Discuss Tyler Durden, the beliefs he preaches, and the methods he uses. Are these
ideas and methods the best for reforming society? Why do so many people find Tyler
such a charismatic figure?
The analysis of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” is impossible without observation of the personality of Tyler Durden, the key character that exposes the key themes and deep social problems that are presented in the book. Tyler’s character amazes with the large number of angles that is similar to a diamond. The different sides of his personality perfectly demonstrate all the hidden sense of the “Fight Club”.
Moreover, this character is interesting because of his natural magnetism that attracts people around him. His inner power is present in the decisions he makes, his projects and initiatives. The inside power and the uniqueness of his methods and ideas define his attractiveness to the other people. He tries to find himself and his sense of living. His enthusiasm, intelligence and strong character make him a perfect leader that people want to follow and to listen to. His life views and choices serve to one common goal: to fully understand his purpose of living and the real nature of his individuality.
Tyler is extremely charismatic, adventurous, energetic and intelligent person that uses specific methods when communicating with people. Tyler believes that every single person has to do one specific kind of job. The assemblage of such small-sectioned workers results in the success of the common cause.
Tyler also demonstrates his drive for adventure with the elements of risk in the majority of situations that require demonstration of gained skills and previous preparations. The culmination of his adventurous character is the creation of the Fight club, Paper Street Soap Company and Project Mayhem. With the creation of these organizations Tyler also aims to change the society and destroy the harmful and destructive social system. This brings him to the top of the skyscraper with the bomb inside that reflects his strive for adventure. This is his desire to find a deeper sense of life and to understand who he is that pushes him towards new risks and new ordeals. The methods he uses are radical, non-standard, but effective and moving that incites the development of the plot.
Special attention should be paid to his specific relationship with the other characters of the book. Tyler can be defined as relatable person that defines the power of charisma he has. It creates additional support to the establishment of connection between Tyler and the rest of the characters that immediately get attracted to him and easily follow Tyler as he can bring them to the targets they follow. That is how Tyler gets trust of the people around him and can easily build a direct connection with people he wants to communicate with. He is an ideal version of the narrator that has extremely complicated relationship with the social environment. His moving, motivating, energetic personality and charismatic character are the key reason of his attractiveness.
Another side of Tyler’s charismatic personality is his intellectual power. He has imagination and living mind that adds magnetic power to all his actions that are extremely diverse and energetic. His endless enthusiasm is present everywhere in the book and it results in the new projects, ideas and new challenges. “Tyler says, ‘Use a little imagination. Remember all that pioneer shit they taught you in Boy Scouts. Remember your high school chemistry’ It’s hard to imagine Tyler in Boy Scouts” (Palahniuk 68). His intellectual power makes him a leader that guides the other people around him as he easily connect with different people on the most primitive and influential level.
His different projects and groups demonstrate different angles of his individuality and intellect. He initiates The Paper Street Soap Company that produces soap from fat gleaned from other people. He talks about three different methods of napalm making. All of them are unusual and compelling, but they demonstrate who Tyler is and how different he is from the rest of society.
Another important feature of Tyler’s individuality is the sanity issues. This theme has special interest as the unusual, extravagant and potentially risky actions of this character make us seek for the reason of his decisions and actions. He appears to be a total opposition to all social rules and orienteers. His life is absolutely different from the ordinary human life. However, together with destroying all rules that are present in society, he supports the idea of elaboration of the specific system of rules inside the fight club.
The main reason for that was to escape total chaos and to prevent possible deaths of the club members. Therefore, there is a specific order and sense in Tyler’s actions, even if it does not look like that from the first glance. Unfortunately, everything he tried to escape ion fight club turned to to be present in Mayhem Project and that again rises the sanity issue and adds new angles to the personality of the hero. There can be different opinions regarding the issue, but certain amount of insanity adds risk and action to Tyler’s actions. If not Tyler’s personality in general, then his ability to make decisions has a certain proportion of madness.
The complicated personality of Tyler Durden appears to be the key issues within the book “Fight Club” and the unusual features of his character perfectly demonstrate the main themes and issues raises within the book. Tyler is a bright anti-hero that appears to be the result of the narrator’s split personality.
His ideas and projects all aim to open the real nature of himself and to define the reason of life. However, they result to self-destruction and the destruction of the people around him. His followers find themselves in the deeper crisis than they used to be, but that is how he lives his life. This is also the perfect allegory on the contemporary society that also leads to self-destruction and chaos.
Tyler uses extremely radical methods to gain his main targets, such as bombing the huge skyscraper, creation of the closed fight club and even killing people. He sees the imperfection of system of social life that looks like a prison for the humanity and his actions aim to destroy the existing order. He is very intelligent and enthusiastic.
However, behind his energy and living mind there is certain pain hidden inside the adventurous character of the hero. His main target is to get a full understanding of whom he is and why he is living his life. His specific character has great magnetism. His charisma attracts people and he easily establishes a contact with other people, although that does not mean that he is sociable and easy to communicate with. Despite that, people follow him as a leader and believe in his methods and ideas.
Tyler’s decisions and his overall behavior raise the issue of sanity of the hero. It is extremely hard to see the hidden sense behind every decision, despite the fact that the majority of them are effective, spectacular and they logically support the character’s lifestyle and position. His is a real leader that tries to reform the society and create a real revolution in the world order.
He is fighting against the rules that exist in the contemporary society, although he elaborates the codex for the fight club members in order to lower the potential risk of death and chaos. This is extremely important aspect of his individuality that makes him logical together with being extravagant and sometimes unbalanced.
Tyler is the most interesting character that raises important issues that are a real weakness of the modern humanity. The social restrictions create the invisible prisons in people’s minds that do not give them the ability to see the real sense of things. Tyler is strict, rude, ruthless and uncivilized, but this creates necessary contrast between his life and the life of narrator.
His opposing to the existing order is extremely attractive to people that also seek for better life or better version of themselves. It is easy to see a leader in the energetic, intelligent and charismatic Tyler that tries to change the society and to produce a real revolution in the contemporary system of laws, rules and restrictions.
Works Cited
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.
