Nassos 1

Georgios Nassos
Prof. Jose Alvarez
English 113B
Essay 3 Project Text (Fight Club)
12 December 2016
Final Draft of Prompt #1
Society Anxiety
There is a saying that goes something like this When one person suffers from delusions,
we call it a mental illness, when society suffers from them, we call it being normal. Could our
society be ailing? And if so, what is the causation? That is a question or most likely an enigma
that as timely as it may seem, scientists, philosophers and psychologists have studied and
examined for years to date. Nowadays, however we are confronted with a number of
simultaneous, intertwined and correlated social and cultural crises that complicate matters
further. To be more specific, our modern society has been lost in the maze of consumerism,
capitalism and mass media advertising. Yet, by realizing the problem we are already one step
closer to solving it. Its easier to fight a known enemy rather than an invisible one. In this case,
Tyler Durden the character of the fictional novel, Fight Club by decorated author Chuck
Palahniuk knows all about fighting and seems to wonder about the same issues in his own
intriguing ways. But Tyler Durden doesnt stand alone, Annie Leonard author of the Story of
Stuff seems to share similar, yet more reasonable and fruitful ideas about confronting
consumerism in our decaying American society.
In Fight Club the audience is brought into the world of the main protagonist and narrator of

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the entire storyline who suffers from insomnia and dissociative identity disorder. To put it simply,
partly due to his sleep depravation, he switches between two different personalities, that of
himself and an alter ego he created by the name of Tyler Durden. However, the narrator isnt
aware that he and Tyler are one and the same. On the contrary, he believes that Tyler is a loyal,
highly knowledgeable, fascinating friend that he can rely on and look up to. A man who seems to
have the answers to all questions. In time, it becomes evident that through the alternate persona
of Durden the protagonist finds the guts and wit necessary to reveal and express underlying
angles of his character that had been suppressed by conforming into the rules and convictions of
society. Tyler is an extrovert, a rebel, a wild untamed spirit. But most importantly, Tyler is a man
with a purpose and an anarchistic vision to create a social revolution that will hit rock bottom,
disarm authority, ban capitalism, end consumerism and in turn empower the hard working people
who society had belittled, used and neglected for so long. At first, Tyler and the narrator came up
with Fight Club an unorthodox self-explanatory undercover men's club usually located in the
basement of a bar with its own set of strict rules that everybody had to comply with. Fight Club
wasnt just about fighting but regaining control, feeling content, empowered and relaxed. Those
ideas resonated with so many people that it amassed a huge following in cities all over the US.
Then, the members of Fight Club mesmerized by Tyler's social propaganda soon became his
loyal minions and thats how Project Mayhem was created. Project Mayhems mission was the
manifestation of Tylers vision. In the end, the narrator becomes aware that he was Tyler Durden
all along and tries to put a stop to all of this. Only to find out that the monster he created is
now way bigger than himself.
To begin, consumerism is an issue discussed immensely throughout Fight Club this idea is
best expressed by the following quote, You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I

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will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter
what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then
the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you
used to own, now they own you ( Fight Club p.44,3). This semester we saw consumerism and
sustainability through the eyes of Annie Leonard and investigated it further with Project Web. It
became clear, that consumer products are only a means, however, not an end in itself while their
multiple consequences from a social, environmental and cultural standpoint are far greater than
their actual benefits. At the same time we came to the realization that because we have associated
our happiness and very existence with the accumulation of capital and material possessions we
are destined to be in a state of unhappiness and distress. In this case the narrator already finds
himself in this position. Falling victim to what Leonard describes as the work-watch-spend
treadmill where he spends his life working for countless hours and the only thing he has to
show for it, in return, is his collection of material possessions or Stuff as Leonard calls them.
Analyzing this further in Leonards own words, we go to work, come home exhausted, and plop
down in front the TV; the commercials tell us we need new stuff to feel better about ourselves, so
we go shopping; in order to pay for it all, we have to work even more. I called this the workwatch-spend treadmill. It is obvious that the narrator and Leonard share common thoughts
concerning consumerism yet the way they choose to enact on these thoughts is what sets them
apart. For example, the narrator chose to step off the treadmill by burning his apartment down
to smithereens whereas Leonard chose to simply lead a different more sustainable and
environmentally-friendly lifestyle such as buying clothes from thrift shops, etc. Still, they are
both rebels, they both decide to take a stand against a declining lifestyle. To go against the status
quo. They recognize that there must be more to life than simply living as a consumer.

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In addition, through Project Web we also came to the realization that our social
environment is set up in such a way where everything around us comes with a price tag. A
commodity made available for sale and purchase. Hence, it was no surprise that my field of
interest, the world of fitness, wasnt left out of this equation. Following my research, it became
evident, that the increasing popularity and prosperity of the fitness industry is strictly associated
with mass media advertising. It was the promotion and institutionalization of all around trained
physiques (for both sexes) as the new social norm that paved the way to facilitate a loyal and
recurring customer base. The narrators reply to that is The gyms you go to are crowded with
guys trying to look like men, as if being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art
director says (Fight Club p.50,8). But as it turned out the same applies to women since they
too comprise the customer base of the fitness industry. The main ideology behind the followers
of the fitness industry and the world of bodybuilding can be best described through the words of
Liokaftos Dimitrios, in his study From Classical To Freaky: An Exploration of the
Development of Dominant, Organized, Male Bodybuilding Culture, where he argues that This
development is shown to have entailed changes in notions of the 'good' body, moving from a
'restorative' model of 'all-around' development, health, and moderation whose horizon was a
return to an unsurpassable standard of 'normality,' to a technologically-enhanced, performancedriven one where 'perfection' assumes the form of an open-ended project towards the
impossible. (Liokaftos 2012). This comes to show that what the narrator describes as looking
the way a sculptor dictates to be considered a norm has indeed become a common widespread
belief. But it can also explain that because bodybuilding is considered an eternal work in
progress the fitness industry has become the epitome of vanity and consumerism all in order to
achieve ones personal aesthetic goals.

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In Project Space we concluded that by exercising moderation and rethinking our priorities
and social norms there is nothing wrong with living in a tiny home. In fact, it proved to be fun,
cost-effective and an opportunity to be closer to nature. On the contrary, our social norms have
dictated that the bigger the size of our home the more of a statement and social accreditment we
will receive from our circle. Plus, a bigger home will ensure enough space for all of our much
needed stuff. As we mentioned earlier the narrator managed to break the cycle of consumerism
by burning down his apartment which as brutal and irresponsible (putting it mildly) as it may
seem it had a deeper, symbolic, cathartic and liberating meaning. In his own words, Only after
disaster can we be resurrected. Its only after youve lost everything, Tyler says, that we're free to
do anything(Fight Club p.70,6). This notion is explained further through the article Masculine
identity and success: a critical analysis of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley and
Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club by Alex Tuss, When the narrator blows up his apartment is a
gigantic act of rebellion against consumerism. Although he is not completely unaware of what he
has done he has broken free from the claws of a superficial way of life. He breaks free from the
lies that popular media feeds the general public, lies such as what is successful, beautiful, and
what defines a man ( Tuss 2004).
Finally, Project Text enfolds all these ideas we studied during the semester and seals them
in a captivating novel that is, to say the least, food for thought. Even though it was written
twenty years ago it still touches accurately trivial issues that concern and influence our society to
this day and will presumably keep on doing so in the future. Tyler Durden wasnt mentally ill,
the society he lived in wasnt ready for him just yet.

Works Cited

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Leonard, Annie. The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our
Communities, and Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better. New York:
Free Press, Reprint Edition February 22, 2011. Print.
Liokaftos, Dimitrios. From Classical To Freaky: an Exploration of the Development of
Dominant, Organised, Male Bodybuilding Culture. Thesis. Department of Sociology,
Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012. London: n.p., n.d. Print.

Tuss, Alex. "Masculine Identity and Success: A Critical Analysis of Patricia Highsmith's
The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club." Journal of Men's
Studies;Winter 2004 12.2 (2004): n. pag. Print.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Print.