American Psycho

1
American Psycho

• Bret Easton Ellis

2
Overview

• The protagonist and narrator is Patrick Bateman,
  a young very successful Wall Street dealer who is
  also a psychopathic killer.
• American Dream
• Unconventional form
• Descriptive narrative

3
Methods of Self-Control

• Being in control of surroundings
• Routine
• Shift of focus away from people

4
When it All Comes Apart

• Loss of composure
• Near debilitating panic attacks
• Lack of morality
• Violence and cruelty

5
Yuppie-ism vs. the individual

• Yuppie
• 1. noun (often initial capital letter ) a young,
  ambitious, and well-educated city-dweller who has
  a professional career and an affluent lifestyle.
• 2. a young, ambitious, professional person who
  earns a lot of money and spends it on fashionable
  things
• 3. 1982, acronym from "young urban professional,"
  ousting competition from yumpie (1984), from
  "young upward-mobile professional," and yap
  (1984), from "young aspiring professional." The
  word was felt as an insult by 1985.
• Individual
• 1. noun a single human being, as distinguished
  from a group.
• 2. a person a strange individual.
• 3. a distinct, indivisible entity a single
  thing, being, instance, or item.

)
6
Identity - Others

• Bateman is not aware of the identities of the
  majority of people in his life
• Thank you, uhSamantha (85)
• a very pretty homeless girl (85)
• Someone who looks like
• Recognition of people based on clothing, sex,
  race, occupation, etc.

7
Identity - Self

• When is Patrick Bateman called Patrick Bateman?
• Owen has mistaken me for Marcus Halberstam (even
  though Marcus in dating Cecelia Wagner) but for
  some reason it really doesnt matter and it seems
  a logical faux pas since (89)
• Same jobs, same clothes, same difference?

8
The Consequences

• Whos who?
• Obvious social critique by Ellis
• KillAllYuppies. (374)
• Is Patrick Bateman unique?
• Potential for violence
• Questioning of reality

9
Questionable Reality

• Unreported murders
• Multiple witnesses
• Unreliable narrator
• Contradictions

10
Textual Examples

• New Club
• He stares at me as if we are both underwater and
  shouts back, very clearly over the din of the
  club, "Because... I had... dinner... with Paul
  Owen... twice... in London... just ten days ago.
  After we stare at each other for what seems like
  a minute, I finally have the nerve to say
  something back to him but my voice lacks any
  authority, and I'm not sure if I believe myself
  when I tell him, simply, "No, you... didn't." But
  it comes out a question, not a statement. (388)
• Taxi Driver
• "Man, your face is on a wanted poster downtown,"
  he says, unflinching.
• "I think I would like to stop here," I manage to
  croak out.
• "You're the guy, right?" He's looking at me like
  I'm some kind of viper.
• ...
• "You kill Solly," he says, definitely
  recognizing me from somewhere, cutting another
  denial on my part by growling, "You
  son-of-a-bitch." (392)

11
Implications

• Hallucinations
• Detachment from society
• Fantasies as coping method
• Real murders
• Absolute consumerist society
• Everything is disposable
• Women/ethnic minorities are objects

12
Sex, Gender and Violence

• Social commentary now used as justification for
  the descriptions of sexual violence against women
• Gender difference in the murder descriptions of
  men and women
• Men the scenes are short, more public, asexual
• Women scenes are highly detailed, described
  ornately, sexualized, occur in private locations

13
Feminist Critique

• Mary Harron (2000) Although many scenes are
  excruciatingly violent, it was clearly intended
  as a critique of male misogyny, not an
  endorsement of it. (Caputi, p. 146)
• Women represent a lack of power in society. The
  others to whom sexual violence naturally occurs

14
Crisis of Masculinity

• Traditional male characteristics to the extreme
• Protection of dominant position as hegemonic male
  
• Pornography and real sex, his relationships
  with women, the business cards, the AIDS scare,
  and others in society all represent challenges
  to patriarchal supremacy

15
The Ultimate Objectification

• Theres this theory out now that if you can
  catch the AIDS virus through having sex with
  someone who is infected then you can also catch
  anything, whether its a virus per se or not
  Alzheimers, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia,
  leukemia, anorexia, diabetes, cancer, multiple
  sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy,
  dyslexia, for Christ sakes you can get dyslexia
  from pussy. (p. 5)
• And as things fell apart/ Nobody paid much
  attention (p. 1)

16
Works Cited

• Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho. New York
  Vintage, 1991.
• Individual. 25 March 2008 lthttp//www.dictionary
  .comgt
• Yuppie. 25 March 2008. http//www.dictionary.com
  
• Caputi, Jane. Goddesses and Monsters Women,
  Myth, Power and Popular Culture. Wisconsin
  University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.
• Storey, Mark. And as things fell apart The
  Crisis of Postmodern Masculinity in Bret Easton
  Elliss American Psycho and Dennis Coopers
  Frisk. Critique 47.1 (2005) 57-72.
• Tighe, Carl. Writing and Responsibility. New
  York Taylor Francis Routeldge, 2005.