FIGHT CLUB

A Marxist Analysis

Quick Reminder
Marxism is a movement that grew up around the philosophy of Karl Marx It is a reaction against Capitalism It seeks a fairer distribution of wealth among the under classes It believes in the ultimate dissolution of centralised government It is different from Anarchism, though they share many of the same beliefs

The World of the Film

Jack works in a regular job, lives in an apartment and buys Ikea furniture Fincher sets him up as an everyman someone everyone can relate to He is shown as being a slave to a system where everything has a price

I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?

The World of the Film

In this world, people are commodities like anything else: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere travelling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

The World of the Film

He is a drone: an unmotivated worker going through the daily routine of life His life is consumed by shit we dont need

The World of the Film

This state of affairs is according to Jack the fault of the corporations (like Starbucks) When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.

The World of the Film

Fincher puts forward a cynical view of the world in which people are at the mercy of big corporations and have no individual power We are taught to consume from an early age to keep the wheels of capitalism moving We are so desperate to keep the things that we have that we mindlessly conform to this paradigm without every challenging it

Enter Tyler Durden

Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

Enter Tyler Durden

Tyler is Jacks alter-ego. Tyler is Jack as he wishes he could be
If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?
All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.

In Tyler We Trust
Tyler is presented as emancipated: free from normal social conventions He pays no taxes as he has no legitimate earnings He is committed to bringing the old order institutions (like banks) down He wants all men to be free from normal social conventions like him:
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

He wants anarchy

In Tyler We Trust
In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway. Notice the ruins of great financial centres: Rockerfeller, Sears, etc. Notice the intrusion of the natural world (elk, forests, vines)

A Socialist State
You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, alldancing crap of the world. The all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world is a reference to the working class, the proletariat, the normal people who bring revolutions about...

What Tyler Wants

Corporations to be torn down For man to get in touch with his primitive (animal) side No more advertising, consumerism or money An end to the established order of rich and poor All men to be truly equal

What Tyler Wants

It's getting exciting now, two and one-half. Think of everything we've accomplished, man. Out these windows, we will view the collapse of financial history. One step closer to economic equilibrium.

Is Fight Club a Marxist Film

Yes It presents a cynical view of capitalism It champions the working man We follow a group of people who want to destroy financial institutions and are invited to share their point of view In the end: the terrorists succeed

No Jack fights against Project Mayhem he is the character we are invited to empathise with the most We are shown the abuses of power by Tyler will his world be any better? Although the terrorists succeed, Jack/Tyler end up dead (fair enough theyre terrorists), but also Marla (who is an innocent bystander)

The Final Word

Fight Club has Marxist elements to it and we can certainly use Marxist criticism to analyse it The film criticises the capitalist world in which we live, but the alternative it offers is not seen to succeed Tyler is more of an anarchist than a Marxist, as he does not believe in the social state