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self-reliance were emphasized. With the coming of industrialization people began flocking to the cities, and with this migration, many of the core values of the rural way of life were also left behind. As people began living in close proximity in the US, a desire to “keep up with the Joneses” soon developed where people wanted to acquire as many possessions as their neighbors to keep up appearances. This mentality was soon exploited by people like Bernays, who worked with business to create adverting campaigns that capitalized on this idea.
World War 2 interrupted the county however, and the “sense of purpose” Tyler refers to came from taking on Adolph Hitler and protecting the world from the spread of fascism. Following World War 2, the consumer machine kicked back in however, and we soon returned to the idea of buying newer and better things in accordance with our deeply rooted subconscious desires. The next generation partially rejected this idea however, and in the 60s a number of social causes such as the Womens Movement, Civil Rights, and brining an end to Vietnam War energized people, and once again created a sense of unified purpose.
The children born after this generation are Tylers “middle children of history”. With more media outlets than ever constantly bombarding them, and no political or social causes to get behind, “Generation X” became one of the most restless and unfulfilled in history, and this is where we pick up the story of Jack.
One interesting piece of Jacks story comes from analyzing his ideas about women and sex. At the beginning of the movie we see him holding a catalog likes its a porno magazine and we see instead its an Ikea advertisement. Jack, through filling up his psychological desires by purchasing things, has suppressed his sexual urges and become celibate. When he does create Tyler, he is able to finally release his pent up sexual frustration and release the desires of his id. But when Jack lets this genie out of the bottle, sexual conquest is not the least of Tylers desires. Freud also believed our drive towards destruction would emerge when societys conventions are stripped away, and this is exactly what happens in the case of Tyler, who wished to destroy the consumerism that has prevented Jack from acting on his natural primitive urges.
Tylers actions suggest that destruction can also be evolutionary, as evidenced by his comment that “only when we lose everything do we have the power do to anything.” By destroying Jacks possessions he feels he has set him free, but it is also important to understand what Jack is now free to do. “Tylers advice that “self-improvement is masturbation, but self-destruction is where its at” is interesting to consider. In setting himself free has Jack found redemption? This returns us to his comment at the end of his journey, where he remarks “all of this has something to do with a woman named Marla Singer.”
Tyler Durden has uninhibited sex, is carefree, spontaneous, and does things with an indifference to good and bad, pain or pleasure, but throughout the movie, there is a purpose to his actions, mainly to get back at society. In one scene, he holds a clerk at gunpoint and makes the clerk promise that he will go back to college or else he will be hunted down. Afterwards, Tyler turns to the narrator and says about the clerk, “tomorrow he will wake up and have the greatest meal of his life.”
In response to the question of police about the destruction of his apartment, Jack states, “”That condo was my life. I loved every stick of furniture in that place. That is not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed, it was me!” It was ME! His identity had become those things. In a consumer culture we can buy our identity, change it on a whim because we are buying not simply clothes or furniture but a lifestyle that tells others about who we are. For Jack, identity was found in his stuffhis Ikea furniture, his AX ties and DKNY shirts etc.In one poignant scene Jack tells Tyler, “I had it all. I had a stereo that was very decent, a wardrobe that was getting very respectable. I was close to being complete.” To which Tyler replies casually, as if unbound to all forms