he hacks to pieces, cannibalizes, and then orgasms by having sexual intercourse with the left-over body parts. However, these endeavors are meaningless to Bateman, particularly in comparison to his obsession with himself. His concerns over his appearance and diet are laughable considering his true nature, “I catch a glimpse of my reflection on the surface of the table. My skin seems darker because of the candlelight and I notice how good the haircut I got at Gio’s last Wednesday looks. I make myself another drink. I worry about the sodium level in the soy sauce…I lift a piece of eggplant off the platter, though I won’t eat it because it’s fried” (Ellis 12-13). Considering Ellis scoops out the brains and intestines of his victims and dines on them ala Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, these superficial concerns over health and appearance are absurd.
However, the superficiality of Bateman, his coldly cerebral, unfeeling nature, and his obsessive concern with appearances and status-symbols are typical of his entire group of yuppie friends. In an ironic bit of dialogue in the beginning of the novel, Evelyn defends Bateman to his friends, but he answers her by telling her the truth even though he knows no one will take him seriously because, indeed, he does keep up appearances so well: “Patrick is not a cynic, Timothy. He’s the boy next door, aren’t you honey?” Evelyn says before Bateman responds, “No I’m not. I’m a fucking evil psychopath” (Ellis 20). In reality, he is a fucking evil psychopath, but, because he is always tan, works out obsessively, buys the right clothes, eats and parties at the right restaurants and nightclubs, buys the right furniture and electronics and has the right amount of money, no on considers his darker side. Psychological dysfunction in this group is not caused by the typical inferiority feelings of normal folks. There is no penis-envy, no personality infer...