American Psycho
This is an excerpt from the paper...
There could be few challenges more difficult than digesting all 399 pages of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. The hero (or is that anti-hero) of the novel is a twenty-six-year-old Wall Street executive who gives new meaning to the word ostentation. The novel is peopled with characters like Patrick Bateman, rich, self-centered, materially-oriented, nihilistic yuppies who have emotional breakdowns if their self-esteem is diminished because someone else in the group landed a richer account, wore a better matched ensemble or has a business card of richer stock and more unique typeset. While many have lambasted the book as nothing more than a laundry listing of trendy nightclubs and restaurants, designer clothes and accessories, and some of the most gratuitous and shock-value violence ever depicted, it appears the author intended such a story to symbolize the greed, decadence and selfishness of the 1980s. Indeed, this milieu is a product of the Reagan era, when the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the homeless were considered a public eyesore manifested by their own lack of will to work, addictions, and a poor attitude. This analysis will demonstrate various aspects of the novel in an effort to show Ellis’ attempt to portray the valueless nature of the 1980s and American materialistic culture through this group of young, wealthy, nihilistic upper-class denizens of New York.The main character of the novel is in actuality a
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e decides not to kill, “She’s lucky even though there is no real reasoning behind the luck. It could be that she’s safe because her wealth, her family’s wealth, protects her tonight, or it could be that it’s simply my choice…maybe it’s simply I don’t want to ruin this particular Alexander Julian suit by having the bitch spray her blood all over it” (Ellis 77).
The novel is so politically incorrect in today’s society, that is seems intentional on the author’s part, almost as if he is using hyperbole to demonstrate the uncaring, selfish, materialistic policies of business and government during the 1980s. Giving new definition to the word misogynist, Bateman continually objectifies women as nothing more than stupid bitches, potential repositories for his violent, sexual perversion, “A good personality” says one of his friends, “consists of a chick who has a little hardbody and who will satisfy all sexual demands without being too slutty about things and who will essentially keep her dumb fucking mouth shut” (Ellis 91). We also see references to the 1980s Reagan-oriented policies regarding the homeless and those on public assistance. To Bateman and his crowd, the homeless are a bunch of stinking, lazy bums whose bad attitude an
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2852
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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