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Christopher ValentineProfessor DentonEnglish 1A30 March 2015Fight Club as a CritiqueThe modern world we live in today is the accumulation of technological advances coupled with various strains of philosophical developments having its origins in the Western world. The ease of communication, comfortable living, suppression of individual conflicts, and a consumer oriented economy are manifestations of the modern world. Modernity is an abstract concept that incorporates these concrete expressions in the age we live in. The movie Fight Club (1999), as its prevailing theme, is a critique of modernity that is expressed in three different ways. Psychic-physical disorders, reaffirmation of masculinity, and materialism are expressions of this theme. The protagonist in the film, due to his atomized existence, develops two psychic-physical disorders. Tyler Durden, the protagonist of the film, works a corporate job, is single, and lives in an upper story condominium. He develops insomnia that lasts for six months. During a visit to the doctor, Tyler is seeking medication for his insomnia and tells the doctor that he is in pain. His doctor denies him the medication and tells him to go to a meeting for men with testicular cancer to know what real pain is. During the course of this meeting, Tyler Durden ends up crying into the chest of a group member named Bob to release his emotions; the effects of this allows Tyler to sleep again. Losing all hope was freedom, stated by Tyler, was a way to cope with his atomized existence (Edward Norton). With no visible friends or family to confide in, this was the most accessible way for him to release his emotions. Coping with his existence was not enough though. He ends up splitting his personality in two when he meets his alternate-personality on a flight back to his condo. Tylers condo is destroyed and ends up living with his alternate- personality in a dilapidated house. Throughout the course of the movie, Tyler calls his alternate -personality with his own name. He ends up realizing that his alternate personality was never a real person and he himself was always Tyler Durden. His alternate-personality, played by Brad Pitt, explains to Tyler why he exists, You were looking for a way to change your life. You could not do this on your own. All the ways you wish you could be, that's me (Brad Pitt). His alternate-personality acted as a vehicle for complete expression of his will power; any inhibitions that he had in his original personality could be better overcome with a detached personality. Tyler Durden is an example of how personal disorders can originate from the emptiness and resentment of a modern lifestyle. Another aspect of modernity is dealt with that is not only shared by Tyler himself but by other men in the film. Masculinity and its expressions are reaffirmed through Tyler Durden and the members of Fight Club. After Tylers condo is destroyed, he meets with his alternate-personality at a bar for some drinks. After they finish their beer, both of them are outside and the alternate-personality tells Tyler to hit him as hard as he can. How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? I don't wanna die without any scars, as said by the alternate-personality; this becomes a moment of existential self-reflection (Brad Pitt). Both Tyler Durden and his alternate end up in a fight that they become enthusiastic about. As emotional release helped with insomnia, being physically assaulted helped with self-knowledge. The path to self-knowledge leads to the knowledge of being a man and the members of Fight Club seek to regain their masculinity as well. The members would gather in the basement of Lous Tavern, with Tyler Durdens alternate-personality giving out the rules beforehand, and men would fight one on one. Tyler mentions the impact that Fight Club had on its members in an existential fashion, "You weren't alive anywhere like you were there....Who you were in Fight Club is not who you were in the rest of the world (Edward Norton). Another quote from Tyler mentions the impact on personal appearance, Fight Club became the reason to cut your hair short or trim your fingernails (Edward Norton). Masculinity, in different manifestations, is reignited in the modern world and given importance. The last expression of modernity that Fight Club seeks to negate deals with a concept that confronts the world at large, not just men exclusively.Materialism, and its metamorphoses into consumerism, is the most prominent expression of modernity that this film seeks to negate. During the beginning of the film, Tyler Durden mentions how he browses through the Ikea catalogue and continuously buys items. This is indicative of a consumer lifestyle that seeks to acquire many possessions that hold no real substance. When Tyler opens the refrigerator there is only condiments and not any staple foods, symbolic of the emptiness of his lifestyle. After his condominium is destroyed, along with the Ikea furniture that came with it, he calls up his alternate-personality and explains to him what happened. Tyler Durden explains to his alternate-personality about the attachment he himself felt for his possessions. His alternate-personality makes a telling remark, The things you own end up owning you (Brad Pitt). Ownership of possessions can represent an existential need that can put the individual into a servile reverence for his own objects. Tyler was the one that blew up his own condo in the first place because he wanted to be free from that consumer lifestyle. He makes a radical change and moves into a dilapidated house, which he thinks belongs to his alternate-personality. He does not have the same kind of possessions like he once did, and the whole house symbolizes his relinquishing of a former lifestyle that lacks any substance. Later on, the house becomes a headquarters for Project Mayhem, an organization that evolved out of Fight Club. Project Mayhem lives out its life as a commune that is composed of men with very little possessions. This is a solution for other men that wanted to relinquish themselves from consumerism as well. Materialism is repeatedly resolved, along with other expressions of modernity in the film.Modernity is dealt with in extreme, and often humorous ways in Fight Club. The film at first glance is easy to dismiss because of its shock factor, but it still does a solid job as a critique of modernity. When watching this film, the larger theme and its expressions should be thought about more deeply by the average viewer. Fight Club is the mirror that showcases the world we live in, and possibly the reflection of our own lives.

Works CitedPitt, Brad, perf. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999. FilmNorton, Edward, perf. Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. 20th Century Fox, 1999. Film