Thomas 1

Melanie Thomas

Dr. Casey

Critical Reading and Interpretation

6 December 2010

True Manhood vs. The Consumer Role

Gandhi once said, "There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's

greed." This idea of rapacity can be attributed to Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel, Fight Club, as

one of the primary thematic focuses aims toward anti-consumerism. The “consumer role”, in

particular, is heavily criticized in Palahniuk’s novel. By emphasizing the ideas of enslavement

and emasculation, the author portrays the consumer role as a negative aspect of consumerism.

Consumerism is defined as a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation

and fostering of a desire to purchase goods or services in even greater amounts. It is precisely the

“fostering of a desire to purchase” that generates the consumer role. So, then, what exactly is the

consumer role and what purpose does it serve in the novel? In order to answer these questions,

one must first understand the process responsible for its creation. Advertising and the media

serve as the primary tools for fostering the desire to purchase goods and services. By using

various forms of communication (i.e. television, magazines, internet etc.) to feature ads, people

are continually urged to keep up with the ‘latest and greatest trends.’ Furthermore, the upper

class’s tastes, lifestyles, and preferences trickle down to become the standard for all consumers.

This is why costly name brands are consistently favored, because they serve as an indication of a

person’s economic status. Thus, consumers (even ones who are not necessarily wealthy) can

receive the instant gratification of purchasing an expensive item to improve the appearance of
 Thomas 2

their economic status. Thus, the societal pressure to outdo one’s neighbor arises, which gives rise

to the “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality. The consumer role is the duty placed on the

consumer to frequently spend money to purchase goods and services in order to keep the market

thriving. By frequently buying various goods and services, the consumer sustains businesses,

ultimately helping to maintain a prosperous economy. The “good consumer” is someone who

incessantly spends money purchasing goods and services. Embracing this role, however, can

have negative consequences. For instance, the pursuit of wealth, possessions, and luxury often

becomes the utmost priority for many individuals, affecting an individual psychologically the

way an addiction would. This practice, known as materialism or conspicuous consumption,

ultimately dominates the narrator’s psyche causing him to become obsessed with purchasing

furnishings to decorate his apartment. His compulsion manifests when he describes his

apartment.

In the beginning of the novel, we are exposed to the narrator’s demolished apartment that has

been destroyed in a freak accident. What follows is a detailed list of all of the items lost in the

explosion. Ironically, the narrator (who remains unnamed) does not list personal memorabilia,

such as photographs or letters, but instead catalogues each item of furniture that has been

destroyed.

Something which was a bomb, a big bomb, had blasted my clever Njurunda coffee tables

in the shape of a lime green yin and an orange yang that fit together to make a circle.

Well they were splinters, now. My Haparanda sofa group with the orange slip covers,

design by Erika Pekkari, it was trash, now. And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting

instinct. The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they
 Thomas 3

sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. We all have the same

Johanneshov armchair in the Strinne green stripe pattern. Mine fell fifteen stories,

burning, into a fountain. We all have the same Rislampa / Har paper lamps made from

wire and environmentally unbleached paper. Mine are confetti. The Alle cutlery service.

Stainless steel. Dishwasher safe. The Vild hall clock made of galvanized steel, oh, I had

to have that. The Klipsk shelving unit, oh, yeah. Hemlig hat boxes. Yes. The Mommala

quilt-cover set. Design by Tomas Harila and available in the following: Orchid. Fuschia.

Cobalt. Ebony. Jet. Eggshell or heather. It took my whole life to buy this stuff. The easy-

care textured lacquer of my Kalix occasional tables. My Steg nesting tables.

The fact that the narrator only lists possessions, as opposed to personal items such as letters or

photographs, shows that his possessions hold the most value to him. In this quote, we are shown

how the narrator has embodied the “consumer role.” The narrator’s devotion to the “consumer

role” becomes his addiction, causing him to fall victim to these phenomenon. By emphasizing

the narrator’s obsession with purchasing material possessions, the consumer role is portrayed one

that promotes greed.

In the excerpt, the language used provides evidence of how the narrator is controlled by the

consumer role. He claims, “And I wasn’t the only slave to my nesting instinct.” Here, word

‘slave’ proves especially powerful. The word ‘slave’ is defined as: a person who is property,

dominated by some influence or person. Universally, the concept of slavery is associated with

complete lack of freedom. For a person to be free, they must not be bound by obligation or

constraint. It is this belief that ties addiction to slavery. Addiction is slavery of the mind, because

the victim is bound by compulsion, therefore, the addict is no longer free. By referring to himself
 Thomas 4

as a slave, the narrator is admitting that he not truly free. He is enslaved by his addiction to the

“consumer role,” which promotes his desire to procure “the right set of dishes,” and “the perfect

bed” and “the drapes.” The quote also exposes the emasculation of the narrator through the use

of the phrase, “nesting instinct.” The nesting instinct, which refers to a pregnant mother’s urge to

prepare a home for her upcoming newborn(s), displays the narrator’s femininity and is ultimately

ironic because the narrator has no children. Critic, Henry Giroux, attests that the novel “attempts

to engage critically the emptiness of a stifling consumer culture” (Giroux 10). Here, the

“emptiness” is exemplified through the narrator’s nesting instinct. This maternal instinct

ultimately bears no meaning because he has no children. His life is “empty” without a family.

Another quotation that is indicative of the narrator’s enslavement to the consumer role is,

“Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”

To own something is to possess it. It is regarded your property, in the same way that African

American slaves were viewed as the master of the plantation’s property. The statement, “now

they own you,” refers to his possession’s ownership of him- once again, alluding to his

enslavement. Another word that proves significant to this quote is the word, ‘trapped.’ Trapped

is the opposite free, because to be trapped to be bound. As previously stated, one cannot be free

if he or she is bound by obligation or constraint. In this way, the word ‘trapped’ refers to the

feeling of enslavement caused by compulsion. In its entirety, the narrator’s quotation marks his

downward spiral into compulsion caused by the pressure of the consumer role. He compares his

relationship to material possessions before and after his compulsion claiming, “And the things

you used to own, now they own you.” Prior to his obsession, he felt no obligation to create the

perfectly furnished apartment, but now it is his only priority. In addition, the word “nest” is used

again signifying the embodiment of his feminine persona and his lack of a family.
 Thomas 5

After listing the furniture that has been lost in the explosion, the narrator mourns his

refrigerator which had been filled with various kinds of mustard and dressings. It is then that he

finally acknowledges the shallowness of it all admitting, "I know, I know, a house full of

condiments and no real food." Critic, Calum Kerr, interprets this statement as "a sentiment which

seems addressed more to his whole life than simply the contents of the refrigerator" (Kerr, 3). To

Kerr's credit, his analysis of the narrator's comment holds validity. Unlike food, condiments

provide no substantial nourishment, serving only as a supplement used to distract from a food’s

natural flavor. Similarly, the narrator’s stylish furnishings only serve to distract from the absence

of meaningful relationships within his life. A more literal analysis of his refrigerator calls

attention to its emptiness in general, emphasizing the fact that he lives alone. A refrigerator in a

house where multiple people reside, for instance, generally contains an abundance of food;

whereas, the narrator’s refrigerator remains unoccupied because he has no family of his own.

In the novel, we learn of the narrator’s fatherless childhood is one major cause for the

narrator’s adherence to the consumer role. In the novel, he observes that what you see at fight

club is a “generation of men raised by women.” This is a stab at the single-mother household,

suggesting that with no father figure around, boys grow up to be these “feminine males” (Prosser

63). This assessment is applicable because, without a father-figure, boys have no masculine role-

model. Instead, they take after the next best example- the mother. Thus, it is quite plausible that

the narrator’s obsession with the consumer role is a by-product of being raised by a single

mother. In the novel, the consumer role is responsible for the downfall of masculinity within men

because it is a characteristic representative of femininity. Traditionally, the role of the male is

viewed as a producer or leader of society, whose main task is to provide for his family. The

female, one the other hand, relies on her husband for sustenance. She is a consumer. The narrator
 Thomas 6

is characterized as a “feminine male” because of his adhesion to the consumer role. Thus, the

consumer role is seen as emasculating toward men.

One of the main themes in Fight Club is the reclaiming of masculinity. Historically, the male

was responsible for hunting and performing physical labor, such as building a shelter, in order to

provide for his family. With the onset of technology, however, these occurrences have

disappeared. No longer is it necessary for a man to hunt for food when grocery stores contain an

abundance of it. As a result, the male role in the historical animalistic sense has become obsolete.

Susan Faludi explains this phenomenon in her Newsweek article, It’s ‘Thelma and Louise’ for

Guys.

The shift from a manufacturing base to an information-based economy, from the

production of goods to the production of knowledge, has offered men fewer and fewer

meaningful occupations. Consequently, the male body has been transformed from an

agent of production to a receptacle for consumption. A rampant culture of consumption,

coupled with a loss of manufacturing and middle-management jobs presents white males

with an identity crisis of unparalleled proportions. The male hero of the modern day work

force is no longer defined in the image of the tightly hewn worker using his body and

labor to create the necessities for everyday life. The new workforce hero is now modeled

on the image of the young computer whiz yuppie who defines his life and goals around

hot start-up e-commerce companies, day trading and other get rich before I’m twenty-one

schemes as well as the conspicuous consumption of expensive products. Moreover, as

white, heterosexual working-class and middle-class men face a life of increasing

uncertainty and insecurity, they no longer have easy access to those communities in

which they can inhabit a form of masculinity that defines itself in opposition to
 Thomas 7

femininity. In simple terms, the new millennium offers white, heterosexual men nothing

less than a life in which ennui and domestication define their everyday existence (Faludi

3).

This transformation of the masculine role, explained Faludi’s article, is specifically what Tyler

finds fault with. In the novel, Tyler explores what it means to be a “true man” through fighting

the influence of modern culture, which values appearance and material wealth. Giroux argues

that, “For Tyler, physical violence becomes the foundation for masculinity” (Giroux 11).

Although Tyler does, indeed, value physical violence, it is not the only facet of his view of

masculinity. In addition to physical violence, Tyler glorifies the rejection of the consumer role.

To reject the consumer role, is to eradicate the desire to purchase material possessions. The

consumer role fosters the dependency on goods, services, and technology. One way Tyler

interprets true masculinity is through the elimination of dependency on material goods and the

rejection of desire for luxury. Tyler insists that the narrator must “free himself from his

possessions,” which represent the consumer role. “It’s only after you’ve lost everything,” Tyler

says, “that you’re free to do anything.” The word, “lose”, literally means, “to be deprived of.

The word “free” also appears in the quote, which, as stated earlier, means “not bound by

obligation.” Tyler’s theory is that depriving oneself of material possessions will eventually lead

to not being bound by the obligation to purchase them. In the novel, the narrator lists the ways in

which Tyler rejects material goods: “Never, no, never had Tyler ever paid cash for anything. For

clothes, Tyler goes to gyms and hotels and claims clothing out of the lost and found. Tyler never

ate in restaurants.” Instead of buying brand name clothing, a typical practice of “the good

consumer,” Tyler takes clothes he finds in lost and founds. He is not concerned with the status

symbol of brand name items, unlike the narrator who, in the beginning of the novel, lists the
 Thomas 8

designers of his furniture. By letting go of possessions and eliminating dependency, Tyler hopes

to return men to their traditional role of the leader and producer, which is opposite of the

consumer role.

In addition to eliminating the dependency on material goods, Tyler seeks to resurrect the “true

man” through the infliction of physical pain. The idea

In this way, Tyler attempts to reinstill men’s hunter animalistic instincts.

Thomas 9