The real explanation of Fight Club
The narrator of fight club is gay and many of the events of the film are a byproduct of his inability to acknowledge his sexuality. The narrator therefore creates Tyler to represent the heterosexuality he believes he has, and he also uses Tyler as an outlet to involuntarily express his actual orientation.
From the outset, it is unclear how the narrator feels about Marla. He acts as if he wants to avoid her at all costs, yet when they actually decide to attend different support groups he runs after her and asks to exchange phone numbers. I initially thought that he was romantically interested in Marla and only created a conflict with her because he is antisocial and doesn't know how to interact with people. We later see that the narrator wants nothing to do with Marla. He forces her out of the house when he sees her in the morning, and he isn't jealous at all when Tyler sleeps with her all the time. To confirm that the narrator has no sexual attraction towards Marla we get an awkward scene of Marla telling the narrator to "check for breast cancer" and then asking to "check his prostate", and he has no interest in this game at all.
In complete contrast to this, Tyler is a hypersexualized character. He splices porn into kids's movies. When he hears Marla on the phone about to commit suicide, he takes that as an opportunity for sex. Following that, they repeatedly go at it very loudly, and I'm pretty sure the walls crumble and the lights flicker. Tyler acts like a champion for performing well, which Marla validates a few times. Sexual activity is one of the most defining characteristics of Tyler which is interesting considering that Tyler is a part of the narrator who is not attracted to Marla. The reason for this difference is that Tyler is who the narrator wants to be. When Tyler reveals himself, he tell the narrator, "All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look I fuck like you wanna fuck... ." The narrator must be uncomfortable with his sex life for Tyler to bring this up. Tyler Durden is the ideal man whom the narrator thinks he should be doesn't actually want to be. Some people in class said that Tyler, unlike the narrator, is cool. He probably shares the same sentiment. He thinks having sex with women would prove his masculinity but he simply doesn't want to actually do it (the desire to prove masculinity could also explain his interest in testicular cancer groups).
So how do we know that the narrator is gay rather than asexual? His obsession with Tyler, in my opinion, approaches romantic interest. This was clear to me particularly when he feels left out from the project mayhem plans. He becomes overcome with jealousy. Tyler violated their bond that he believed they had and broke his trust. Instead of going through him Tyler shared his plans with other men. This sounds a lot like the narrator thinks he's been cheated on because he wants Tyler all to himself. If you still think the narrator was actually interested in Marla, he didn't care at all when she was having sex with Tyler, whereas his most emotionally expressive moment of the movie occurs when he doesn't get all of Tyler's attention.
The narrator's internal conflict over his sexuality is what drives him insane and creates his dual personality. I'm sorry if this isn't how you want to think about the movie; my 11th grade English teacher told us that everything in literature is about sex and that kind of ruined me.
From the outset, it is unclear how the narrator feels about Marla. He acts as if he wants to avoid her at all costs, yet when they actually decide to attend different support groups he runs after her and asks to exchange phone numbers. I initially thought that he was romantically interested in Marla and only created a conflict with her because he is antisocial and doesn't know how to interact with people. We later see that the narrator wants nothing to do with Marla. He forces her out of the house when he sees her in the morning, and he isn't jealous at all when Tyler sleeps with her all the time. To confirm that the narrator has no sexual attraction towards Marla we get an awkward scene of Marla telling the narrator to "check for breast cancer" and then asking to "check his prostate", and he has no interest in this game at all.
In complete contrast to this, Tyler is a hypersexualized character. He splices porn into kids's movies. When he hears Marla on the phone about to commit suicide, he takes that as an opportunity for sex. Following that, they repeatedly go at it very loudly, and I'm pretty sure the walls crumble and the lights flicker. Tyler acts like a champion for performing well, which Marla validates a few times. Sexual activity is one of the most defining characteristics of Tyler which is interesting considering that Tyler is a part of the narrator who is not attracted to Marla. The reason for this difference is that Tyler is who the narrator wants to be. When Tyler reveals himself, he tell the narrator, "All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look I fuck like you wanna fuck... ." The narrator must be uncomfortable with his sex life for Tyler to bring this up. Tyler Durden is the ideal man whom the narrator thinks he should be doesn't actually want to be. Some people in class said that Tyler, unlike the narrator, is cool. He probably shares the same sentiment. He thinks having sex with women would prove his masculinity but he simply doesn't want to actually do it (the desire to prove masculinity could also explain his interest in testicular cancer groups).
So how do we know that the narrator is gay rather than asexual? His obsession with Tyler, in my opinion, approaches romantic interest. This was clear to me particularly when he feels left out from the project mayhem plans. He becomes overcome with jealousy. Tyler violated their bond that he believed they had and broke his trust. Instead of going through him Tyler shared his plans with other men. This sounds a lot like the narrator thinks he's been cheated on because he wants Tyler all to himself. If you still think the narrator was actually interested in Marla, he didn't care at all when she was having sex with Tyler, whereas his most emotionally expressive moment of the movie occurs when he doesn't get all of Tyler's attention.
The narrator's internal conflict over his sexuality is what drives him insane and creates his dual personality. I'm sorry if this isn't how you want to think about the movie; my 11th grade English teacher told us that everything in literature is about sex and that kind of ruined me.
This is an interesting theory, thought I would like to propose a counter theory. If I were to suggest a relationship, the real relationship between Tyler and the Narrator, it is that between id and ego, where Tyler is the impulse that the Narrator cannot act on due to the constraints of society. At the beginning of the film, the narrator is most aptly described as a parasite, leaching off the emotions of others so that he can sleep. Tyler is his inner desire, his will to act. If Tyler is having sex with Marla, it is because the Narrator wants to have sex with her. He is not apathetic towards the two having sex; the narrator is upset with Marla still being here, which could be read as jealousy that he cannot have her.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting theory, something like this never even crossed my mind. Your English teacher's point is interesting too, and I think I will try to look at some other stories from that perspective from now on.
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