Tyler-Jack Character in Fight Club - Movie Review Example

Contrary to expectations, the fight club of the movie isn't what the film is about; it stands as a metaphor for fighting for expression and identity. Tyler Durden expresses the belief that previous generations were defined by the battles they fought, whether those battles were on the battlefields in Germany and Japan, or the battlefields on college campuses in the 1960s. Man--the male--especially has been defined through violence, and the lack of either a "proper, respectable" American war between Vietnam between the Gulf War or any social cause around which the youth rallied stripped that immediate definition away from a couple of generations. The result was unquestioning acceptance of consumerist mentality and the idea that you could define yourself by what you own instead of what you believed in and fought for. This failure led to a truly existential moment that is dramatized perfectly in this film.

At the beginning of the film, the character of Jack is living in the fat city in his prefabricated "essence." But as Sartre says, "man chooses his self" (279) and the movie follows Jack's existential journey as he does that very thing. What makes this film so terrific, however, and what makes it stand out from similar films is that the fight for Jack's identity is presented not as an existential struggle between a man and his soul, but rather as a struggle between two different men.

Enter Tyler Durden, who forces Jack to expose his comfortable life for exactly what it is: not something of his choosing, but a bill of goods he's been sold. As Tyler begins to reveal a real identity to Jack, Jack also begins to see the world differently. What he thought was actual he slowly comes to accept is a veil that must be pulled back and peered through. Soon Jack is joining Tyler on his mission to inform and educate others about this veil. In that respect, Tyler is already to the point and Jack soon comes to the point where Sartre insists that "in creating the man that we want to be, there is a not a single one of our acts which does not at the same time create an image of man as we think he ought to be" (279). For Tyler, it's not enough that he has successfully created his essence, he must also show the world that his values are the correct values.

The movie turns on a shocking twist: Tyler and Jack are not two separate people, but the same. Tyler is Jack's actualized identity, the person he is on the other side of the veil. The film also visually portrays Sartre's conception of the dread that comes with this knowledge that not only creates our essence, but we must face up to the responsibility of it. In a comical scene shot from dual perspectives, Jack is seen fighting with both Tyler and no one but himself.

The Jack/Tyler character in this film is truly an existential figure in that he comes to terms with his essence long after his existence. This coming to terms is not done easily and involves a struggle and fear and dread just as Sartre expects it would. Read More