Patrick's Analysis 5

What I previously thought was just bad hearing on the people Patrick was talking to's part, I now realize it's something else entirely. Everything crazy that Patrick "says" or "does" while in public places that get no reaction from those around him are really figments of his imagination. They are things he wants to do, but doesn't because of public indecency. Since Bateman is the unreliable narrator of the story, he could possibly think that he has done all of these things, when in reality he has not. "I then call back to him, 'Hey asshole, I want to watch you die motherfuck-aaahhhhh,' and then started running around 58th screaming like a banshee. (pg. 179)" This shows how wild his imagination can run. For him to believe he actually committed these acts of insanity shows that his psychiatric issues run deep into his brain. I'm assuming that many more things like this will continue to happen in the book, which makes me wonder if he'll ever grasp a clear separation from fantasy and reality.

Chapter Summaries 5: Lunch, Concert, A Glimpse of a Thursday Afternoon, Yale Club

Wow. These were an eventful set of chapters. Let's start with lunch, the least exciting of the bunch. Patrick meets a man named Christian Armstrong for lunch at DuPlex, where Bateman, he would later describe as regretfully, asks Armstrong about his recent trip to the Bahamas. Armstrong launches into a never-ending sermon about all of the slightest details about the trip, attempting to convince Patrick to go as well. Also, a few different men come up to Bateman and great him with separate names that are not his own, which has happened before in the book too. This still hasn't been explained, and it's starting to slightly bother me. What's worse is that he doesn't correct them and goes along with it, which makes me think he introduced himself using these pseudonyms. In 'Concert,' a gang of 6 go to a U2 concert where they have front row seats. Nothing too eventful happens until Bateman truly turns his attention to the stage. Bono, the lead singer, comes down to the front stage, and locks eyes with Bateman, or so he says Bono does. He is then lost in this trance where everything else fades away, and Bono relays him the message "I am the Devil and I'm just like you." Next thing, he turns back to the audience and continues his performance, and Bateman immediately turns and asks one of his party of 6, Paul Owen, litigating questions about him handling the Fisher account for no apparent reason. Weird stuff, if I do say so myself. The next chapter is where Ellis makes it apparent to the reader that Bateman is suffering from a much more serious mental illness than previously believed. In this chapter, Bateman stumbles around the streets of New York suffering from a full scale anxiety attack, which I examine more closely in my previous post, Patrick's Analysis 4. And in the last of this set of chapters, what might be the strangest turn of events of all, Bateman debates whether or not he wants to kill Luis, and if this will have a positive or negative impact on his own life. They are in the bathroom at the Yale Club, and Luis is turned around peeing in a stall. He decides that he will go ahead and do it, for no other reason than he thinks it'll make his world run more smoothly. He begins to strangle him, but Luis Carruthers, thinking he's coming onto him, thoroughly enjoys it and admits that he's wanted Patrick for a very long while now. Patrick, stunned, and unable to finish his act of murder, quickly vacates the bathroom and attempts to get as far away from Carruthers as possible. This book seems to just get stranger and stranger.

Patrick's Analysis 4

"My life is a living hell, and there are many more people I want to...well, I guess murder. (pg.141)" Patrick 'says' this to his dinner guest, Christian Armstrong, but Armstrong I guess doesn't hear him because he has no reaction whatsoever. This line gave us a little more insight into why Patrick does what he does. By saying his life was a living hell, when being a good-looking successful business man living on Wall Street clearly is not hell, he lets us know that despite all the good in his life, he has an unexplainable desire for violence that he needs to fill. He considers his life hell because no matter where he goes or what he does, he feels this large gaping hole that he can not get away from. He doesn't know why, but killing and violence seems to fill this hole momentarily, which is why he feels the need to commit these acts to humans and animals so frequently. These acts are due to the fact that he's constantly unhappy and dissatisfied with the way his life is going. He lives in his own personal living hell, and though he doesn't realize it, falls deeper and deeper into it with every killing that he commits. By trying to escape the pain by pushing it onto others, he's inadvertently pushing it onto himself. It's the never ending cycle of despair that serial killers live with. Just a few chapter's later, titled 'A Glimpse of a Thursday Afternoon,' depicts him stumbling around the streets of a New York in an anxiety induced, drug enhanced daze. This extremely sweaty and delusional Patrick Bateman has no control over his actions and suffers from huge lapses in memory, and can't seem to control anything at all. His mental health is declining, and it's bringing his body with it. All of the stimulants and adrenaline rushes he seeks by taking drugs and committing murders, only worsened by his obvious mental illness, is starting to take a real toll on his body that he notices but does not seem to worry about. The fact that he brushes these events off like they never even happen only make him worse, and he seems to be on a fast track to committing serious self-inflicted harm and maybe even suicide.

Chapter Summaries 4: Video Store than D'Agostino's, Facial, Date with Evelyn, Tuesday, and Genesis

Video Store than D'Agostino's describes his visit, you guessed it, to a video store. While inside, he gets freaked out by the multitude of video options, and has an anxiety attack. Once again, further evidence of brain malfunctions that Bateman seems to constantly suffer from. He then takes 2 5 milligram doses of Valium of which he suffers ill hallucinogenic effects. He then stops by D'Agostino's for a bland selection of dinner items. Next, he goes to visit Helga, where he enjoys getting a facial done and thinking about all of the positive aspects of his life. In the following chapter, Evelyn calls him in a panicked state describing how she couldn't stay at home because of the decapitation of her neighbor. She wants to come over, but Patrick won't let her because he has her neighbor's head in his own freezer. They then go out to dinner, where he attempts to drone out Evelyn's pointless chatter by thinking of a poster he saw a few nights ago in the subway station where he murdered two black kids. Evelyn ends the dinner by describing a wedding she attended and says that she thinks her Bateman should get married, to which Patrick responds with understandable skepticism. In the proceeding chapter called Tuesday, Bateman attends a black tie party which he quickly becomes bored with, and instead decides to go stab a black homeless man half to death for no apparent reason. This is examined more closely in a previous post titled Random Thought 2. And, with a very sudden shift, Ellis brings us to a chapter where Bateman does nothing but describe his feelings towards a band called Genesis. 

Random Thought 3

I think what makes this book so renowned and celebrated is its sheer irony and cut-throat transitions. It goes from Patrick needlessly stabbing a black homeless man half to death directly into a chapter where Bateman does nothing except for describe the albums and changes of a group called Genesis (pgs.133-136). It really adds to the whole insanity factor of the book, and puts us right in the sadistic mind of Bateman. The fact that Ellis choose to write this book using stream of consciousness was a stroke of genius. Without this writing style, an entire element that makes the book standout from others would be lost. Well done Bret Easton Ellis, well done.

Random Thought 2

It finally happened! Instead of simply alluding to the violence and murders that Bateman commits, he actually commits one in the present tense, as we're reading. This happens on page 131, where he stops to talk to a bum, and slowly shoves a thin blade into his right eye. I don't know why, but I feel like I've been waiting forever for him to actually commit some sort of act of violence in real time, instead of just talking about committing these acts of violence. Though I know he actually did commit all of these acts, this offers a sort of reassurance that he really does do these things and he hasn't just been lying to us this whole time. After all, he's considered to be an unreliable narrator since it's all told through his twisted, perverted perception. Never thought I'd feel a sense of relief from a blade being shoved into an eye.

Character Study: Jean

Jean is Patrick's secretary, whom he constantly refers to as "Jean, my secretary who is in love with me, (pg. 105)". He says that this is the girl whom he will most likely end up marrying. Jean appears to be very prompt and efficient, with an extremely vested interest in Patrick that's never really made clear why. Jean will do pretty much everything Bateman asks of her in a timely manner and without error, and Bateman says that he "has a very good secretary (pg. 61)".

Theme Study 2

As we progress farther and farther into this sadistic novel, another theme is presenting itself: The exaggeration of the American Dream. What is the American Dream exactly? It's the belief that anyone can come to America and make a success out of themselves if they are willing to put forth the effort and hours. Ellis exaggerates this by what he defines success as. He writes about success being only the possession of many material things, physical appearances being very admirable, and the possession of enough money to do whatever it is that you so please to do. This is evident by the way characters in the book are described. People are not described by characteristics or personality, but instead by the designer label clothes they wear. The theme of the exaggeration of the American Dream is evident by making everything in the book about only surface level qualities, and none of the traits that really matter, like integrity or trustworthiness.

Image Study 1: Evelyn's neighbor

Evelyn, extremely spooked by the decapitation of her neighbor, calls Patrick for support and comfort. Little does she know that Patrick was the one who decapitated her, and wouldn't let her come over because he had placed her head in his freezer. Just another example of Patrick's increasing levels of insanity.

 

Chapter Summaries 3: Dry Cleaners, Harry's, Deck Chairs, and Buissness Meeting

In Dry Cleaners, we've now learned that Bateman's killings are semi-regular, as he says he normally takes his blood-splattered apparel to the Chinese-run dry cleaners 20 blocks up from his house. The Chinese women infuriates Patrick when she can't seem to comprehend how he wants his blood stained sheets cleaned, and he runs into a lady named Victoria who wants to have drinks with him, to which he responds with a lie of why he cannot, and continues to his meeting to which he's already running late. In the next chapter, Harry's, he's eating with a few of his work friends and runs into Paul Owen. Paul Owen seems to be a re-occurring character that we don't know much about yet, except that he's fortunate enough to get ahold of the Fisher account. After he departs, the rest of the conversation is filled with incredibly sexist remarks about women which further develop the theme of Patrick thinking of people as nothing more than commodities. This conversation proves how little he feels women are worth, and how nothing below surface level matters to him at all. In the proceeding chapter, he, Courtney, and two Camden graduates by the names of Scott and Anne. Courtney is stoned on lithium and barely able to stay awake, and Patrick is only sitting through this dinner so he can later commit adultery by having sex with Courtney while Luis is away in Phoenix. He makes some extremely odd remarks that nobody seems to hear, which I discuss at more at length in my previous post titled Patrick's Analysis 3. The sex with Courtney later that night was very weird and sad, and displayed how surface-level their relationship really was. The next chapter showed that Patrick seems to be very impressed by Paul Owen, and maybe even has a slight obsession with him. He always comments on how good he looks and well he handles himself. It also reveals that Bateman is obsessed with Donald Trump, so much so, that he's willing to change his opinion solely because Trump has a different one. He's probably obsessed with Trump because of his large amount of wealth and his carefree attitude towards others. These chapters gave us a lot of insight towards Patrick, and tells us that we soon will actually read about him murdering someone in the present.

Character Study: Courtney Lawrence

Courtney Lawrence is a rather unintelligent friend of Patrick's who is also dating Luis Carruthers, another friend of Patrick's. Patrick is also having an affair with her. She seems to feel no guilt in doing this, neither does Patrick, but also extremely emotionally unstable. She cried during sex with Patrick for no apparent reason. She also seems to have a bit of a drug problem, abusing lithium frequently and presumably abusing Xanax as well. Patrick and Courtney seem to be interested in each other purely at a surface level, with attraction based solely off of physical appearances. She is decently nice, and will probably be a character who reappears frequently in this novel.

Patrick's Analysis 3

Because this book is written using stream of consciousness, many things are said which don't really have any relation to the events taking place at that moment. And Patrick, being the insane serial killer he is, tells us of some extremely disturbing things like they don't even matter. For instance, on page 94, he is out having dinner with Courtney and two Camden graduates. He says he share a mutual acquaintance with one of them, and he knows this girl because "I met her in Aspen when I raped her with a can of hairspray last Christmas." Like, are you kidding me? He then continues the story like he never even said anything. We already knew he was crazy, but this shows us the extent of his insaneness. No rational person can commit such a terrible offense and treat it as if it were a trip to the coffee bean. Even other insane people would recognize it for the terrible crime it was. But not Patrick. His mind is so warped and twisted that the acts he commits seem to barely even register with his conscience. That to me, is truly mind-blowing.

Chapter Summaries 2: Tunnel, Office, Health Club, Date

Tunnel opens with us learning where Patrick and his group of friends would prefer to spend an evening: at a nightclub doing coke. These men seem to be rather reckless, and don't care about the ramifications of their actions. We learn in the relatively short  next chapter that his secretary, Jean, is in love with him, and he thinks she's probably the girl he's going to marry. He then walks through his semi-daily routine of flipping through magazines, occasionally working, and working out at the health club, Xclusive, of which he's an avid member. In Health Club, he visits the gym and walks us through his workout routine, which I find a little excessive and unnecessary, but hey, if we're going to learn about the inner workings of this guy's mind, we might as well learn everything. The next chapter is where he plans on taking Patricia on a date to Dorisia, of which he in unable to make reservations for. He then talks about how he has all of a sudden decided that Patricia is safe tonight, and that he won't murder her like it's normal to murder one's date. I examine this a little more closely in my last post. He then takes her to another restaurant instead, where she hardly talks to him, and the night ends with both of them doing cocaine at the deserted nightclub Tunnel, which he seems to frequent.

Random Thought 1

I've begun to notice a staggering red flag as a delve into this novel. He's gone many places in the book, and at a few of these places the people there have referred to Patrick Bateman with a completely different name, to which he acknowledges like its his real name. Did he lie to these people about his identity? Or are these people just getting him confused with another person entirely? Whatever the case, this seems very strange to me, and I'll be sure to keep and eye out for any sort of explanation.

Patrick's Analysis 2

I've arrived at a rather peculiar point in the novel, which is the first real sign of Patrick's bloodthirsty craze. He is waiting on his date, Patricia, to arrive at his house for dinner reservations at Barcadia at 9:00, and says something very strange: "I come to the conclusion that Patricia is safe tonight, that she will remain alive (pg. 76)." There has been no mention of him killing anybody before, and this is very abrupt and unexpected. He has been going routinely about his daily life, and now suddenly remarks on killing another human being for no particular reason. He could have the desire to kill this girl because he feels no real adrenaline rushes in his life anymore. Maybe his life has become simply too boring, and the only way he can think to spruce it up is with a little bloodshed in the evening. Whatever the reason, we now can see the first evidence of there being a real a real American psycho in this novel.

Theme Study 1

Already, a theme of the sadistic and shallow aspects of capitalism is evident. America, run by people of a highly capitalistic mindset, tend to have many of these shallow and sadistic characteristics, but hide them well through ingenious marketing. The way the characters in the book treat everyone and everything they come across as nothing more than a commodity show that these highly capitalistic people are nothing more than what meets the eye. It's a shame, really. The world and its people used to be filled with deep conundrums, and you had to actually get to know a person before you knew their morals and beliefs. These characters, with their worrying over material gain and superficial appearances, show a modern ideal in which the "surface" reigns supreme. Because these characters can distance themselves so far from the truth, they can do and say whatever they want and feel no shame or guilt. The capitalistic society that tells them that the only important aspects of life are making money and being successful is the root of their personality flaws. Ellis provides us with a reoccurring theme of objects possessing false importance, simply because of their monetary value. This way of life is wrong, and a person who chooses to live it will find that at the end of the day, they are left with no real sustenance, just the regret of never taking the time to dig deeper. "But a physically superior, perfect looking shallow bitch, and that can override anything (pg. 157)." This is the attitude Bateman takes towards almost everything, which perfectly highlights this theme of the shallow aspects of capitalistic mindset.

Character Study: David Van Patten

David is another member of the foursome group of friends that include himself, Bateman, Price and McDermott. He, even more so than the others, seems smart enough to make it to where is today, but not smart enough to progress any further. He's has a vested interest in one's clothing, doing drugs, and "hard bodied" women (attractive females).  He's an alcoholic, drinking at all hours of the day, and seems to have no regard for what others think about it. He's a perfect candidate to be a good friend of Bateman.

Character Study: Craig McDermott

Craig is one of the foursome that make up Patrick's core group of friends. He, like Timothy and the rest of them, is a smart ass, self-absorbed capitalists who's extremely concerned with one's physical appearance and material possessions. He seems to be a rather shallow character, with nothing really to offer besides a few laughs now and then and the perpetual reminder of what it is to be a young and successful businessman on Wall Street.

Patrick's Analysis 1

Patrick Bateman is an extremely wealthy and successful businessman who lives in Manhattan, New York. He's a good-looking, self-absorbed capitalists who is captivated by physical appearance and material possessions. He has many shallow relationships with people he calls his "friends", and a loveless engagement with a girl that would leave him as soon as a wealthier man comes around. The book is narrated from his perspective, and every person he sees or meets, he breaks down every article of clothing their wearing. This includes saying what it is, what fabric it's made out of, and who designed it. He really does have a gift for this, as it's extremely hard to name the designer of an article of clothing at first glance. He passes time by dining with his colleagues, having affairs, and criticizing all he can. At this point in the story, Patrick seems rather normal and hasn't done anything to mind-bogglingly strange. Because Ellis choose to write this novel using stream of consciousness, every aspect of Bateman's thought is made apparent to the reader, and it becomes easy to get to know Patrick very well. He's a very smart man, with many ideas on how to improve the economy as well as the country as a whole. It seems that there's a lot to this man, and also a lot that we haven't discovered about him yet.

Character Study: Timothy Price

Timothy Price is Bateman's best friend and colleague. He's a tall, good-looking Manhattan businessman who woos women with his expensive suits and large annual salary. He is a smart ass, and fits in perfectly into the foursome friend group that is Patrick, Timothy, Craig McDermott, and David Van Patten. Him and Bateman will do many things to pass the time, including critic others clothing, going to nightclubs, and snorting cocaine and drinking expensive alcohol. He may be having an affair with Evelyn, but in the setting of the book, this doesn't really make much of a difference. He's exactly the type of guy that a psycho like Bateman would surround himself with.

Character Study: Evelyn Richards

Evelyn is a beautiful, smart, self absorbed women who is also Patrick's girlfriend. So far, she seems to be rather nice, even considering Patrick's suspicions of her affair. It's obvious that her relationship with Bateman is a shallow, loveless one, where both are in it primarily for the physical attraction between the two. She has played a minor role in the story so far, but we'll see if that changes.

Chapter Summaries 1: April Fools, Morning, and Harry's (Small Rhetoric Study)

Right off the back, it's apparent that Bret Easton Ellis is going to write this book using a writing style known as stream of consciousness. This is a literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur. The character that is describing his thoughts and feelings is named Patrick Bateman, who will be analyzed more closely in another post. The book opens with Patrick riding in a cab with his friends Timothy Price. They are heading to the house of Patrick's girlfriend, Evelyn Richards, for dinner. It's apparent that Patrick and his wall street buddies are extremely critical and intolerant, judging everybody they can based off of what they're wearing and their social status. The dinner guests include Evelyn, Patrick, Timothy, Courtney, and Stash and Vanden (Evelyn's artist friends). They all seem to not want to be around each other that much, but I'm guessing that all these people are only really friends because of what they have in common: money and social status. After everyone has left and only Evelyn, Price, Timothy, and Patrick remain, they begin to discuss and near blatantly mock Stash and Vanden. This seems like all their lives are. Very rich people with nothing better to do then mock those who are different. Patrick also assumes Timothy and Evelyn are having an affair, which strangely doesn't seem to bother him. The chapter called April fools ends with Evelyn refusing to have sex with Bateman, and Bateman going home.
The next chapter called Morning is a short one where almost the entire chapter is in the same paragraph describing Bateman's mourning routines. It tells of how he uses a multitude of different moisturizers and cleaning apparatuses in order to make himself as good looking as possible. The chapter's purpose is to give the reader insight on just how self-absorbed Patrick is. Nobody should care about how they look so much as to have over a dozen different steps just to get presentable for the day. In the following chapter named Harry's, Bateman and Timothy have what seems to be a daily breakfast/brunch with two of their colleagues, Craig McDermott and David Van Patten, who will be analyzed more closely in another post. They sit down and talk mindlessly, yet passionately, about a variety of things. Nobody at the table says anything of particular interest, which is exactly as the author intended. It's supposed to be a very average morning. The purpose of this chapter is to show who Bateman's core group of friends are and to depict how a typical morning's breakfast would take place.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi! My name is Caden Herring, and this is a blog that will follow my reading of the novel American Psycho. The posts will include the what's happening in the novel every couple of chapters, character and theme analysis, an in depth analysis of Patrick Bateman's changes throughout the novel, as well as a few image and rhetoric focused entries. Thanks so much for checking out my blog, and I hope you enjoy it!