpsing into the world of the bourgeoisie as a member of the proletariat, the protagonist relates his feeling of resentment to a cockroach, perhaps one of the most vile and repulsive insects. Acting as a lowly creature to the great titans or wealthy upper classman, a large disparity in not only possessions but also lifestyle can be seen between the protagonist and the party guests, demonstrating a society of classism. In addition, by identifying the protagonist’s repetitive use of words such as “titans” and “cockroaches,” a clear resentment can be felt in the protagonist’s words. Classism leads to class struggle. Thus, it is these factors, which play a crucial role in the storyline of the novel Fight Club, ultimately leading Tyler Durden and the protagonist to create a secret society that bases its entire purpose off of discontent with one’s own life, known by only participants as “fight club.”
Family life plays a crucial role in the development of young children, primarily influenced by parental figures.
One key dynamic found in Fight Club was the protagonist’s recollections of an absent father figure. “Me, I knew my dad for about six years, but I don’t remember anything. My dad, he starts a new family in a new town about every six years…” (Palahniuk 50). In addition Tyler, while later in the novel being found to be sharing the same body as the protagonist when he is asleep, bonds with Joe over his supposed absent father figure as well; this helps cultivate their early relationship with one another. Therefore, with no distinct male role model, it is clear that Tyler and the protagonist experienced a profound effect in that they were forced to accept the role men play in society portrayed by the media. “Even if my father were still alive and had the kind of psychological rebirth that permitted him to give me his love, I would still have to heal the psychological wounds he inflicted over the course of my childhood-my feelings of inadequacy and abandonment before I could benefit from his love” (Tyson 16). Humans are a product of their family dynamics and we ultimately define ourselves as individuals based off of how we see ourselves in our families growing up. As a result, Freudian psychoanalytic elements such as family dynamics can be found thoroughly throughout Fight Club and not only play a lasting effect on the protagonist’s active conscious, but also leave
lasting effects on his unconscious, known as Tyler Durden.
In a society that embraces the image of man, a new picture has emerged by means of commercials, advertisements, and photography. A man has been personified as one who owns foreign cars, brand name watches, designer suits, and an expensive haircut. Psychologically this has reduced men to a societal expectation and not what a man is or has always been for centuries previous: strong personality, dominant character, and one who acts on animal instinct. Emasculation is a term in which an individual’s manhood is removed; however, in relation to Fight Club it refers to a society in which man has been reduced to do nothing themselves. “What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women” (Palahniuk 50). Fight club serves as a functional method by which to reclaim one’s manhood through the experience of pain, fear, and struggle in an effort to redefine man. Experiencing control of one’s own body and the feeling of power, dominance, and mastery over someone or something is a core aspect of the male ego. Sigmund Freud suggested that “masculine and feminine currents coexist in everyone” and when one of these currents is repressed through a variety of mediums, such as the media, then the other current takes dominance ("Men and Masculinity"). Therefore, in an effort to prove the worth of one’s self as a member of the masculine sex, “fight club” provides a chance for quiet, weak, passive men to take charge and prove to themselves their masculinity. Given these points, threats of emasculation can be found several times throughout the novel Fight Club whether it be in testicular cancer support groups or efforts designed to shut down “fight club.” Losing one’s masculinity is a fate that participants of “fight club” begin to appreciate.
Over “151,600 people die each day, of those, 105 die each minute” (Population Reference Bureau). However, most individuals at least once in their life experience some sort of near death experience. The Freudian interpretation of the meaning of death states, “crisis brings into the spotlight wounds, fears, guilty desires, or unresolved conflicts that [people] have failed to deal with and demands action” (Tyson 23). Best exemplified in Fight Club, Chapter 20 illustrates an experience with Raymond K. Hessel, who the protagonist works with to stage a near death experience in the hopes of changing Hessel’s life in a positive manner. “You could be in school working your ass off, Raymond Hessel or you could be dead. You choose” (Palahniuk 154). Here the protagonist puts a gun to a stranger’s head as part of Tyler’s assault committee “assignment” to change 14 different individuals’ lives by staging the same experience. Acting to empower Raymond Hessel by using fear and the real possibility of death, Freudian theory would cite “death as a biological drive, which he called the death drive” (Tyson 24). In other words, the death drive illustrates our relationship to death, “whether or not we are traumatized by it, [it] is a principal organizer of our psychological experience” (Tyson 23). In sum, it is clear that Fight Club illustrates several aspects of death in that it is typically a manner in which human beings are often reborn by realizing an individual’s lack of reaching their full potential despite their content nature every day.
Fight Club challenges the basis of society by attacking both its core ideals and taking serious topics such as death and emasculation into new meaning. Economically, according to Marxist ideas, and psychologically, based upon Freudian principles, the protagonist’s experiences offer a glimpse into the private life of a seemingly typical man who does very little to challenge or take risks against his superiors. Fight Club is a call to action that brings to the reader’s attention a realization that we are not what we own. Deep inside all of us dwells a subconscious like Tyler Durden, who we as readers should occasionally follow as an example because it will ultimately enlighten us to what is truly important in each of our own lives. In conclusion, Fight Club is not just a story about fighting, but rather critiques society with elements of Marxist and psychoanalytic criticism in an effort to unearth the flaws within America’s modern capitalist and media influenced society.