The document discusses several themes and symbols in the movie Fight Club: - The Narrator and Marla both experience isolation due to lack of fulfillment in their lives, and find human connection through attending support groups. - Tyler and the Narrator bond over having absent fathers and reject the empty male models promoted by advertising. - Fighting in the club gives the men a means to feel alive and reassert their masculinity outside of their purpose as cogs in society. - Tyler's philosophy critiques how people use consumerism to fill the unhappiness of jobs they dislike, though the film itself uses product placement.

1. 1

2. 2

3. 3
• We are forced to identify with The Narrator as his voice
guides the film. Marla however doesn’t have a voice.
• When Marla first enters the micro features help create her
villain persona. Eg. the shadows across her face, black
clothing, music and slow motion.
• Tyler is trying to reject all things that are deemed feminine in
society. Therefore anything feminine is portrayed as numb
with high key lighting.
• However at the end The Narrator begins to care for Marla
and sends her away to safety when project mayhem is out of
his control.

4. •The Narrator and Marla
both experience Isolation
due to the lack of
satisfaction in their lives. By
attending support groups
they experience the human
connection that they lack
and crave.
4

5. •Tyler and The Narrator both bond over
their recollections about their fathers.
Both men state that their fathers were
not a major part of their lives.
•With no distinct male role-models in
their lives Jack and Tyler have been
influenced by male roles in advertising.
The men of fight club have seen an
emptiness in this model and reject it.
5

6. •Tyler believes that the use of chaos by
Project Mayhem will lead to a better
world.
•All bosses in the film strongly lack any
power or authority.
•There is strong themes of consumerism
throughout portrayed through an
obsession with brands and products, i.e.
IKEA and Starbucks.
6

7. • Zen concepts can be depicted in the
film, particularly regarding the
rejection of material possessions.
• Jack buries sadness in what he calls
the "Ikea nesting instinct”. Tyler
shows Jack that suffering is simply
a part of life, but is largely based
on attachment to material objects.
7

8. The film repeatedly critiques the values formed
by advertising. Tyler's philosophy says that
people work jobs that they don't enjoy and in
reality these people are deeply unhappy.
They continue to buy cleverly marketed goods
to make themselves feel better.
One way that Fight Club supports the system is
in its product placement. The film uses these
products to show that consumerism has taken
over its characters lives.
8

9. • The fighting in the film is not
presented as a solution to the
character's problems, but is a
means of achieving a spiritual
reawakening and reasserting their
masculinity. The fighting itself
reminds the men that they are
alive and not just a cog in the
working machine that is society.
9

10. • Fight Club presents the argument that men in
today's society have been reduced to a
generation of men that do nothing
themselves. Masculinity has become a
brand, a means to sell products to men.
• Members of Fight Club reject this approach
and try to find themselves by putting
themselves through the experience of facing
fear and pain, they hope to strip away the
unnecessary parts of their lives and discover
their true selves.
10

11. • The Narrator subconsciously
creates Tyler Durden, a
charismatic but unhinged ‘id’ that
is free in all the ways that The
Narrator is not.
• When Tyler goes too far, The
Narrator snaps back to reality and
sees that he is losing himself to
Tyler. He then must choose to save
both Marla and himself from Tyler.
11

12. •There's a fine line between a
religion and a cult.
Whichever they are, religion
or cult, fight club and
Project Mayhem are
religious experiences to their
devoted followers, and Tyler
guides his disciples down a
strict path to salvation.
12

13. •Tyler’s character is representative of
hegemonic masculinity which men
tend to strive for. His character also
highlights everything that Jack isn’t.
•Jack and Tyler represent binary
opposites within the film as Jack is
overruled by Tyler which shows the
differences in their masculine roles.
13

14. Fight club can tell us a lot
about modern culture as
the recurring themes give
us strong connotations of
our morals which reflect
the state of our society
and help predict the
quality of our future.
14