Tyler Durden Speech

“We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised by television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t; and we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” – Tyler Durden (3)

Fight Club Antihero

What is a hero without a villain? While some authors write about a set villain and hero, some authors, like Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, combine the hero and villain to add to the novel’s depth. An antihero is a character who has good intentions and means well, but who may go about making change in a less than heroic way (4). In the novel, Fight Club, the narrator creates an alter ego, Tyler Durden, who epitomizes an antihero. He is intelligent, attractive, gutsy, and extremely charismatic. Tyler Durden is an antihero because the narrator creates him with the ability to be both criminal and heroic in his creation of fight club and Project Mayhem. His ultimate goal for the fight club and Project Mayhem is not to ruin lives but to equalize people so that the class and birthplace of a person does not define his or her social status or quality of living. The actions Tyler takes to complete this goal, however, lead to the destructive behavior of the individuals involved (5).

The unnamed narrator of the story unconsciously creates Tyler Durden. It is not until the end of the novel that the narrator realizes that he and Tyler are one and the same, dual personalities reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The narrator struggles throughout the novel to distinguish himself as someone more than an average Joe. He attends support groups for people with serious problems to cope with his own depression and insomnia. While the support groups help him sleep, they do not cure his dissatisfaction with life. When the narrator begins to spend more time with Tyler, he is able to see the world in a different and simpler way. A middle-class man with a white-collar job, the narrator yearns for something to set him apart from the rest of the bourgeois world around him (1). He is bored with his job and the people whom he sees day in and day out. The relationship between Tyler Durden and the narrator is unique because the narrator makes Tyler everything that he wishes he could be. Tyler is a masculine, strong, and free individual. In order to entertain and distract himself from his repetitive lifestyle, the narrator invests in designer furniture. Tyler, however, condemns the narrator for his attachment to his home and material goods. Throughout the story, Tyler tries to gain complete control over the narrator’s psyche by manipulating him through unexpected events. He throws the narrator out of his home by blowing it up, and then welcomes him into his own home to share with him his own ideas and beliefs (2). At one point in the novel, Tyler uses physical pain to show the narrator his insignificance in the world. He kisses the narrator’s hand, and then pours lye on the moist spot. As the narrator’s hand begins to burn, he reverts back to his old ways of coping with pain and psychological issues. He attempts to use “guided meditation” to distract himself from the pain until Tyler begins to scorn him for his weakness (1). Tyler forces the narrator to accept the pain and endure the idea that he is expendable. Despite Tyler’s ill-treatment of the narrator, the narrator continues to trust and look to him for advice and guidance (2).

The narrator is intrigued by Tyler’s apathy toward society’s rules and standards. Although the narrator knows that Tyler is a bad influence, he understands his philosophies. As the narrator observes Tyler’s numerous jobs, he learns more and more about Tyler’s intentions within his mischievous pranks. He learns that Tyler does not urinate in catering plates or insert pornography into family films to harm people. He performs these pranks to show the influence that his job and the jobs of other lower class citizens have on society. The most valuable lesson that Tyler teaches the narrator is the insignificance of money and social status (2).

Not only does Tyler convey his beliefs to the narrator through his job, but he clearly shows the narrator and other men his intentions through his creation of fight club. Tyler and the narrator form fight club to allow men a chance to prove their masculinity. Fight club enables men to discard society’s labels on money and power and prove their worth through the oldest, most basic form of competition possible: fist fighting (2). The creation of fight club clearly displays Tyler as an antihero because he intends to help the men involved by allowing them to release anger and frustration, but fighting is not generally seen as a positive means to resolve conflict. Fight club helps the narrator in many ways because it provides him with a reason to take care of himself. He is motivated to go to the gym, not to look like a model, but to excel in fight club. Although the members of fight club are forbidden to talk about it, the involvement that the men have with the club gives them a reason to live. While the men that they meet through fight club have different statuses and jobs in society, fight club equalizes them, giving them a chance to excel despite their personal difficulties or problems (2).

As fight club progresses and grows, so does Tyler’s influence on the narrator and the members of fight club. Tyler realizes the influence that he has on the men’s lives, and he takes the club one step further. He begins to give homework assignments. The homework assignments include performing small criminal acts. The assignments are almost always illegal, but they give the men more than just a fight. The assignments provide the men and the narrator with a bigger purpose. For instance, the first assignment expects each member to pick a fight with someone outside of fight club. The member is to fight, lose, and recruit. Tyler’s purpose for this assignment is to reach out to more people by exposing them to the adrenaline and satisfaction of fighting (2). Another example of Tyler’s radical behavior and intentions includes a time when the narrator and Tyler visit a convenience store. Tyler pulls out a gun and threatens to kill the employee. The narrator protests Tyler’s harsh behavior because he does not realize Tyler’s intentions from the beginning. Tyler asks the man what he wanted to be when he was in school. When the employee explains that he wanted to be a veterinarian, Tyler threatens the man, claiming that if he does not attend college and vet school, then Tyler will kill him (1). Tyler’s drastic approach to helping this man fulfill his dreams surprises the narrator, but the cruel means of helping the man work.

Tyler develops a plan to make real change in society, but he does not directly share his plan with the narrator. Without warning, Tyler begins to create an army. His army includes mostly men involved in fight club, but the atmosphere and rules change drastically. In fight club, the men are free and casual. Tyler’s new focus, Project Mayhem, is much like a dictatorship. Tyler manipulates and brainwashes the men who join Project Mayhem to forget all of society’s rules and norms. He urges the men to forget their names and listen only to him (2). One of the rules that Project Mayhem emphasizes most is “Do not ask questions”(2). The new rule shows that Tyler’s intentions have evolved. Tyler’s ultimate scheme involves the destruction of ten main credit card companies. The army of men that Tyler recruits builds bombs to destroy the companies. Without the credit card companies, Tyler aims to rid society completely of civilization. He wants to bring everyone back to square one so that no one has an advantage over another simply because of wealth or connections. While Tyler’s plan seems drastic and influential, the most conflicting part lies with the destruction of humanity within Project Mayhem itself. The point of Project Mayhem is to provide equal opportunity, but the men involved are completely brainwashed and given no freedom. The men follow orders and work for little personal incentive (2). Tyler uses his leadership and unique authority to control the men and force them to do his dirty work (3). Power and manipulation take over his good intentions to the point that the bad overrides the good. While Tyler has a good purpose in mind in the beginning, the authority and power that he gains from leading so many men overtake him (2). Towards the end of the novel, the narrator finally discovers that he is Tyler Durden. Like in the classic, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the narrator realizes the destruction that his subconscious self has caused, and he is appalled by the results. Even though the narrator is able to realize the horror that he has caused, like Dr. Jekyll, he takes back his own psyche too late to make a difference in the results Project Mayhem.

Fight Club presents a complicated plot, but the character Tyler Durden is clearly portrayed as a bad guy with a good purpose. Although he aims to take over the narrator completely, forcing the narrator to conform to his beliefs, Tyler provides the narrator with strength and freedom: two attributes the narrator has always sought (3). Tyler also provides other men with a sense of power with the creation of fight club, despite the foolishness of willingly entering a fight. Lastly, Tyler’s primary aim is to equalize people. He wants to give average people a chance to succeed and feel the worth they deserve, but his means of providing equality dances along the line of insanity. Tyler Durden does not exist in the book or real life, but his creator, the narrator, does exist within the novel. His way of dealing with his desire to be something other than ordinary gets out of control, creating not only the strong, charismatic man he wants to be, but also a monster of destruction. Overwhelmed by power and blinded my his ultimate goal of equalization, the narrator creates an antihero with good intentions, but the unconscious darkness within the narrator shines brightly through Tyler Durden until he finds that he himself is the antihero.

Works Cited

1) Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club (New York: Norton, 2005), 11-218

2) Chuck , Palahniuk. Gradesaver, “Fight Club Summary and Analysis.” Last modified 1999. Accessed September 18, 2012. http://www.gradesaver.com/fight-club-novel/study-guide/section1/.

3) Fincher, David. “Fight Club.” Recorded 1999. Digitally Mastered. DVD

4) Fitzpatrick, Brian. “Tyler Durden: Anti-Hero of the 90’s.” Redbubble (blog), http://www.redbubble.com/people/otakujones/writing/3831582-tyler-durden-anti-hero-of-the-90-s (accessed September 18, 2012).

5) “Gale.” Cengage Learning. http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/ (accessed Sep 21, 2012).