The 1999 release FIGHT CLUB is a film adapted from the 1996 novel written by Chuck Palahhniuk (great author, I recommend 'Survivor' as his 2nd best novel). This David Fincher directed movie tells the story of Jack a white-collar, insomniac protagonist who enters into a world of violence, dystopia and rejection of society after meeting the rebellious Tyler Durdan. As I watched this movie for the billionth time, I realized that the story is a keen example of two pertinent political philosophers of our time; Rousseau and Hobbes.
Hobbes, believing that the nature of humanity had no goodness, consented to a strict societal structure that controlled the dangerous urges of human beings. Rousseau on the other hand, attested to “uncorrupted morals” prevailing in an untouched state of nature, without societal constrictions. In other words, humanity’s natural state was moral. While the beginning of Fight Club seems to support Rousseau’s idea of the “state of nature”, it inevitably spirals into Hobbes’ philosophy. As Jack begins tranquil in a world supported and promoted by Hobbes, he is later unleashed into the laws of nature as Rousseau endorses. Perhaps it is the constraint of society that leads to Jack’s desire to return to the state of nature. However, we see the cataclysmic effect of this “state of nature” at the very end of the movie as we see total destruction. Hobbes would agree that the evil of Tyler Durdan is Jack at his most primitive state of nature.
CHECK OUT THE CLIPS AND COMPARE:
How Jack Begins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYDLv8rK4z8
How Jack ends:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkUaV9GZDuk
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