Movie Fight Club

Movie Fight Club

For the following analysis, I will be discussing the movie Fight Club’s two main characters. They are “Jack” played by Edward Norton, and Tyler Durden played by Brad Pitt. However the twist to the movie turns out that Jack and Tyler are the same person and Tyler is Jack’s real name. Tyler the character is everything that Jack the character is not. The story narration is provided by the protagonist of “Fight Club,” “Jack.” The ambivalent protagonist, who only refers to himself as “Jack.” An ambivalent protagonist, usually the main character, is someone the audience likes, but who possesses character flaws.

The character “Jack” is a character the audience will feel sympathy for and even come to like. However, it is obvious he has serious problems. “Jack’s” main problem, what the audience comes to find out, is his alter ego, Tyler Durden. “Jack” struggles to take control as he sees that Tyler’s acts of vandalism are wrong. However, he cannot stop himself until the very end. However, even before the character of Tyler Durden is introduced it is clear that “Jack” has personal problems; insomnia, discontent for his job, and a dependency on support groups. “Jack” is also faced with a moral dilemma as well as constantly being put into danger, another characteristic of the ambivalent protagonist. “Jack” has the personality of an obedient, yet not very outgoing man. He goes to work, comes home, and wants to simplify his life. He sets up his life as simply as possible. For example, he wears the same white shirt, black pants, and black tie everyday. Jack is a very subservient type of person. For example, he goes to meetings his boss doesn’t want to attend. He hates his job and he hates his life, however he thinks he is ok with the job and his life but is tired of doing the same thing everyday. It is important to see that “Jack” picks out items that would best represent the type of person he is such as the furniture in his house.

He is a gen-xer that has grown to the point of despair. He can not sleep. He has to have every little clever trinket that he sees. The only way he finds happiness is crashing support groups for those with terminal diseases. He says it is amazing how much people care when they think you are dying.

Durden on the other hand is a man with little scruples. He is not an evil man. He just wants to wa...

... middle of paper ...

... he wanted to be all along and that he didn’t need to live through Tyler anymore. He had conquered the inner conflict of his boring life and by him seeing the credit card companies fall, he had realized that he had undergone the change he wanted to at last.

In conclusion the characters go hand-in-hand to the point where the resolve is Jack realizing that he truly had shaken the life he never wanted to be and become the “Tyler” he always wanted to be. It can be seen as though “Jack” was a boy being jealous and envious of another boy, “Tyler”. Tyler was the boy everyone wanted to be like. However, in the end, “Jack” grew up and took a little bit of “Tyler” with him, but did not let “Tyler” take control. The way he commanded at the end when he shot himself, by giving orders to the members and Marla was not something “Jack” would have done. This lets us know that the character of “Jack” has grown up and evolved on his way to becoming the complete and ideal character he wanted to be. As the story unfolds it brings these two seemingly opposite characters in a unique relationship, which resolves the movie in a very original way. The irony remains subtle, and is missed by most.