Defining Ideology and Fight Club

It is believed ideology is not what we say, but what we do, and Fight Club is a testament to this idea from Althusseriasn. Both the film and novel fight club are built on anti-capitalist and anti-consumer ideologies. Marxism in Fight Club truly makes the world go around. Jack (The Narrator) at the start of the film is defined as a consumer and he holds onto his possessions, he is a by-product of corporate America, Ikea catalog in his desk with his condo being his pride and joy. In the film, he says he lets his materials end up owning him at the end of the day (Uhlus). Tyler Durden is complete anthesis of this, Tyler wants to be free of social conventions, he doesn't pay bills or even has his money in a bank. Tyler believes in the idea of losing everything to then be free to do anything(Uhlus). The question must be asked, is this anarchy? Does Tyler equate anarchy to marxism? No, Fight Club more importantly Tyler Durden, can be read as a Marxist because he believes that society should return to a world without capitalism, where people make their own food and clothes, the use or even the need for commodities is not even a thought (Kornbluh, 124).


tyler's warning that mimicks an FBI warning screen, it reads: Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.

So wait, how does it get misinterpreted?

Jack's Ikea filled condo is where Tyler starts being critical, he asks a question that swirls in the back of the viewer's head for the rest of the film, "Why do guys like you and I know what a duvet is? Is it essential to our survival, no." (Uhls) showing the viewer not only Tyler's critique of the consumerist society Jack has put himself through but also showing the start of Tyler's ideologies coming through, wanting to let "the chips fall as they may" (Uhls). The film goes hints to the reason for Tyler's demise of his internal psyche is caused by the derailment corporate America has taken on him, his white-collar job doesn't have many perks if he's up 24 hours a day. In this same school of thought, Tyler and Jack create project mayhem. Mentioned previously as "boys gone wild terrorist" by Greven, project mayhem is a reaction to the capitalist consumer culture that's invaded the USA. The feminization of America is rejected in Fight Club, and the prehistoric ideas of the hunter and gather society are favored as a rejection of the menial tasks capitalism brings(Kornbluh, 125).

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