Misreading as Proof

Fight Club is routinely misread as an endorsement of Tyler's philosophy — men's rights groups and anti-establishment movements have adopted it as a manifesto. But this misreading is exactly what the film predicted: Tyler's seduction works on audiences the same way it works on the narrator.

The film functions as a trap. If you leave thinking Tyler was right, you have fallen for the same con the narrator fell for. If you leave questioning your own attraction to Tyler, the film has done its actual work. The misreadings prove the film's point about how easily ideology seduces.