"It's only after we've lost everything that we"re free to do anything": Suffering in the Fight Club.
Fight Club portrays the life that most men, whom have been oppressed by society's rules, want to live. This picture suggests that we can only experience life through pain and suffering; and that once our fear of losing our comfortable lives has disappeared, we will be much more satisfied with ourselves. In this essay, I will discuss a couple of moments in the movie where the protagonist and, according to Sigman Froid, his Id try to free society.
First of all, the main character in Fight Club, let us call him Ed, is unnamed because he does not know his true identity. The first part of the picture where suffering plays a major role is when Tyler Durden pours acid on Ed's hand. It takes a while, but Tyler is finally able to persuade the main character to deal with the pain like a man would, to deal with pain in a very primal way, to live within it. This way of coping with suffering is the exact opposite of how he learned to handle it in the support groups, which was by meditating and going to his cave to find his power animal.
Second of all, Ed learns an important lesson when he confronts his boss about the way he has been acting. His supervisor, who is called Mr. Cornflakes, thinks that Ed is going to apologize for the way he has been acting; little does he know that the protagonist is actually here because Tyler sent everyone in the club to go fight someone and lose. However, Cornflakes never lays a finger on him, Ed literally kicks his own ass. After this incident, he realizes that he is not afraid of his boss anymore, as a matter of fact, he is not afraid of anyone. Why? Because he understands that if he inflicts more pain on himself than anybody else can on him, he will be fearless. This all fits into the way suffering leads you to happiness.
Moreover, as the fight club becomes more confrontational with society, Tyler Durden comes up with the great idea of sacrificing humans.