The Founding Father of the Fight Club: Tyler Durden as a Modern Marx

The movie Fight Club is a revolutionary commentary on the evils of capitalist society. An homage to the Communist Manifesto, the modern masterpiece tells the story of an unnamed materialistic worker who, through the influence of his alter-ego, Tyler Durden, becomes disillusioned with society. Together, the worker and Tyler create a fight club that attempts to take over society and undo capitalism through revolution. This work is an ideal example of literature that "undermines or subverts the dominant ideologies of the culture" (Rivkin 645). In this particular scene, Tyler echoes Marx's ideas in his criticisms of capitalist society:



First, Tyler Durden echoes Marx's idea of the worker as a slave. He explicitly refers to the workers who have joined fight club "slaves with white collars." This is a reference to Marx's idea of economic slavery mentioned in the Communist Manifesto: "Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself" ("Manifesto"). Marx perceives the worker as a slave to his employer as well as capitalist society. This statement is further explained in his work "Wage Labor and Capital," wherein he states, "The worker, whose sole source of livelihood is the sale of his labor power, cannot leave the whole class of purchasers, that is, the capitalist class, without renouncing his existence. He belongs, not to this or that capitalist but to the capitalist class" (661). According to Marx, work in a capitalist society is a form of slavery because it is a system that workers cannot escape because the worker "works in order to live" ("Wage" 660). Indeed, workers as slaves to the capitalist system is a pivotal idea in the works of Marx.

Next, Durden highlights worker dissatisfaction that worker isolation, which is inevitable in the capitalist system, creates. He does this in several comments in this scene. First, he calls work a "squandering" of potential, or a waste of time. Second, he states that "Our great war is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives." Third, in a previously discussed quote, he refers to "jobs we hate." These statement echoes Marx's argument that the worker's production for the capitalist instead of for his own goods leads to isolation and dissatisfaction. Marx explains that, for the worker, or proletarian, "Life begins [...] where this activity ceases, at table, in the public house, in bed" ("German" 660). Indeed, work is in no way pleasurable for the worker but is only a requirement for earnings, which are necessary for subsistence. Furthermore, Marx actually argues that "In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases" ("Manifesto"). Indeed, workers are dissatisfied and even detest their jobs.

Marx's theory that the multitudinous proletariat's isolation would lead to revolution is also prevalent in this scene. Before suggesting revolution, Tyler points out the circularity and emptiness of the capitalist system. He does this through his statement that "Advertisements have us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." This circularity is one of Marx's key descriptions of the capitalist system: "Does a worker in a cotton factor [sic] produce merely cotton textiles? No, he produces capital. He produces values which serve afresh to command his labor and by means of it to create new values..." ("Wage" 662). Certainly, this is the basic foundation of capitalism: workers work for wages, which they then give back to the the owners of the means of production through purchasing products, leaving them in need of more wages. Clearly, it in part this circularity that leads to worker angst and eventual overthrow of the owners of the means of production, or bourgeoisie. But before just before revolution, which is the only means of ending the destructive cycle of capitalism, workers experience disillusionment, which Durden points out in his memorable statement, "We've all been raised by TV to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we wont. We're slowly learning that fact, and we're very, very pissed off." In this quote, we perceive a growing disillusionment among the working class, which leads to the introduction of revolutionary ideas. As Marx explained: "The existence of revolutionary ideas in a particular period presupposes the existence of a revolutionary class" ("German" 657). Thus, at the end of this scene, Tyler suggests that some kind of revolution is about to take place. The aspect of revolution is key when discussing Marx, for it is what sets his theory apart from those of all other socialists. He argues that "What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces above all, is its own gravediggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally evitable" ("Manifesto"). The end of the "Manifesto" calls for a union among all workers of the world to overthrow the bourgeoisie in a global revolution. At the end of the movie, this is exactly what happens.



Works Cited:

Marx, Karl. "The German Ideology." Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 2004.

-----. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 2004.

-----. "Wage Labor and Capital." Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 2004.

Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan. "Introduction: Starting with Zero." Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden: Blackwell, 2004.