“Culture is a paradoxical commodity (Adorno & Horkheimer 19).” It is subject to the same laws of exchange similar to any other commodity. While its ideology perpetuates blind consumption that inadvertently directs our life and identity, it results in the advertisement of itself. Culture as its own commodity consumes our lives. Fight Club represents a counter-culture to the typical American ideology that defines people’s identity through their consumption patterns. As demonstrated throughout the movie, this ‘revolution’ is a fight against the widely accepted affect that media has on cultural and our society. Fight Club is a reflection of the loss of identity experienced by the ‘Generation X’ male who feels trapped in the world of the working-class and feels feminized thorough conspicuous consumption. The argument of the film is that individualism in our society is not individualism at all, but a carefully crafted identification of the self that is sold to us through consumption of society’s norms, and ways of thought.
In the movie, the main character is introduced to the audience without a name. The narrator comes to us without a clear identity because he represents ‘any man’, anyone of those ‘Generation X’ males living is our society at the present. The narrator is a thirty-three year old man employed as a recall coordinator for a major automobile company. He lives in a condo that is furnished with all the comforts of modern society, all the typical mass-produced furniture you would find in any chain company magazine. He owns a car and has obtained a ‘respectable’ wardrobe for himself (or so he thinks) over the course of time. Despite all of these things, however, he is not satisfied with his life. He feels unhappy, unfulfilled, and is trapped in a bad case of chronic insomnia.
Fight Club is considered a criticism of the American consumer society that has cloned individuals to resemble each other’s identity and consumption habits. Our main...