Many parallels can be drawn between the ancient "Epic of Gilgamesh" and the modern film "Fight Club." While thousands of years separate the stories, both the epic and the film describe an anti-hero who is awakened into a journey by another hero, and the anti-hero learns valuable lessons from the second hero. For the purposes of this discussion and for reasons discussed below, the character of Gilgamesh parallels with the narrator of Fight Club, while Enkidu parallels with the character of Tyler Durden. Both The Epic of Gilgamesh and Fight Club explore themes such as civilized versus uncivilized and the threat of mortality. While The Epic of Gilgamesh explores the evolution of the characters into more civilized versions of themselves, the film Fight Club presents the awakening of a man from civilized culture into uncivilized, rebellious behavior. While seeming as though they are quite opposite journeys, there are striking similarities between the realization and re-education of the hero in both of the stories.
Although Gilgamesh and the narrator of Fight Club are very different characters, they are the anti-heroes of each story. An anti-hero is described as a central character within a story that lacks conventional heroic attributes. The Epic of Gilgamesh depicts Gilgamesh as a powerful, oppressive ruler over the people of Uruk; in other words, he is not protecting his people but abusing his power as a ruler. Line 69 of Tablet I reads, "By day and by night his tyranny grows harsher." On the other hand, Fight Club presents the narrator as a fragile, detached, and depressed man stuck in routine and the boring day-to-day life as a white-collar worker. At the beginning of the film, the narrator states, "With insomnia, nothing's real. Everything's far away. Everything's a copy of a copy of a copy." .
While keeping the anti-hero parallel between Gilgamesh and the narrator in mind, each story introduces a second hero that awakens the anti-hero into a new realization.
