Fight Club Themes
The main themes of the story are loneliness, materialism, and freedom from society. Tyler was created because of the lack of connection the narrator had with the people around him. The narrator was lonely and attended so many support groups because of it. He was not rejected at the support groups because the members thought he was sick just like they were. Materialism is a reoccurring theme as the narrator mentions how he has worked his entire life for the Ikea items in his apartment. He tried to fill the void in his life by buying worthless, meaningless stuff. People spend too much time working for things they do not need. The narrator comes to the conclusion that, “You are not your job or your possessions.” Only once a person realizes that can he or she finally let go and start living. “It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler says, “that you’re free to do anything.” In order to be free, we must not care about the stuff we own. Our whole lives are spent working to pay for stuff. If we did not have stuff to pay for, we would not have to work as hard and our time could be spent doing something more meaningful.

In the beginning, the narrator obeyed everything Tyler told him to do. The narrator conformed to every aspect of society and did everything that was socially acceptable no matter how much it ate away at him inside. Tyler was created as someone the narrator always wanted to be. Tyler was the narrator’s hero and the narrator envied everything Tyler stood for. The narrator started to lose his own conformist identity and become more and more like Tyler. As the novel progressed, the narrator grew more miserable while becoming Tyler. Becoming Tyler was emotionally and physically draining for the narrator. The narrator questioned some of the ethical choices Tyler made and constantly suffered from insomnia (which we later discover to be the