Fight Club and Society

One of the major themes in Fight Club is society cannot or should not tell you who you are.  In Fight Club, the unnamed main character attempts to find his true self by going against society or “sticking it to the man” as the punk mantra states.  The basis of this idea can be a good way of going about finding personal identity.  When someone can have complete apathy to what society thinks about them, they can decide who they want to be.  However in the movie and in today’s society it seems we still have a need for some sort of group reassurance that who we are is ok with at least some group or even just one person. 

            In the movie, the main character cannot go against what society wants him to be without creating another society that approved of what he did.  Initially it starts with him needing to make up a fictitious person, Tyler Durden, to tell the main character what he wanted to do was “ok”.  Eventually the newly created society grows and it may reflect still who the main character is but does it reflect who the rest of the members are or have they simply exchanged one society for another?  This is what I would say is the main pitfall of alternate type societies, like the punk society.  They may begin with one person finding individuality but in the end, they are filled with members whose only sense of identity is to not be like whatever is the perceived norm is.  I feel the big take away question is why, no matter who we want to be, do we anyone else’s approval?  Is society so ingrained in us that even when we want to go completely against it we have to create another society to do that?