The fighters of the invisible front rose against the foundations of modern society, against themselves. The loss of values, the sale of masculinity as an advertising brand, the emergence of a layer of men doing nothing is the basis of the struggle led by Tyler Durden. It sounds beautiful, pathos, inspirational, but what is really behind the calls of the narrator's alter ego?
"Overcome fear." No fear
Who am I? The narrator goes to support groups for people suffering from various diseases. He comes up with pseudonyms everywhere and never gives a real name. The faceless insurance agent in a crowd of his own kind is chasing after empty ideals that cause only one thing - insomnia. Fear is the key to the novel, an impulse to movement. Communicating with Bob, who lost his testicles due to cancer, reveals the motive for castration - the disappearance of real men. The threat of losing male dignity in one form or another slips in the plot moves: the episode with the police commissioner, the threat of closing the fighting club. The loss of masculinity becomes the worst that can happen to the narrator after he has just found himself.
Fear is called a creative element that reveals inner strength. The narrator puts the gun to Raymond's temple and makes him still fulfill the dream of becoming a veterinarian.
The path through violence in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel is an opportunity to wake up, sober up and feel the adrenaline, as after a light blow to the jaw. Fighting allows men from a fighting club to give up office work, newspapers, television, and goods. The battle reminds everyone that he is still alive. However, it can lead to death. Lose everything, but get to the bottom of the essence.
"Cut off the excess." No distractions
Landmarks are down, people are lost in imposed ideals. To be a man means to have an expensive watch and a car. Fight club offers to knock out “dope” out of the head, through pain and fear, to go to the true essence and search for oneself.
Tyler Durden arises in the mind of the narrator in the form of an ideal man from the same disgusted advertisement, makes you feel a certain jealousy and rivalry. They have a lot in common, including life without fathers who are missing. Thus, the author draws the members of a society abandoned without reference to the abyss of ordinary people. The chaos created by the narrator and his alter ego is designed to attract attention. Tyler Durden believes hate is better than being in the shadows. That is how the path begins to throw off the shackles of society, change modern foundations. The Smash project should burn out the middle class, which produces nothing, stop the economy, return the clock back, and make people work. Make men courageous.
“Having lost everything, you gain freedom? Freedom must be sought in oneself, ”says Tyler Durden. Quotes from this charismatic character permeate consciousness like needles, which means that the author is right to hit the target.
Madness or freedom?
But why did the Smash project fail? Perhaps because Tyler is losing all control by the end of the novel. Or because the narrator learns about where the born leader came from. "Every time you fall asleep, I run away and do something wild, something crazy." The two parts of the narrator’s brain combine like water and alkali into an explosive mixture that destroys life before its planned end. But why strive for what awaits each person at the end of the journey? It becomes apparent that Tyler is trying to build the same society, but with a different face. Instead of mindless drones working for a corporation, drones are working for its good.