When Bret Easton Ellis published his third novel, American Psycho, he was extremely criticized for the graphic content of the book. It was violent, obscene and gory. It was later banned in some places, attacked by the liberal journals and he received various death threats. As a young and smart writer he decided not to speak out about the real reasons why he wrote the novel. He was not even able to read it again until the summer of 2001. After some time, his book that was commonly misread was eventually understood and acknowledged by the public. When the adaptation of the movie, which was directed by a woman, came out it helped to clarify the meaning of the book, showing that this novel was more than just another superficial bestseller, and was in fact a satire of society. In an interview for The Guardian he explained the following: “I think audiences read my books and feel that there are messages from the home front or whatever, when in reality they´re reflections of how I was feeling during the years I wrote the books” (McInnes).
Easton Ellis wrote American Psycho when he was 26 (the same age as Patrick Bateman, the protagonist) and was living in New York as a successful young writer.
In his novel he makes a critique to the shallow and materialist society that he had to face as a member of the X generation. With his detailed descriptions and his clear language he is able to capture through Patrick Bateman´s point of view the way in which human beings can become so self absorbed to the point were they are not able to notice a killer living among them. At the same time this novel illustrates the way in which a person can lose all of its humanity due to the environment they live in until they cannot distinguish between right and ...
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Works Cited
"American Psycho: 15 Years Later." American Psycho: 15 Years Later. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
American Psycho. Dir. Mary Harron. Perf. Christian Bale. Lions Gate Film, 2000. Film.
"Biography for Patrck Bateman." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"Bret on Bateman." YouTube. YouTube, 24 June 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Conner, Shawn. "AMERICAN PSYCHO – 20 YEARS LATER." The Snipe News. The Snipe, 6 Feb. 2011. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho: A Novel. New York: Vintage, 1991. Print.
MacInnes, Paul, Andy Gallagher, and Alice Salfield. "'I Really Wasn't That Concerned about Morality in My Fiction'" Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 19 July 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"Quotes from American Psycho - American Psycho." American Psycho. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
"Yuppie." Urban Dictionary. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
When Lizzie’s stressed father denies her request to play outside, her metaphorical death is revealed. It is not a real death where her heart stops beating, yet, but her respect for men is the victim and the vulture is ready to feed off of it. The Guilty Party’s recurring theme of innocence then betrayal are depicted after Lizzie’s “death”, which contribute to the idea that all decisions have an affect on future decisions.
Rebello, Stephen. Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. New York: Red Dembner Enterprises Corporation, 1990.
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...w the hosting of two personalities in Dr. Robert Elliot worked De Palma was able to show what the society really thought of psychiatrists and the police, and De Palma was able to undermine what would seem important to society which is order and stability. Through this scene and through other similarities and differences that De Palma has created in Dressed to Kill one could see the influence of Psycho. De Palma has perhaps borrowed and revised from Psycho but only to show the darkness that Psycho had by using less discretion, more female sexuality, more male sexual anxiety, and showing the instability and chaos that really exists in the society. So Hitchcock’s Psycho has really been a lasting influence and De Palma made sure to bring out the darkness and the chaos that the film holds through the similarities and differences seen between Psycho and Dressed to Kill.
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John Moss, Sexuality and Violence in the Canadian Novel. p. 103 Robertson Davies. The Fifth Business. p. 217.
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