Fight Club Theme of Dissatisfaction

If you've ever been dissatisfied with your venti soy vanilla macchiato with a double shot, you know how all the men in this movie feel…except replace "venti soy vanilla macchiato with a double shot" with "life."

The men in this movie no longer want to live in a world where you're defined by the clothes you can afford and the Starbucks beverage you choose to drink. They want to live in a world run by strength and wit and guts, and they're determined to change it. So stock up on Starbucks while you can. Corporate coffee chains don't factor in to this group's game plan.

Questions about Dissatisfaction

  1. Are our narrator and Marla dissatisfied with life for the same reasons? How do they choose to combat this dissatisfaction? 
  2. Why does Tyler find advertising so offensive? 
  3. Does Fight Club criticize anything you personally find meaningful? How does that make you feel? Do you question your interests?

Chew on This

Take a peek at these thesis statements. Agree or disagree?

Tyler is the personification of our narrator's dissatisfaction with society, but when our narrator becomes dissatisfied with Tyler, he has to eliminate him.

Marla and the narrator are drawn to each other because both have lost sight of any sort of meaningful life, but they find meaning in each other.