The ideas that the meanings of our lives are controlled by what other people say and do have been around for a long time. In his book “Survivor”, Chuck Palahniuk explores a step further and creates a character that has, throughout his entire life, had his meaning of life created and controlled directly by other people. Through this character Palahniuk demonstrates how modern day culture is now doing this for all of us and the meaning of life has become something impersonal that is created by other people. He does this through a secondary characters outlook on the world in the story, the main characters life as a member of the so-called “Creedish Death Cult”, and through his life afterwards as the publicly promoted hero/sole surviving member of the “Creedish Death Cult.”
The main character, Tender Branson, has always had everything in his life controlled by others, even the meaning of his life has always been dictated by other people and never by himself. This is first evident in his situation with the “Creedish Death Cult,” in which he was raised, named (even his name was dictated by what point in the family he was born. Because he was not a first-born, and because he was male, he was named Tender, just like every other second born male in the cult), taught beliefs, and sent to work. All these things are controlled by the leading members of the Creedish “cult”. “If you met someone form the church district colony, you could say: May you be of complete service in your lifetime. You could say: Praise and glory to the Lord for this day through which we labor. […] That was the limit. […] No hugging. No hand shaking. You would say one approved bit. She would say one. The two of you would of back and forth until each of you had said two lines. You kept your heads bowed, and you each went back to your task.” All his actions, interactions, jobs, and relationships were controlled by the Creedish Church, and by controlling all of these things they controlled his meaning of life, which Palahniuk is using as a blatant example for how all of our life meanings are controlled by others.
Palahniuk further expands this example by highlighting Tender Branson’s life after the entire Creedish Church (which was a suicide cult) has died and he is the sole surviving member. His life meaning then becomes controlled by the people who want to use him as a publicity stunt and make money off of him. “In the shadows, the agent and the writers give each other silent high fives. The agent gives me a big thumbs-up. My hands are numb. I can’t feel my face. My tongue belongs to someone else.” His life meaning has now become dictated by the “Tele-Prompter” which he reads off of as instructed by the writers and his agent. Palahniuk has now given us two examples of how this one persons life is controlled by others and uses Tender as the overarching example for how all our lives are controlled by others.
While most of the book focuses on the example of Tender Branson, Palahniuk is able to bring the example to the rest of America through the views of a secondary character who states that “We all grew up with the same television shows. It’s like we all have the same artificial memory implants. We remember almost none of our real childhoods, but we remember everything that happened to sitcom families. We have the same basic goals. We all have the same fears.” This is what the book is exploring about the meaning of life. How all of our life meanings have become dictated by other people, mainly the media, and how we will never have control of our lives until we commit suicide (hence the use of an suicide cult as an example for the main character.)