Fight Club Essay

The movie “Fight Club” illustrates how society has turned into a group of consumers. In this modern universe, people are being brainwashed with the idea that they need to have materialistic goods that they don’t really need. At the same time, the movie depicts that a solution to this crisis is living in a dilapidated house, where one can discard the influences of the outside world and consumerism; however, this illustration is accurate by generalizing society as a whole.

At first, it is important to mention that we all are being manipulated by society. The main aim is to make us believe that we need things that are actually unnecessary. The beginning scene of the movie shows us how Norton’s character becomes a slave to the IKEA network. As a representative of the modern society, Norton admits that “We’re consumers. We’re by-products of a lifestyle obsession.” IKEA magazine is a perfect example of this.

Today’s society has led the main character to the point, where he believes that he needs the highest quality of or that type of style furniture. Another example of how society manipulates the thinking of an individual is after Norton’s apartment blew up, and he was looking at his empty refrigerator. The point is that he had unconsciously prioritized having more material possessions, such as furniture in his apartment than essential food for himself. There are two scenes in the movie that demonstrate the meaning of this quote, “I say never be complete, never be perfect.” The first scene that correlates with the quote is when Norton had lost his briefcase at the airport and felt like the world was over. Norton said that he was almost complete with a respectable wardrobe, and he was also naming off his brand name apparel that he had lost.

The second scene that is also related to this quote is the one at the bar, with Tyler, after his apartment was blown up. Norton was talking about how he felt about buying his last sofa. He was saying that it was the last sofa that he needed to buy because he felt almost complete in his lifestyle, where he had everything that one could need. The quotes interpretation here might be the following – someone who has not been perfect will never be so terrified of losing their belongings than a person who was trying to be perfect because they will never lose as much as the person who was complete. To cut the long story, the things you own end up owning you. This last saying is very real in our society which is shown greatly in the bar scene conversation. The example that the movie “Fight Club” illustrates is in the conversation at the bar when Norton was emphasizing the need of taking extremely good care of all his furniture, which is understandable. The message is clear that the media wants us to do what they tell us to do. Look at your own life and decide how big the role that the society place in your life is. Think about how exactly it has changed the way you think about beliefs, relationships, and things you need to buy. Do you always want to be told what to do?

What can you do to reject the influence of consumerism in your life? That’s the question that bothers many people all over the globe. The movie “Fight Club” offers a solution that is living in a dilapidated house, where one can reject all the influences of the outside world and consumerism. In the movie, Norton feels that the society that he lives in has been manipulating him. As a result of his realization, he blows up his apartment in order to demonstrate his rejection of the lifestyle in modern society. One example that the movie shows as a sign of rejection is the conversation with Tyler outside the bar.

When he chooses not to go to a hotel as to the place to stay, the movie makers represent that he doesn’t want to go back to the same lifestyle, where he would have everything pretty much complete. One of the plot twists in the movie illustrates that it is possible for one to reject society and not be sad or feel in withdrawal. One of them occurs in Norton’s first few months at the ramshackle house. At the end of the first month, he said he didn’t even miss TV, and he didn’t mind a warm stale refrigerator. A quotation that process hat Norton has become more interesting and confident as a character is the following, “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything.” This quotation applies to Norton because he had lost everything that was important to him. In this case, the question is about his briefcase and his apartment. Now, with a fresh start over, he is able to pick and choose what he feels is appropriate to his life. He is free to live without being told my society what to do.

Lastly, as he finally comes to the realization that he has become a better person by rejecting society, he decides that blowing up the credit card companies at the end will turn society into a better one, but before that happens, chaos must take place because “On a long enough timeline, the survivability rate for everyone drops to zero.” By blowing up the credit card companies, the main character hopes to make people go through the same process of what he went through.

In actual fact, there were five stages that Norton’s character went through. Denial was the first stage of what Norton went through. It was exactly at the moment when he couldn’t believe that the airport lost his briefcase. Then there was anger. Or, at least, the main character was upset about the fact that the man said that he owned a dildo. He then went through the stage of bargaining. It is the scene at the bar when Norton said that it was ok that he lost his briefcase and his apartment since he had insurance and that everything would be covered.

The next stage was depression. The main character didn’t have a place to stay, and when he found out, it was a rundown house he was going to be staying in. The last stage was acceptance. This is when he made the best out of the situation. As a result of Norton’s own stages of chaos, we all can see how he turned into a better person, who feels free from the influence of society and feels that the general public would benefit as well as he did. If not in a dilapidated house, we should all try to live in some third world country for at least 2 years. It would be nice to choose someplace, where you have no running water, no car, no TV, no supermarkets or Mc Donald’s around. No Wi-Fi or computers available at hand, as well as no society telling us how to behave. As a result, we all are going to see our lives from a completely different perspective and change some aspects of it, without a doubt.