The Hypocrisy of Tyler Durden

Spoilers ahead

During the initial days of their friendship, the narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden point to an advertisement for a clothing brand on a public bus which shows the physique of a white, muscular model. They comment on its stupidity, as it being just another undesirable symptom of capitalism at its worst, that it’s another example of how the corporate world manipulates men’s minds to look and behave in a certain way.

Tyler Durden, the alter ego conjured by the narrator's disintegrating and insomniac mind, is everything that the narrator wants to be: free, smart and masculine. He lives in the present and is not afraid of doing and saying what he believes.

Tyler believes that the only way for men to truly live in the modern age is to give in to their primal masculine instincts, to relieve themselves of the frustrations of their low-paying jobs and unfair fates by hurting and getting themselves hurt physically. Tyler believes in living a non-materialistic life devoid of pressures and absurdities.

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. Working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives."

The irony is in the fact that Tyler himself (played by Brad Pitt, an actor who has been selected by the People’s magazine for its prestigious title of Sexiest Man Alive, not once, but twice) seems to have the exact same physique, if not a better one, as the model in the advertisement; a physique that is impossible to achieve without discipline and a rigorous diet.

It's not a coincidence that Tyler is played by an actor who is considered by many to be the epitome of male beauty.

"We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won't. We're slowly learning that fact, and we're very, very pissed off."

The actor who says it, in actuality, is both a movie star and a millionaire. Tyler seems to want everyone to let go of their need to fit in into the capitalistic society, to dissolve their intentions to succeed within the Matrix, but he ends up, as hilarious as it is, being glorified by it.

Most men, I’m mostly sure, have been influenced by Tyler Durden at some point in their life.What they do not understand is that a man who thinks and behaves like Tyler, a man who refuses to participate in the rat race, will not, in reality, end up looking like Brad Pitt. They are more likely to end up as a jobless drug-addict with a high chance of perishing because of his own laziness and acts of

self-destruction. They will end up nowhere and will most probably not be respected by anyone because of their inability to hold onto responsibilities.

Although I very strongly believe that it is important for a man to be in touch with his masculinity, that a man must always strive to think independently and to work on being as emotionally and physically strong as possible (for which I have been strongly criticized by so many of my liberal friends), I do not think that Tyler is someone to look up to because he isn’t a real person. He’s just an embodiment of a flawed male’s fantasy.

Maybe Tyler’s character is satirical, written to depict the hypocrisy of people who say it’s foolish to focus on materialistic pleasures and to work to succeed within the existing society, but are, deep down, mesmerized by some of the undeniable pleasures of it.