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Tyler Durden is an enthusiastic maker of soap; he renders fat (sometimes human fat) and converts it into luxurious, expensive soaps that he sells for a hefty profit. As Tyler explains, the process of making soap is incredibly brutal: animals have to be slaughtered, bodies have to be harvested, just to produce a state of cleanliness. Soap—not just the object but the process of making it—is a symbol of the brutality and violence of the “real world,” a world that most people would prefer to ignore. Furthermore, soap is a symbol of the pain and sacrifice needed to keep the world turning, and of the invisible dirtiness involved in the way that people keep themselves clean.
Soap Quotes in Fight Club
The Fight Club quotes below all refer to the symbol of Soap. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 9
Quotes
"You have to see," Tyler says, "how the first soap was made of heroes."
Think about the animals used in product testing.
Think about the monkeys shot into space.
"Without their death, their pain, without their sacrifice," Tyler says, "we would have nothing."
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Fight Club LitChart as a printable PDF.
Soap Symbol Timeline in Fight Club
The timeline below shows where the symbol Soap appears in Fight Club. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8
To wash the Narrator’s bloody pants, Tyler teaches the Narrator how to make soap. From his fridge, he pulls out a big plastic bag full of fat, which he...
(full context)
...The Narrator promises not to do so. Tyler and the Narrator then return to making soap: they harden the rendered fat in the fridge. Tyler points out a layer of glycerin...
(full context)
Chapter 11
Over time, the Narrator learns that Tyler makes good money selling his soaps to fancy stores—people say his soap is the best they’ve ever used.
(full context)
...the Narrator that he’s been making a fortune with Marla’s collagen—he uses it to make soap.
(full context)
...been using Marla’s mother’s collagen. The Narrator explains that he used the collagen to make soap, and Marla is furious—she accuses the Narrator of “boiling my mother.” When she pulls one...
(full context)
Chapter 19
...fat. He’ll take the fat back to Tyler’s house and make it into bars of soap, sold for 20 dollars apiece. The mechanic mentions that he’s been asked to look for...
(full context)
Chapter 21
...in the hotel, and says she’s still angry with him for making her mother into soap. Stunned, the Narrator asks Marla to say his name—she says, “Tyler Durden,” the person who...
(full context)
Chapter 23
...freezer, and suspects that there are dead bodies inside—casualties of Project Mayhem, being converted into soap and glycerin.
(full context)
