Fight Club: narrative themes and cultural impact

Disassociation, Personality Disorders, & Global Capitalism:

Open Your Eyes to the Fight Club

Fight Club is a cinematic adaptation of a novel of the same title; therefore, the novel will be referenced peripherally in this work. While the focus of the paper will be upon Fight Club, in an effort to expand the context of the ideas to be discussed, the essay will also include analysis of a related Spanish film, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). This film preceded the release of Fight Club by two years and went on to later be adapted for an American audience under the title, Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz, who is cast as the same character, Sofia, in both versions of the film. The paper will discuss these films, questions they raise, and ideas they execute in relation to Doniger's piece, "Many Masks, Many Selves." The paper will demonstrate through analysis and synthesis that a possible result of global capitalism is mental break down and/or rebellion. These films feature protagonists who reflect how global capitalism contributes to a disassociative state as well as brings on a range of personality disorders.

Both films are either the sources or results of adaptations. Both films' protagonists are narcissistic men with personality disorders and sleep disorders. The protagonists of both films, due to traumas inflicted up on them and because of those they inflict upon others, suffer from delusions and are victim of psychological distortions of reality. In Fight Club, the unnamed narrator and protagonist, wears the mask of Tyler Durden, his bold, philosophical, nihilistic, rockstar imagined version of himself. In Abre Los Ojos, Cesar, literally wears a prosthetic mask to hide his once gorgeous face that now disfigured beyond repair. What Cesar does not realize is that his handsome face, the face of a consumptive, affluent playboy was a mask that hid his true self from himself.

The topic the research is to address or examine is the social psychological affects of high capitalism and consumer culture upon the individual and the group. A greater issue of the film is pluralistic identity in the information age as well as inter- and intrapersonal disconnect in a global consumer culture. Doniger contextualizes this issue as she writes:

"What do these stories both historical and mythological tell us? We assume that masquerades lie, and they often do, at least on the surface. But masquerading as ourselves often reaffirms an enduring network of selves inside us, which does not change even if our masquerades, intentional or helpless, make us look different to others." (Doniger, "Many Masks, Many Selves," Page 67)

Her argument then is that each individual is not one self, but a network of selves switching on, off, and among each other to suit the needs of the wearer of the masks, as will be illustrated in Fight Club and Abre Los Ojos. Another topic the film(s) is the connection between the affects of societal, institutional, and ideological structures affect upon the individual and the group. Bennett contends that mental illness and disassociation are at the forefront of Fight Club and are linked to consumerism just as much as the film is about violence and anarchy. Consumer culture is far more widespread with the advent of the Internet and the deeper reach of globalization; therefore, the existential situations the characters find themselves in will not only occur in America, but also occur in countries around the world, such as Spain, the setting for Abre Los Ojos.

Fight Club was first a novel, published in 1996; later in 1999, a screen adaptation of the book was released. The book and the film come right at the turn of the 21st century, right on the cusp of a turning point in culture, technology, and perspective. The narrative of Fight Club/Fight Club is told by the title character who formally has no name. He is a middle class, white-collar, white American man bored and hypnotized by his existence. As part of the travel for his profession, he encounters a soap entrepreneur and part time anarchist, Tyler Durden, on a commercial, domestic flight. After the narrator's apartment explodes, he turns to Tyler for consolation. The two become friends and partners in crime in a very literal sense of the phrase. Among the plethora of acts against established authority they perpetrate, their piece de resistance is the establishment of "Fight Club."

Fight Club begins as an underground boxing/fighting club for men to bond with other men and release the tension of modern living in a relatively safe environment. Not only do fight clubs spread quickly around the country, the clubs also act as domestic terrorist cells committing acts of what the members call "corporate terrorism," or terrorism not with the intention of physically hurting people, but of damaging power structures and of dismantling various institutions or ideologies. There exists a love triangle among the narrator, Tyler, and Marla -- a substance abusing, suicidal, emotional addict whom the narrator meets at support groups for people with terminal illnesses. Neither Marla nor the narrator has a terminal illness; the narrator attends the meetings because his attendance enables him to sleep and cures his insomnia, which is brought on by his incessant traveling for his profession in the insurance industry. Marla attends the meetings because she feels as though when people believe she is dying, they listen to her more attentively and with more sincerity.

Abre Los Ojos commences with a young man wearing a prosthetic mask recounting the last few years of his life to his concerned therapist. The young man is Cesar and the psychiatrist is Antonio. Antonio has difficulty convincing Cesar that he is in prison for murder. Cesar recounts his life in a series of flashbacks as told to Antonio as part of their mandated therapy. The memories of his life come to Cesar in his dreams; he cannot recall these memories in a conscious state. As the stories of his dreams begin, Cesar is a twenty-five-year-old, somewhat affluent, stylish and handsome womanizer & playboy. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofia, the beautiful girlfriend of Cesar's best friend, Pelayo. Cesar takes Sofia home and sleeps at her flat, although they do not have intercourse. As Cesar departs from Sofia's flat the following morning, Cesar's obsessive ex-lover, Nuria, watches him exit Sofia's home, presumes they had sex, and resolves to take action. Nuria offers Cesar a ride to her place to have sex and on the way there, intentionally commits suicide by car crash, leaving her dead and Cesar disfigured beyond the capabilities of restorative plastic surgery. Sofia leaves Cesar for Pelayo because she finds his injury unbearable.

After Cesar's disfigurement, he has a series of startling and highly confusing experiences. One evening he falls asleep in the streets, heavily intoxicated. When he awakens, Sofia loves him once more and his face is fully restored, as if the accident never occurred. He continues in this life until one evening, as Cesar and Sofia are intimate, Sofia turns into Nuria. Horrified and in fear of his life, Cesar smothers Nuria with a pillow from their bed. Everyone around Cesar tells him that the woman he calls Nuria is actually Sofia. He confused and bewildered to the point that he has a mental break down. Ultimately, Cesar understands that he has been cryogenically frozen and that the experiences he remembers after the evening he fell asleep in the street drunk are no more than exceptionally lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams supplied directly to his mind by the cryogenics company. When offered the choice of staying in the dream and waking up to reality, Cesar chooses waking life and actual reality. The only way is can wake up is to jump from a building -- the shock would snap his psyche from unconsciousness waking him and forcing open his eyes.

Detachment, alienation, boredom, revolution, terrorism, and questionable mental health disperse around the world at the speed of broadband. The study of existentialism in the information age is vital as massive shifts in technology and communication change how people perceive themselves. The study of existentialism in an age of global capitalism is vital as well because most cultures are not capitalist, so for so many people to experience a shift in economics, politics, and consumption must have impacts on the individual and societal levels. The research tracks the trajectory from capitalism, rebellion, disassociated, and mental instability, as the connections among them are at the forefront of Fight Club and as part of the subtext of Abre Los Ojos. At stake in the research are perspective, awareness, and connection with the self.

The characters, Cesar, Tyler, Marla, and Sofia, protagonists of the late 20th century, are severely disenchanted and isolated, almost two decades ago, before the effects of the Internet and mobile technology really hit the world. Had these narratives taken place during the 21st century, such effects would be all the more intensified and therefore stylized as they are in the existing versions of the films. Though there are many more ways to communicate, social & communication intelligences are declining at staggering rates. It is completely possible to function with minimal or no face-to-face contact with people; it is completely possible to live one's life and never leave one's home as demonstrated by the Furni scene in Fight Club and the fact that Cesar lives his life behind prison walls (but really within the confines of a cryogenic pod) in Abre Los Ojos. Thus, what is at stake with this research and discussion are the re-articulation of and improvement upon the human condition.

The climax of Fight Club and the related film reveal threads connecting capitalism, consumer culture, deviant or criminal behavior, and mental instability. At the climax of Fight Club, the narrator realizes that he and Tyler Durden are not separate individuals, but in fact are the same person. Tyler and the narrator are two sides to the same coin. This means that the narrator, when he imagines Tyler's presence, is present in reality, but not experiencing reality as his reality. When Tyler is present, the narrator experiences reality as Tyler directs him to and as a passive spectator, not as an agent of action. Tyler Durden is quite the Donigerian figure:

The bizarre historical episodes that embody the myths of self-limitation tell us that each of us has several selves, several personae, whether or not we are aware of more than one of them. And so when, failing to be the other person we hoped to change into, we fall back to our default position, we may find a different form of our many selves awaiting us. We are imprisoned in our self, but it is a very big prison. (Doniger, "Many Masks, Many Selves," Page 68)

Similarly in Abre Los Ojos, Cesar has the same kind of Donigerian experience as the narrator (protagonist, aka Jack) in Fight Club. Abre Los Ojos the climax occurs when Cesar realizes that his friends, lovers, and psychiatrist figments of a dream he misperceives for reality. Martin explains:

"When Abre los ojos approaches its end, a shocking truth emerges for Cesar, the film's protagonist. Reality, understood as the displayed world of solid objects supposedly extended in space and lasting in time, is a mental creation. And the people standing by him in the memorable final scene, shot at the very top of Picasso Tower in Madrid: his beloved Sofia, his friend Pelayo, and his psychiatrist, Antonio, become nothing but fictional characters, dreams of a dreamer. Most importantly, as Borges would further argue, the very dreamer turns also into a dream." (Martin, 2002)

In the final moments of Fight Club, the narrator and Marla stand alone on the top floor of a skyscrapers among skyscrapers, and they hold hands as all the skyscrapers around the blow up to dust because of Tyler's boys in Project Mayhem, a sort of Fight Club 2.0. Capitalism and consumer culture numb the narrator of Fight Club into boredom and insomnia from which he emancipates himself by detonating bombs within city limits, acts of vandalism, and a suicide attempt. Capitalism and consumer culture blind Cesar into a false sense of security and false sense of identity from which he liberates himself by becoming inebriated, committing acting of vandalism, escaping prison, and committing suicide. A Donigerian argument may contend that capitalism is a mask for reality.

Why does the narrator wear the mask of Tyler? Why does the narrator wear the masks of dying people in support groups? Why does Cesar enjoy the mask of his wealth and consumer lifestyle? Why is Cesar in agony behind the prosthetic mask that hides his disfigurement? How does capitalism mask reality? Doniger offers answers as she writes:

"…we are never ourselves merely to ourselves but always in relation to others. Like Bishiop Berkeley's tree in the quad, we exist only when someone sees us. We become the person we see mirrored in the eyes of others, ideally someone we love or someone who loves us…We wear a mask because we feel vulnerable and paradoxically, want to attract the one person who will love us as we are without our mask. But this is a double bind. Instead, I think, we often fall in love with the people who love, among our many masks, the mask that we too love best, feel happiest in -- the self that we prefer to pretend to be." (Doniger, "Many Masks, Many Selves," Page 67)