Doubles in Fight Club and Cofer's The Other
In the current age of technology and capitalism, many people get caught up in trying to define their individuality with mass produced goods. In David Fincher's movie Fight Club, the narrator, who is commonly referred to as Jack, invents an alter ego to serve as a source of substance in the hallow world of corporate America. This alter ego, named Tyler Durden, is portrayed as a completely psychologically and physically separate being throughout the movie. The inherent polarity in personality between these two personas proves to be a crucial point of interaction between the two characters, and is the basis for most of the action in the movie. Thus, Fight Club depicts the necessity for a balance between the passive and aggressive aspects of the human psyche, which parallels the main theme and insights that are illustrated in Judith Cofer's "The Other."
Jack is "a twentysomething wage slave" of the late 20th century who bases his identity in his material possessions (Smith 58). The scene in his apartment where he discusses the type of things that he owns illustrates this point, and shows that he thinks he can find happiness and identity in these items. As he walks through the apartment it is portrayed as an Ikea catalog with his possessions having product descriptions and prices underneath them. This illustrates the fact that Jack is trying to find happiness through materialism, which proves to be a very hollow lifestyle to partake in and serves as the main catalyst for the creation of Tyler.
Although not as apparently driven by materialism to the extent that Jack is, but equally as conventional, the narrator of "The Other" is ver...
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...er into a life less constrained by professionalism and decorum. However, in both instances, a balance is needed between the two personas. In Fight Club, the struggle is resolved when Jack beats Tyler at his own game by learning to not fear death and to live life to the fullest; however, there is no such ending in "The Other" and the struggle is left for us to resolve.
Works Cited
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Other." Dreams and Inward Journeys. 3rd Ed. Eds. Marjorie Ford & John Ford. New York: Longman, 1988. 363-364.
Crowdus, Gary. "Getting Exercised Over Fight Club." Cineaste 25.4 (2000): 46-.
Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Digital Video Disc. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2000.
Smith, Gavin. "Inside Out." Film Comment 35.5 (1999): 58-68.
Philo allegorizes Leah and Rachel in several related ways in his works (cf. Sly, 163-74). At one point he identifies Rachel with bodily beauty, ...
In Fight Club, Tyler Durden is a mysterious stranger who the unnamed narrator meets while on a plane ride. Tyler espouses a theory of independence from modern society and the corporations that the Narrator works for. The Narrator is beguiled by Tyler’s lifestyle of freedom and irresponsibility and eventually joins him when his apartment is eventually burned down in a freak accident. Together, they begin the titular Fight Club as a means of empowering themselves in a society that they feel has robbed them of their masculinity. In this way, Tyler plays the role of the herald in the Narrator’s journey, he instills a philosophy in the Narrator that eventually brings about a fundamental change in his character and leads to him growing as a person. However, Tyler is not all that he seems, he is in fact a figment of the Narrat...
Even though Skinner made a name for himself through his scientific endeavors, his novel Walden Two displays his literary training and knowledge. By using the metaphor of the sheep to further explain the lives of Walden Two members in an enriching and scholarly way, Skinner manages to weave science and art together. His ability to enforce the ideas of positive reinforcement, acceptance of roles, and the politics of the Walden Code through the simplicity of a flock of sheep shows his literary merit. Skinner proves that he is not only a scientist, but a writer as well.
...rkingman, as Tyler is the man everyone wants to be. Fight Club shows a man that everyone wants to be but can’t because of laws and in most cases common courtesy. The movie states that there is basically a Tyler in all of us, wanting and waiting to come out. None of us will let him out though because we don’t have the courage, or maybe stupidity to do it, although Jack does. For a while in the movie Jack did get everything he wanted. He had no care in the world and couldn’t have felt better about himself as a whole. Not until later does the final message come in, without any control there is chaos. When Tyler ran rampant and did what he pleased things began to get out of hand. For instance his final act of defiance towards society was the blowing up of credit card companies in order to erase the debt record so that everyone’s debt would go back to zero. This is only to create total chaos and embody Tyler’s world without rules. Tyler sums up the movie in his own terms, “You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. The things you own end up owning you.”
Lyons, Oliver, and Bill Bonnie. "An Interview with Tobias Wolff." Contemporary Literature. 31.1 (1990): 1-16. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.
“In philosophy, or religion, or ethics, or politics, two and two might make five, but when one was designing a gun or an aeroplane they had to make four” (Orwell 250). Winston lives in a time where a set of rules preventing him to be free are imposed on him – the Party defines what freedom is and is not. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows (Orwell 103)”. Winston expresses his views on The Party within his diary even though he knows it is not accepted by The Party or the Thought Police. The narrator in Fight Club uses fighting as a form of escapism from his anti-consumerist ideologies revealed by his alter-ego, 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’s evolve—let the chips fall where they may. (Fight Club)” Tyler urges the narrator to stop conforming to consumerist-imposed views of perfection and break barriers to evolve. Tyler and the narrator create a medium for people in similar positions to escape from societal bound norms; it is aptly named “Fight Club”. In comparison, both Tyler Durden and the narrator from Fight Club and Winston Smith from 1984 share
Kreise, Steven. “Lectures on Ancient and Medieval History”. The History Guide. August 13, 1999. November 12, 1999. http://www.pagesz.net/%7Estevek/ancient/lecture20b.html
Fight Club is a story about the never-ending struggles between classes. The Project Mayhem is formed in an attempt to overthrow the upper class who undermines the lower class. There are a number of scenes in the story, which highlights the struggle between classes. For instance, when Tyler pees in the soup of an upper class person, when he splices pornography into films and the scene when a mechanic takes the unnamed narrator to steal body fat. The characters here do all they can to fight against the upper class people and to get revenge.
Two years after Skinner’s birth, his brother Edward Skinner was born. The Skinner brothers kept themselves out of trouble in the railroad town of two thousand people by experimenting in building things out of makeshift materials. A couple things that the boys built were a shack in the woods, and a cart with an opposite direction steering wheel. Skinner would use these skills later on in his life. Skinner also occupied his time by writing short stories and novels. At the age of nine, Skinner joined the Junior Boy Scouts where he experienced camping, and learning how to be ind...
The Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, constructs an underground world of men fighting with one another to find the meaning to their lives. Ed Norton and Brad Pitt are the main characters who start the fight club. They make a set of rules that everyone must follow. The fight club exists because individuals get weighted down by possessions, causing them to miss the deep meaning of life. Most of the people in the fight club hold service jobs or lower level management jobs that are meaningless.
...from all material items and does not use society’s standards as the rules to his identity. According to Fight Club, Tyler has found his masculine identity and the members of Fight Club are able to do this as well by enduring the pain of Fight Club and not conforming to society’s standards. When one is not tied down to material items and possessions to define them, they see their true identity. This masculinity defined by Fight Club is the theory that freedom comes from having nothing; thereby men are liberated by society’s confines, most specifically the male American Dream.
Fight Club “Its only after we’ve lost everything are we free to do anything”, Tyler Durden as (Brad Pitt) states, among many other lines of contemplation. In Fight Club, a nameless narrator, a typical “everyman,” played as (Edward Norton) is trapped in the world of large corporations, condominium living, and all the money he needs to spend on all the useless stuff he doesn’t need. As Tyler Durden says “The things you own end up owning you.” Fight Club is an edgy film that takes on such topics as consumerism, the feminization of society, manipulation, cultism, Marxist ideology, social norms, dominant culture, and the psychiatric approach of the human id, ego, and super ego. “It is a film that surrealistically describes the status of the American
Tomkins, Stephen. A Short History of Christianity. 1st ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006)
The narrator is changed by his experience with fight club; his life becomes all about fight club. Fight club becomes the reason for the narrators existence. The narrator experiences a shift in consciousness; in that, he is able to understand more of who he is and what really matters in life through fight clubs trial by fire. Through battle and a mindset of counterculture and a complete expulsion of ...
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of rich culture, advanced techniques, and societal prosperity. Depending heavily on the Nile River for its resources, Egypt often found itself with an abundance of crops. This surplus was much to thank for the peace among Egypt’s society, without the lack of material, there was no need for disputing among themselves or other civilizations. Egypt was well organized, and utilized a monarchical government system that was influenced by their religious ideals and beliefs, as well as implementing roles for women in the society. The success of Ancient Egypt took hold for many years, and grew to become a model for the surrounding societies and groups.