Marxism And Capitalism In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club

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Pages: 6

In the book Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, the use of Marxist and psychoanalytic themes can be seen throughout the entire book. Themes such as consumerism, class struggles ,and capitalism are just some of the many ideas that can be found in the book. Fight Club uses all of these ideas to depict the narrator dark and rageful transformation from a normal member of society into a crazy, anarchist, and violent person. Throughout the book, the narrator can be seen being affected by consumerism, so much that it consumes him and he becomes obsessed with his possessions. In the book, the narrator becomes so addicted to buying furniture that he tells himself that, “ You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in …show more content…
There are many examples of the narrator’s mental state throughout the book, like in the beginning where he talks about his obsession with buying furniture, and how, “ you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you” (Palahniuk 44). Here, the narrator describes becoming obsessed with his possessions, and how that they slowly start to own him to a point where he needs to buy more so then he can be happy. Since he is unhappy with his life, his mind searched for something else to make him happy, and the sensation of buying new things and having every bit of designer furniture fulfilled that …show more content…
This point being that Tyler was a figment of the narrator's mind. The narrator hints at this several times throughout the book, where he's puts either him and tyler as complete opposites or making them seem as the same person. In the beginning of the book, he says, “I know this because Tyler knows this” (Palahniuk 12). As the book progresses, the juxtaposition of Tyler and the narrator becomes more and more evident. The reason for Tyler’s creation inside the narrator's mind is because he feels that he has been raised in a society where everyone is special, which in turn makes nobody special. He feels like he has to set false goals for himself as to feel good about himself. Tyler is the narrator’s alter ego, he is what the narrator wishes he could be. When people talk to themselves, they see themselves in their mind as how they want to see themselves. To the narrator, Tyler is everything he wishes he could be. Tyler is part of the narrator's personality, which takes over and consumes him. When fight club is being created, the narrator stand aside while Tyler creates it because the narrator is afraid of creating new things. He only wants to destroy things, and the Tyler side of him takes over and creates project mayhem, whose goal is to destroy civilization so then to create a new way of life, one where the narrator and the other low class people of society can feel special