Film studies
Introduction
When it comes to the movie “Fight Club” a certain character of Tyler Durden is worth to be examined as the character of this particular hero really defines the whole plot of the movie. By analyzing Tyler numerous facets and aspects of his personality can be discovered. Even though he is mostly described as very dangerous, self-destructive, standing on the verge of insanity, he is like a precious stone, which has more than one side
P.S: From the very beginning one point needs to be made clear: Tyler Durden and the narrator is the same person.
The character of Tyler Durden
All the way through the movie, Tyler Durden is portrayed as adventurous, relatable, and highly intelligent person, being absolutely painful and a little insane, who is actually worshiped by every single character that follows him throughout the story.
His leadership skills are clearly reflected in the groups that he created: fight club, the Paper Street Soap Company, and, finally, Project Mayhem. But the question of why exactly Tyler Durden has so many followers still needs some answer, and the answer might be found in the charisma of the main character; charisma that people find easy to trust, thus, to follow. It appears fairly easy for him to establish connections with people quickly and effectively, another great feature of his character that helped Tyler to gain trust, to gain control. This makes his followers obey all of his orders without even questioning those.
Another features of Durden’s character, as his ingenuity, his ability to recall unimportant information can be traced throughout the whole movie. Those are reflected in every group that he starts, and actually represent different parts of his intelligence. Tyler used a lot of creativity in the Paper Street Soap Company making soap out of human fat, mixing it with herbs for scent, and finally selling it for incredible profit. In this way Durden shows that no ultimate goal can be reached without suffering and sacrifice. And he does everything needed for us to understand and realize this concept, and take it as a fact. As an example of Tyler’s intelligence lines from the book: “The three ways to make napalm. One, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and frozen orange juice concentrate. Two, you can mix equal parts of gasoline and diet cola. Three, you can dissolve crumbled cat litter in gasoline until the mixture is thick” (Palahnuik 13).
Tyler Durden is very resourceful as well, and as proof the narrator provides certain facts: “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).
Another interesting aspect of Tyler Durden’s character is his sanity and it is the thing that people question the most when it comes to Tyler. During the whole movie the narrator was getting clues that Tyler is a being not that separate from himself, but still could not possibly believe it, because of the magnitude of Durden’s deeds. And what is even more exciting is the fact that even though the character of Tyler Durden was completely against social rules and regulations (as those were suppressing the natural order of humans), he still feels a need for certain rules in his fight club for chaos not to spread among his comrades, and for serious injuries or possible deaths not to happen. Oddly, that is exactly what happened during Project Mayhem.
Conclusion
One thing can be said for sure, and that is the character of Tyler Durden is of great diversity. He is depicted as very dangerous, self-destructive, standing on the verge of insanity, but at the same time he is highly intelligent, adventurous, great relationship builder, whom people can easily trust and follow.
Works cited
Kavadlo, Jesse. "The Fiction of Self-destruction: Chuck Palahniuk, Closet Moralist".
The International Journal of Existential Literature., Stirrings Still., Fall/Winter 2005. Web.19 Oct 2013.
Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.
