Fight Club

by

Chuck Palahniuk

The Narrator Character Analysis

The narrator of the novel is never referred to by name. At the beginning of the novel, the Narrator is a frustrated corporate slave, living out a dull, emasculated life. The Narrator soon begins to hallucinate Tyler Durden, his powerful, charismatic alter ego, and host weekly fight clubs designed to help members embrace the physical and the visceral (the Narrator doesn’t realize that he and Tyler are the same person until the end of the book). The Narrator struggles to embrace pain and death as eagerly as Tyler, but he’s more cautious about the morality of the fight club, especially after members begin planning terrorist strikes and assassinations. In the end, the Narrator seems to “hit rock bottom” and embrace death by attempting to kill himself: whether he remains the Narrator afterwards, or whether he merges with his alter ego is left for the reader to decide.

The Narrator Quotes in Fight Club

The Fight Club quotes below are all either spoken by The Narrator or refer to The Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Consumerism, Perfection, and Modernity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I know this because Tyler knows this.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

My flight back from Dulles, I had everything in that one bag. When you travel a lot, you learn to pack the same for every trip. Six white shirts. Two black trousers. The bare minimum you need to survive.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

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

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Tyler said, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

Related Characters: Tyler Durden (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

I'm a thirty-year-old boy, and I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer I need.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

The first night we fought was a Sunday night, and Tyler hadn't shaved all weekend so my knuckles burned raw from his weekend beard. Lying on our backs in the parking lot, staring up at the one star that came through the streetlights, I asked Tyler what he'd been fighting. Tyler said, his father.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

"You have to see," Tyler says, "how the first soap was made of heroes."
Think about the animals used in product testing.
Think about the monkeys shot into space.
"Without their death, their pain, without their sacrifice," Tyler says, "we would have nothing."

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden (speaker)
Related Symbols: Soap
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

New leather multiplied by labor cost multiplied by administration cost would equal more than our first-quarter profits. If anyone ever discovers our mistake, we can still pay off a lot of grieving families before we come close to the cost of retrofitting sixty-five hundred leather interiors.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Marla's philosophy of life, she told me, is that she can die at any moment. The tragedy of her life is that she doesn't.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

When Tyler invented Project Mayhem, Tyler said the goal of Project Mayhem had nothing to do with other people. Tyler didn't care if other people got hurt or not. The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 122
Explanation and Analysis:

The applicant has to arrive with the following:
Two black shirts.
Two black pair of trousers.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

Up above me, outlined against the stars in the window, the face smiles. "Those birthday candles," he says, "they're the kind that never go out."
In the starlight, my eyes adjust enough to see smoke braiding up from little fires all around us in the carpet.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Mechanic (speaker)
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Raymond K. K. Hessel, your dinner is going to taste better than any meal you've ever eaten, and tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of your entire life.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Raymond Hessel
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

"What it is," Tyler says, "is we have police who come to fight at fight club and really like it. We have newspaper reporters and law clerks and lawyers, and we know everything before it's going to happen."
We were going to be shut down.
"At least in Seattle," Tyler says.
I ask what did Tyler do about it.
"What did we do about it," Tyler says.
We called an Assault Committee meeting.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden (speaker)
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not.
I'm not Tyler Durden.
"But you are, Tyler," Marla says.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer (speaker)
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

"His name is Robert Paulson."
And the crowd yells, "His name is Robert Paulson."
The leaders yell, "He is forty-eight years old."
And the crowd yells, "He is forty-eight years old."

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Bob / Robert Paulson
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

The three ways to make napalm. I knew Tyler was going to kill my boss. The second I smelled gasoline on my hands, when I said I wanted out of my job, I was giving him permission. Be my guest.
Kill my boss.
Oh, Tyler.
I know a computer blew up.
I know this because Tyler knows this.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden, The Narrator’s boss
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

There's Marla.
Jump over the edge.
There's Marla, and she's in the middle of everything and doesn't know it.
And she loves you.
She loves Tyler.
She doesn't know the difference.
Somebody has to tell her. Get out. Get out. Get out.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

His name was Patrick Madden, and he was the mayor's special envoy on recycling. His name was Patrick Madden, and he was an enemy of Project Mayhem.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Patrick Madden
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

Tyler says, "The last thing we have to do is your martyrdom thing. Your big death thing."

Related Characters: Tyler Durden (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“Everything's going according to the plan.”
Whispers:
“We're going to break up civilization so we can make something better out of the world.”
Whispers:
“We look forward to getting you back.”

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Fight Club LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fight Club PDF

The Narrator Quotes in Fight Club

The Fight Club quotes below are all either spoken by The Narrator or refer to The Narrator. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Consumerism, Perfection, and Modernity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I know this because Tyler knows this.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

My flight back from Dulles, I had everything in that one bag. When you travel a lot, you learn to pack the same for every trip. Six white shirts. Two black trousers. The bare minimum you need to survive.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

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

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Tyler said, "I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

Related Characters: Tyler Durden (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:

I'm a thirty-year-old boy, and I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer I need.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

The first night we fought was a Sunday night, and Tyler hadn't shaved all weekend so my knuckles burned raw from his weekend beard. Lying on our backs in the parking lot, staring up at the one star that came through the streetlights, I asked Tyler what he'd been fighting. Tyler said, his father.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 53
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

"You have to see," Tyler says, "how the first soap was made of heroes."
Think about the animals used in product testing.
Think about the monkeys shot into space.
"Without their death, their pain, without their sacrifice," Tyler says, "we would have nothing."

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden (speaker)
Related Symbols: Soap
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

New leather multiplied by labor cost multiplied by administration cost would equal more than our first-quarter profits. If anyone ever discovers our mistake, we can still pay off a lot of grieving families before we come close to the cost of retrofitting sixty-five hundred leather interiors.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 96
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

Marla's philosophy of life, she told me, is that she can die at any moment. The tragedy of her life is that she doesn't.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

When Tyler invented Project Mayhem, Tyler said the goal of Project Mayhem had nothing to do with other people. Tyler didn't care if other people got hurt or not. The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden
Page Number: 122
Explanation and Analysis:

The applicant has to arrive with the following:
Two black shirts.
Two black pair of trousers.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 127
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

Up above me, outlined against the stars in the window, the face smiles. "Those birthday candles," he says, "they're the kind that never go out."
In the starlight, my eyes adjust enough to see smoke braiding up from little fires all around us in the carpet.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Mechanic (speaker)
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 20 Quotes

Raymond K. K. Hessel, your dinner is going to taste better than any meal you've ever eaten, and tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of your entire life.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Raymond Hessel
Page Number: 155
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

"What it is," Tyler says, "is we have police who come to fight at fight club and really like it. We have newspaper reporters and law clerks and lawyers, and we know everything before it's going to happen."
We were going to be shut down.
"At least in Seattle," Tyler says.
I ask what did Tyler do about it.
"What did we do about it," Tyler says.
We called an Assault Committee meeting.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden (speaker)
Page Number: 164
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not.
I'm not Tyler Durden.
"But you are, Tyler," Marla says.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer (speaker)
Page Number: 174
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

"His name is Robert Paulson."
And the crowd yells, "His name is Robert Paulson."
The leaders yell, "He is forty-eight years old."
And the crowd yells, "He is forty-eight years old."

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Bob / Robert Paulson
Page Number: 178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

The three ways to make napalm. I knew Tyler was going to kill my boss. The second I smelled gasoline on my hands, when I said I wanted out of my job, I was giving him permission. Be my guest.
Kill my boss.
Oh, Tyler.
I know a computer blew up.
I know this because Tyler knows this.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Tyler Durden, The Narrator’s boss
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

There's Marla.
Jump over the edge.
There's Marla, and she's in the middle of everything and doesn't know it.
And she loves you.
She loves Tyler.
She doesn't know the difference.
Somebody has to tell her. Get out. Get out. Get out.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Marla Singer
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

His name was Patrick Madden, and he was the mayor's special envoy on recycling. His name was Patrick Madden, and he was an enemy of Project Mayhem.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Patrick Madden
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

Tyler says, "The last thing we have to do is your martyrdom thing. Your big death thing."

Related Characters: Tyler Durden (speaker), The Narrator
Page Number: 203
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

“Everything's going according to the plan.”
Whispers:
“We're going to break up civilization so we can make something better out of the world.”
Whispers:
“We look forward to getting you back.”

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 208
Explanation and Analysis: