Fight club: Discussion questions

1.    Did you find Fight Club funny? Why or why not?
 

2.    What truths are expressed in this film? What do you think it gets wrong?
 

3.    What happens to the Narrator when he goes to the support groups?
 

4.    What is the relevance of the Narrator's fatherless childhood?
 

5.    Why does the Narrator dislike Marla so much?
 

6.    Why is the Narrator drawn to Tyler Durden?
 

7.    What is the attraction of the Fight Club? What do men receive there?
 

8.    What is the significance of soap in this movie?
 

9.    Why does Tyler torture the greengrocer with the threat of death?
 

10.  What does Tyler hope to achieve by blowing up the credit card companies?
 

11.   Tyler complains that humans have lost value in society, yet the participants in Project   Mayhem are known only by number. What is wrong with his plan to change the world?

12.   Is the Narrator ever free at any point in this movie?
 

13.  What is the role of violence? Could it be a metaphor for something else?
 

14.  How did your feelings about the violence change throughout the movie?
 

15.  What are the ironies of the film, both in the story and in the movie as a whole?
 

16.  Like so many others, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct ... I'd flick through catalogues and wonder, "What kind of dining set defines me as a person?"' The Narrator has a high level of self-awareness when it comes to seeing his life for what it is. What other things are people slaves to in contemporary society? How can we make a difference?
 

17.'You were looking for a way to change your life. You could not do this on your own. All the ways you wish you could be - that's me. I look like you wanna look ... I am smart, capable and most importantly - I am free in all the ways that you are not.' (Tyler Durden) Where do people look for freedom today? Do they find it? Why or why not? The members of Fight Club paid for their 'freedom' with pain. Can freedom ever come without a price tag attached to it?
 

18.'What gets explored in this film is the idea that nihilism is a very sexy idea when you're young and feel frustrated, but that becoming mature means recognising the practical limits and in some ways the hypocrisies that nihilism lends itself to.' (Edward Norton, Fight Club DVD commentary) What are the hypocrisies of nihilism? What solutions does Fight Club offer?
 

19.  Discuss the following quotes: 'Every evening I died, and every evening I was born again - resurrected.' (the Narrator, talking about his experiences in the support groups)
'Fight Club wasn't about winning or losing. I wasn't about words. The hysterical shouting was in tongues, like in a Pentecostal church. When the fight was over, nothing was solved, but nothing mattered. Afterwards, we all felt saved.' (the Narrator)
'Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers baled, what does that tell you about God? You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, he never wanted you, in all probability he hates you ... We are God's unwanted children - so be it!' (Tyler Durden) 
'You have to give up. First you have to know - not fear, know - that some day you're gonna die ... It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.' (Tyler Durden)