Fight Club Movie Analysis
... certain products in his possession. No longer does one own things, his things own him. The contemporary male is a slave of the IKEA nesting instinct. The main characters absence of a name only exemplifies this; the buying of furniture from IKEA gives the main character (Ed Norton) his identity, without being a consumer the main character would remain undefined and anonymous. In the movie, the two main characters, (Ed Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), are staring at a Calvin Klein ad and ask each other is this what a man is supposed to look like. Fight Club shows the extent of consumerism controlling life. The consumer culture even defines how the modern male should look and how he should wish to look. The corporate ownership of the male extends to how much his life is worth. Ed Norton works in a claims department for a large car manufacture. His job is to decide what a manufacture does in case of a design flaw. Take for example, if a carburetor runs a risk of exploding after 100,000 miles; ED Norton’s job is to investigate the probability of this happening. Then take the number of vehicles on the road and multiply them it by the probable rate of failure and multiply the product again with average price of an out of court settlement. If the end result is less than the cost of a recall, there is no recall. Brad Pitt makes a statement that illustrates the society the modern male is forced to live in, “We are a society of men raised by women.” The film shows the emasculation of the 20th century male, not only by our consumer-oriented society but also by feminine standards of civilization. The best example of this would be the support groups Ed Norton visits. In these support groups, men are told to gather power, strength and courage from each other not from themselves. At the end of the sessions men are told to hold each other and cry, things that are very non-stereotypical of men. The 20th century society does not want men to function independently and be able to be emotionally strong on their own, it does not want men to be men. Society wants to take the very ideals of being a man, independence, strength and courage and only allow for men to experience them at certain times. The castration and feminization of the male character is shown through the testicular cancer support group. The men in this group have lost the very essence of their manhood, their testicles. They are a representation of the 20th century males, castrated and without the male essence. Society has taken the very fundamental aspect of being a man and taken it away creating a more feminine man. The character of Robert Paulson best illustrates this point. Bob was a champion bodybuilder, an independent and strong male, but had his testicles removed and the hormone imbalance caused him to grow extremely large breasts and his voice to become higher. Now Bob goes to a testicular cancer group so he could share his feelings, have strength and courage, to cry. He was once a strong and independent male, now he is weak and dependent. Bob becomes more of a woman than a man because of society. Brad Pitt screams, “You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not your job. You are not the car you drive or the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis! You are the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” This war cry of the consumer-controlled male is his fight against society and it’s views. The movie, Fight Club is a tale about males breaking from the consumer culture and...