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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fight Club, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Consumerism, Perfection, and Modernity
Masculinity in Modern Society
Death, Pain, and the “Real”
Rebellion and Sacrifice
Repression and the Unconscious Mind
Summary
Analysis
The Narrator flies home as quickly as he can. At the house, Marla is sitting inside, and she says that she and the Narrator need to talk. The Narrator eyes the freezer, and suspects that there are dead bodies inside—casualties of Project Mayhem, being converted into soap and glycerin.
Instead of talking to Marla, the Narrator realizes that Tyler (or rather, he) has been organizing increasingly violent operations for Project Mayhem; now he suspects that Project Mayhem has killed people and stores the bodies in the freezer.
Themes
Hurriedly, the Narrator takes Marla out of the house to the nearest Denny’s. There, the waiter, who looks seriously injured, greets the Narrator and calls him “Sir.” He offers Tyler and Marla food, free of charge, which Marla accepts.
The Narrator has followers around the country, since so many dissatisfied people have joined Project Mayhem. The omnipresence of space monkeys is more sinister than reassuring (and also pretty implausible), particularly since the space monkeys are loyal to Tyler, not the Narrator.
Themes
The Narrator tries to convince Marla, and himself, that he’s not Tyler Durden, but Marla claims, “Everyone knows you’re Tyler Durden.” The Narrator realizes why he started hallucinating Tyler: he wanted a change in his life. He was sick of his dull, corporate lifestyle—so he took a vacation, and created an imaginary friend, Tyler. As he explains this, Marla is amazed and amused. Tyler, The Narrator realizes, is the Narrator’s own ideal man—strong, smart, witty, fearless.
The Narrator realizes that his repression and boredom are to blame for his hallucination (and his insomnia). He’s finally found the “real problem” that his doctor alluded to at the beginning of the novel: in a bleak, emasculating society, the Narrator began imagining Tyler to escape from himself.
Themes
