Fight Club

“Wake up, wake up!” Edward Norton is asleep in a zombie-like world and looking for meaning in the material world. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) appears in response to Edward’s burning desire for meaning in his life. Tyler’s call for Norton to fight him is his call for Norton to wake up and care about something, anything—just quit being among the legions of the living dead. The violence in this movie is simply a metaphor to show total commitment to mind training.

 

As others witness Tyler and Edward’s vitality in the Fight Club, they want to join in. People are hungry for a common cause; they are thrilled that someone has awakened them from their slumber. This is how it feels when we are willing to open up and share our thoughts and feelings authentically with one another for the purpose of healing.

 

Only those who have a burning desire to give up the meaningless of the ego world are called to join this movement. Tyler tells them that in this movement there are no individuals and they must be stripped of their self-concepts, control and everything they’ve ever believed in. He says they are not special, but merely a part of the life force, the quantum field.

 

As the movie progresses, there is more and more of a merge of Edward and Tyler. Edward is no longer content to stand on the sidelines; he takes the given steps necessary to complete the merge—the complete obliteration of duality and the taking of responsibility for his own state of mind. Edward does not need the fierceness of the Tyler character anymore for he has attained the real world, where everyone is equal, and he stands triumphantly hand in hand with his brothers to whom he can now offer and accept unabashed love as he watches this real world come into vision.