Like an iceberg, Fight Club is the search for the lost masculine authority on the surface, but the redefinition of essential values in modern society underneath. The dialogue between the narrator and Tyler at the bar after the narrator finds that his condominium has been destroyed is an attack on consumer culture. This conversation, furthermore, is also a chance for the narrator to realize that it takes a dramatic loss to start the life that he always dreams of.
Being a typical example of how advertisement controls his life and turn the consuming behavior into an addiction in a subtle way, the narrator honestly and desperately confesses, “When you buy furniture, you tell yourself that’s it. That’s the last sofa I’m gonna need. Whatever else
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It takes the loss for him to face the fact he is just a “by-products of a lifestyle obsession.” In Tyler’s opinion, people would rather discuss the celebrity gossip and follow the trend such as TV with five hundred channels and the brand name of the underwear rather than something more serious such as murder or poverty. By using these ordinary examples, Tyler gives the narrator an ironic lesson that, “The things you own, they end up owning you.” On the flip side of this statement, it means that only after losing everything, one can get the real freedom. Tyler pauses for few seconds before providing this lesson because that is the basic but essential thing he wants the narrator to keep in mind. The enlightening look of the narrator when Tyler said “Stop being perfect, let’s evolve” reveals his internal transformation (Fincher). From that moment, he starts a new life without the control of consumerism.
The conversation at the bar scene in Fight Club indicates the misplaced values that the consumer culture creates. Fight club, in the end, is not just about physical fights, but internal fights against what the modern society is trying to control us. It’s an eye-opener for the viewers that a duvet is basically just a