This is especially reflective of the life that Jack leads. Jack feels as if he is just one of the masses "travelling in a flock" and not thinking for himself. He also has issues with his upbringing, as it is later revealed that Jack was raised by his mother in a single-parent family, having been abandoned by his father at a young age. .
The next major event that occurs in Jack's life, although he is unaware of it at the time, is meeting Tyler Durden. It is interesting to note that the author seems to have carefully chosen the name of this character, as an analysis of the name Tyler Durden reveals that in antiquated English, "Tyler" means gatekeeper or house builder, and "Durden" has the root dour meaning hard, as in "durable", both which are descriptive of his personality. Although the novel and motion picture do not project the same circumstances under which Jack and Tyler meet, it is most interestingly projected in the novel. Jack awakes on a beach in the summertime to find Tyler pulling driftwood out of the surf and dragging it to the beach, then implanting the logs in the sand, forming a semi-circle. Tyler asks Jack what time it is and draws a line in the sand with a stick. Tyler's creation is explained in the novel (page 33) as follows: .
What Tyler had created was the shadow of a giant hand. Only now the fingers were Nosferatu-long and the thumb was too short, but he said how at exactly four-thirty the hand was perfect. The giant shadow hand was perfect for one minute, and for one perfect minute Tyler had sat in the palm of perfection he"d created himself One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection. .
This scene is especially important and foreshadows the future for Jack and Tyler. It is indicative of Tyler's personality, and goal (that later surfaces) of achieving just a moment of what he considers to be perfection in society.
