American Psycho

by Ben Taylor

What comes to mind when you think of the eighties? Is it the cars, music, fashion, movies? When I think of the eighties, I think of New York, the heartless men of Wall Street, the suits who compare business cards and jam to Huey Lewis and the News. This is what Brett Easton Ellis thought writing American Psycho during the era of cocaine and disco. The beloved, or hated, Anti-Hero protagonist Patrick Bateman blending in with his coworkers and “friends” as the psychopathic chameleon he was written to be.

At its core, American Psycho is a critique of yuppie culture and the lies of materialism during the eighties. The character of Bateman is fueled by nothing but his ego. From bragging about his apartment which he’s neighbors with Tom Cruise, to over analyzing every piece of clothing you wear to compare to himself, to murdering a coworker that holds a high-profile stock case that Bateman feels inferior not having, he is concerned with nothing but how other people view him. He doesn’t want to be associated with anything but the absolute best. He buys expensive suits, classy dinners, stays in peak shape, and even has a complex skin routine. Ellis said in a Rolling Stone interview, “I created this guy who becomes this emblem for yuppie despair in the Reagan Eighties – a very specific time and place – and yet he’s really infused with my own pain and what I was going through as a guy in his 20s, trying to fit into a society that he doesn’t necessarily want to fit into but doesn’t really know what the other options are.

That was Patrick Bateman to me. It was trying to become a kind of ideal man because that seemed to be the only kind of a guy that was “accepted.” Bateman keeps saying, “I want to fit in.” I felt that way too. It’s very surprising and completely shocking that a novel that I was writing in 1987, 1988 and ’89, is being referenced now. Certainly, the movie helped move it

into a higher plane of consciousness for a lot of people. But it is surprising.” Bateman really emphasized the traditional conservative values of America. He idolizes Donald Trump, who at the time plated his entire bathroom with real gold just because he could. With the aspirations of being friends with king yuppie Trump and homicidal tendencies, he carves his way through prostitutes and homeless men without even a glimpse of remorse.

While Patrick Bateman is a fictional character, there are moments that Ellis created that you almost relate to. For example, waiting in line at the supermarket. You get annoyed by the elderly lady ringing up 20 cans of cat food and struggling to put her chip card in. The book perfectly captures the little bursts of narcissism we all have throughout our daily lives. Road rage and sitting at the DMV, little annoyances that drive us absolutely crazy and ruin our day. Patrick Bateman is a symbol of feeding into the consumerism that is promoted in our lives, and of our own egotistical points of view.