Jenna Lee

TS English
1 October 2016

Inquiry Assignment
The monster of American Psycho, a 1991 novel written by Bret Easton
Ellis, is Patrick Bateman. As the books title suggests, Bateman is a violent
psychopath. He is also a yuppie Wall Street banker living in the 1980s. A
defining feature of this character is his casual viciousness. On one account,
he nonchalantly slits a homeless mans eye and nose with a knife. On
another, he tortures a woman with a rat, matter-of-factly describing each his
methods. This type of behavior continues throughout the novel. Another
notable characteristic is Batemans superficiality. He takes utmost care to
look beautiful, tanning and using expensive toners. He treats his girlfriend
primarily as a sex toy and ignores her otherwise. He and his colleagues all
look and act similarly, to the point that people constantly mistake one
anothers identities. These characteristics makes Bateman a monster partly
because they inspire fear, hatred, and disgust. But more so than that, they
make him monstrous because they are difficult to understand. Whereas
motivators such as revenge, sexual gratification, and pressure from authority
are ones that most people can relate to, raping someone with a can of
hairspray on a whim tends to be a foreign concept. This creates a more
profound emotiona fear of the unknown.
One interpretation of American Psycho is that it is a satire on the ugly
side of the 80s America, primarily of yuppie culture and consumerism. Now, a

Jenna Lee
TS English
1 October 2016

parallel is seen between this conclusion and the one reached in class:
monsters often show the problems of the time they were created in. The
Claw, with its menacing Asian appearance, reveals Americas worries during
World War Two, such as fear of Japanese attacks. The Brides of Dracula shows
on screen 60s Americas troubles with the decline of traditional marriage.
Cloverfield plays through the impacts of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Similarly,
American Psycho points out the unchanging hollowness of American upperclass life. Ignoring Batemans violent psychopathy, he and his yuppie
colleagues are interchangeable, all carrying around expensive business cards
and going to high-end bars. The women Bateman kills blur into one,
becoming objects that bleed rather than people with complex personalities.
People are defined by the clothes they wear. However, American Psycho does
more than simply reveal the evils of its time. The Claw only deals with
external threats to the U.S. The Brides of Dracula brought up the idea of
problems being within the country. Cloverfield introduced the concept of an
invisible monster. The issue of internal threats and hidden enemies appear
both in these works and in American Psycho, but the novel adds to the
discussion the idea that everyone is, to a certain extent, a monster: Am I a
part of the problem too? All these people think theyre normal, but theres
obviously something wrong with them. It also forces one to consider the
possibility of a society rotten to the core instead of a society that simply has
problems. Finally, it prompts the disturbing thought, Maybe nothing can

Jenna Lee
TS English
1 October 2016

change, and even if something could, no one would care. The novel ends
with Bateman in a club with his acquaintances, just as it began.