Fight Club Character Analysis

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 wake people up from the perpetual dream world that they live in and he will go to any lengths to achieve his vision of setting people free. He lives in an old house that was most likely condemned a century ago. It sits in front of an old factory. His nearest neighbor is a mile and half away. Tyler makes and sells soap. He also has other jobs that afford him time to do not so pleasant things such as urinate in soup at high class restaurants and splice objectionable images into family films in major theater chains. Tyler has no rules, no limits, but he gives no breaks either, you either follow him or are against him.

Tyler tries to better people in weird off the wall ways. Whereas Jack is such the sheep that he follows everyone else as compared to Tyler who is the one who tries to change society and Jack follows him because Tyler is the way he is not. Jack is intoxicated by Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, who lacks inhibition, just as Jack lacks personal freedom. Tyler is not worried about crime, poverty and murder. Instead what worries him is the fact that we are told how to act and live by corporations such as Starbucks, Microsoft, Tommy Hilfiger and Guess. Jack soon realizes that the same things as Tyler also distress him.

And so they create Fight Club. A place for men of every race and age to come together to let out frustration with the world in general by beating each other up. Who you were in Fight Club was not the same as who you were in the real world. It was a place to learn who you really are and what you are made of. When we have no lows to measure against our highs we become disillusioned. It’s always “What’s the next high. ” In this society we never are given lows. We aren’t allowed to have them. Fight Club exists to give a meaning to men who are out of touch with this “high” trip everyone is on.

The two men are exact opposites. Where Jack wonders what sofa he is, Tyler wonders why anyone actually cares about that stuff. When Jack says that he lost all of his belongings that were his identity in an apartment accident, Tyler sympathizes by saying “Ah Shit… and now it’s all gone. ” Tyler subscribes to the theory that you cannot begin to live until you have hit rock bottom. Rock bottom says that you have hit the worst possible place in the human psyche. The only place you can go is up. Rock bottom says that you have to know and accept that you are going to die. You should not fear dying.

Until you have no fear of death you are useless to the human race. Rock bottom says you are the all singing, all dancing crap of the universe. You are not a special and a unique butterfly. You are the same decaying matter as everyone else. We are all part of the same compost pile. When Tyler and Jack are in a car accident, Tyler says that they just had “a near-life experience. ” Tyler also will take any measure he can to convince someone to get a move on with life. His greatest accomplishment would probably be his Human Sacrifices. Like when he takes an average citizen at gunpoint and forces them onto the ground.

Then he takes the person’s wallet and takes out the driver’s license. He then questions the person on what he/she wants to do in life. If the person is not on his/her way to doing that in six weeks, he/she will be dead.. But beyond that Tyler makes a point. The next day will be the most beautiful day of that person’s life. His/her breakfast will taste better than any meal we have ever eaten. An interesting trait in this character as compared to “Jack”. At its core, “Fight Club” is an insidious examination of how feelings of estrangement and discontent can sow the seeds for fascism, or how the principles of change management can be perverted.

The feelings of powerlessness in the film’s characters provide a ripe opportunity for a charismatic and loquacious leader like Tyler to be placed into a position of power. Tapping into their suppressed aggression with the illusion of collective empowerment, Tyler creates willing followers for his revolutionary schemes, as they find a false sense of individuality while paradoxically engaging in cult-like behavior. The conflict occurs when Jack slowly begins to realize that he is also Tyler. He has a conversation with Tyler in the hotel room and then flashbacks truly make him realize that he is the same person.

For example then he was talking to Marla and he says that Tyler left. She replies “what? ” which makes him realize that she thought he was crazy all along and that she never knew Tyler. Jack’s character has the internal conflict where Tyler is always a move ahead of Jack and no matter what Jack does he can’t get away from Tyler. For example the scene where Jack attempts to blow the whole cover on the mayhem operation to the police. The officers that where in there were already informed by Tyler that Jack would say the things he said and they attempt to take action against him.

The turning point comes when Jack receives the phone bill from the hotel where he claims to have never made the calls but then determines how he made them as Tyler when he was sleeping and everything comes full circle to him. More flashbacks make him realize that he was in fact everything he wanted to be but only as Tyler. Which meant that he really was good in bed, a take a stand type guy, and everything Tyler appeared to be. The overall theme to his character was that he finally realized he was everything 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. Fight Club Character Analysis 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 wake people up from the perpetual dream world that they live in and he will go to any lengths to achieve his vision of setting people free. He lives in an old house that was most likely condemned a century ago. It sits in front of an old factory.

His nearest neighbor is a mile and half away. Tyler makes and sells soap. He also has other jobs that afford him time to do not so pleasant things such as urinate in soup at high class restaurants and splice objectionable images into family films in major theater chains. Tyler has no rules, no limits, but he gives no breaks either, you either follow him or are against him. Tyler tries to better people in weird off the wall ways. Whereas Jack is such the sheep that he follows everyone else as compared to Tyler who is the one who tries to change society and Jack follows him because Tyler is the way he is not.

Jack is intoxicated by Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, who lacks inhibition, just as Jack lacks personal freedom. Tyler is not worried about crime, poverty and murder. Instead what worries him is the fact that we are told how to act and live by corporations such as Starbucks, Microsoft, Tommy Hilfiger and Guess. Jack soon realizes that the same things as Tyler also distress him. And so they create Fight Club. A place for men of every race and age to come together to let out frustration with the world in general by beating each other up.

Who you were in Fight Club was not the same as who you were in the real world. It was a place to learn who you really are and what you are made of. When we have no lows to measure against our highs we become disillusioned. It’s always “What’s the next high. ” In this society we never are given lows. We aren’t allowed to have them. Fight Club exists to give a meaning to men who are out of touch with this “high” trip everyone is on. The two men are exact opposites. Where Jack wonders what sofa he is, Tyler wonders why anyone actually cares about that stuff.

When Jack says that he lost all of his belongings that were his identity in an apartment accident, Tyler sympathizes by saying “Ah Shit… and now it’s all gone. ” Tyler subscribes to the theory that you cannot begin to live until you have hit rock bottom. Rock bottom says that you have hit the worst possible place in the human psyche. The only place you can go is up. Rock bottom says that you have to know and accept that you are going to die. You should not fear dying. Until you have no fear of death you are useless to the human race. Rock bottom says you are the all singing, all dancing crap of the universe.

You are not a special and a unique butterfly. You are the same decaying matter as everyone else. We are all part of the same compost pile. When Tyler and Jack are in a car accident, Tyler says that they just had “a near-life experience. ” Tyler also will take any measure he can to convince someone to get a move on with life. His greatest accomplishment would probably be his Human Sacrifices. Like when he takes an average citizen at gunpoint and forces them onto the ground. Then he takes the person’s wallet and takes out the driver’s license.

He then questions the person on what he/she wants to do in life. If the person is not on his/her way to doing that in six weeks, he/she will be dead.. But beyond that Tyler makes a point. The next day will be the most beautiful day of that person’s life. His/her breakfast will taste better than any meal we have ever eaten. An interesting trait in this character as compared to “Jack”. At its core, “Fight Club” is an insidious examination of how feelings of estrangement and discontent can sow the seeds for fascism, or how the principles of change management can be perverted.

The feelings of powerlessness in the film’s characters provide a ripe opportunity for a charismatic and loquacious leader like Tyler to be placed into a position of power. Tapping into their suppressed aggression with the illusion of collective empowerment, Tyler creates willing followers for his revolutionary schemes, as they find a false sense of individuality while paradoxically engaging in cult-like behavior. The conflict occurs when Jack slowly begins to realize that he is also Tyler. He has a conversation with Tyler in the hotel room and then flashbacks truly make him realize that he is the same person.

For example then he was talking to Marla and he says that Tyler left. She replies “what? ” which makes him realize that she thought he was crazy all along and that she never knew Tyler. Jack’s character has the internal conflict where Tyler is always a move ahead of Jack and no matter what Jack does he can’t get away from Tyler. For example the scene where Jack attempts to blow the whole cover on the mayhem operation to the police. The officers that where in there were already informed by Tyler that Jack would say the things he said and they attempt to take action against him.

The turning point comes when Jack receives the phone bill from the hotel where he claims to have never made the calls but then determines how he made them as Tyler when he was sleeping and everything comes full circle to him. More flashbacks make him realize that he was in fact everything he wanted to be but only as Tyler. Which meant that he really was good in bed, a take a stand type guy, and everything Tyler appeared to be. The overall theme to his character was that he finally realized he was everything 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.