Patrick Bateman, Violence and Consumption: Bret Easton Ellis’s AmericanPsycho

Abstract:

This essay investigates how Bret Easton Ellis portrays Patrick Bateman as a projection of American society, in order to criticize consumerism and capitalism in his novel American Psycho. By applying Marxist theory, this essay examines Bateman's consumption patterns and class-consciousness using key Marxist terms. This essay investigates the relationship between Bateman and his commodities, through the Marxist concept of value. Furthermore, this essay suggests that Bateman's consumption pattern creates his identity and that Bateman's lust for consumption has no boundaries. Bateman quenches his thirst for consumption by consuming humans of low status on the social hierarchy, by acts of violence, rape or cannibalism.