When someone asks me who I am, I usually share my name and what I do; however, I don't truly understand the real me. Just as in Fight Club, the narrator, who we don't actually know his name, is frustrated, lost, and confused. Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club particularly discusses the problem of forging secure identities in the postmodern world. His novel portrays the need for identity in life. As a postmodern man, the narrator loses his identity and he is searching for the meaning of his life. And as a small creature of this huge consumer society, his true worth is how much he can spend in the pursuit of materials. Similarly, we live under the influence of materialism and consumerism. We purchases goods which may be unnecessary for us; however, we just want them simply because we want to follow the crowd. In the 21st century, the notion of consumerism and the strong feeling of control are very common and popular among the society. .
In the story, the narrator is obsessed in materials. I think one of the main causes regarding to the narrator's identity problem is the notion of consumerism. He lists the thing he needs when he is traveling, and he also states that, "The bare minimum [he needs] to survive" (Palahniuk 40), which absolutely shows how meaningful these outside materials are. In my opinion, he is trapped in materialistic world. In one passage, the narrator enumerates all of the furniture he owned, and eventually they all got destroyed. I think it is quite hilarious because the more specific he describes his possession, the more obsession he shows towards these substances. In today's society, more and more people turn towards materialist. I think I am a pretty obvious example. I always buy things which are not essential in my life. I am actually the kind of consumer who buys a lot of things and not using them. Take a tour in my closet; I'm sure there are lots of new discoveries which I don't even know their existence.