The Good Fight

Man's greatest struggle has always been with himself. Is there a good me and a bad me, or just one? The dualistic concept of self goes way back--yin/yang, God/Devil. It is natural, I guess, to want to believe that we are separate from the aspect of ourselves that we dislike. Tyler and protagonist (let's call him Jack), are fighting for control of one body, mind, and soul. The fight club itself is borne out of a fight between these two--I mean one. Because this is required reading for this class, I have to look at the gender aspect. What of that? Well, to refer back to Mulvey, Tyler is the ideal mirror image of Jack--the one that does, says, and thinks what Jack is afraid to do as himself. Tyler is active and propels the story forward. Jack is reactive/passive and is a follower until he finally stands up for himself. Something big here that is worth noting is the gender role: men have been programmed to be "the man" or if not, then a homosexual, which society generally regards as the same as a woman. The dualistic idea applies here to sexuality. Why can't a man be somewhere in between? Sexually and emotionally. If a man is attracted sexually to another man most consider him gay, even if he is attracted to females as well. Society cannot accept that this is one person, whose sexuality may "swing both ways". What of the emotional aspect? Emotional attachment does not always follow sexual preference. So now this creates a bigger problem, dualistic sexuality as well as emotional attachment. The subject of society's dualism has come up before on the blog--society must categorize, put things in nice, neat, compartments. But we are all individuals with unique backgrounds, needs, desires, and dreams. Used metaphorically, I think that Palahniuk's social commentary is valid: blow up the establishment, all of it. The good and the bad, the art and the commerce, the world's tallest building and the museum.The symbolism that I think was used is that art is feminine and capitalism is masculine. What is left? In the end just Jack is left. Tyler may have failed to destroy the physical establishment, but he succeeds in destroying Jack's dualistic notion of himself. We are, however, left with the reminder that there are plenty of people out there who are ready for Tyler's return.