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Fight Club Toaism

The purpose of this paper is to study the Taoist thought present in the recent movie and book Fight Club. In the paper we will detail the basic premise and concept of the book and compare and contrast its teachings with those of Taoism. It should be noted that the book Fight Club came first and then the movie was based upon it. The movie does not follow the book closely, and parts of the book including the ending have been rewritten. The changes presumably make the movie more pleasing and understandable to its target audience, however the book holds the author’s true meaning and thus it will be followed instead of the movie when they differ.

Fight Club can be viewed with many interpretations, all of them true. It is a great love story. It is an anti-consumerism rant. It is a spiritual piece against materialism. It is anarchist literature. It is a commentary on our ‘lost’ generation. At first viewing of the movie, very little of this can be seen and it appears violent and chaotic. However much thought was put into providing the movie with depth and development that only become apparent after multiple screenings. Those who can see this deeper meaning and are interested in learning more should read the book. It is recommended that the reader first view the movie before reading this paper due to the surprise ending.

It is most simply the story of a man who mentally splits himself in two. His newly sprung half is called Tyler Durden, and is everything the hero wishes he were. The irony is that he is physically the same man and therefore is what he wants to be, but cannot realize this and uses his alter ego to accomplish his goals. In the end Tyler gets out of control and his tamer half cannot get rid of him even though he no longer wants him. In the process of Tyler’s development of his anarchist plans he gathers others to himself who are seeking someone to believe in. His teachings to them contain much Taoist thought and start a cult-like terrorist group. This...