Firstly a question of context, by philosophies we can learn from Fight Club', this article refers to the themes and attitudes that both the film and the book can teach us. The depth of Chuck Palahnuiks novel means it could theoretically be added to the compulsory school curriculum, alongside Arthur Millers A View From The Bridge, or J.D. Salingers Catcher In The Rye (though with far less celebrity shootings). This could be particularly apt as these novels are usually tackled during GCSE and A-levels, at the peak of adolescence. Adolescence, ahh the very time when we all first take that bite of Eves apple and realise we are naked, not in paradise and that that snake was a lying little.you get the idea. Yet this is a time when we first get a little bit of independence and start making our way in the world. It has been said that it is at this time we formulate and solidify our personalities, perspectives and philosophies - which is why the material you absorb at this critical period can be so defining. Fight Club is a story that professes to define a generation. The "
middle children of history". As Tyler says, we are not the children of a great war, nor are we the sufferers of a great depression. We are consumers told that if we play the game and join the rat race we will have successful and fulfilling lives. But as anyone slogging their guts out in some 9-5 will tell you, the fairytale isn't true. That's where our narrator (Edward Norton) comes in. Stuck in the mundane cycle that is his life he desperately looks for a way to change it, for a way to break free of the routine ritual we as a society live in. To help him do this, he meets Tyler (Brad Pitt). Now by suggesting that adolescents particularly could learn from Fight Club, I'm not suggesting that students be made to duke it out Battle Royale style. But simply the discourses that can be drawn from the story can table a forum for a generations voice. Secondly a question of etiquette - as this discusses the film and the book, there are spoilers ahead. So here it goes, 5 philosophies we can learn from Fight Club.