American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis Book Analysis Example

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis has always been recognized as ambiguous masterpiece. The ending of the book has been separating readers since its release in 1991.The book itself has already been a controversial topic since its release due to its graphic and detailed amount of violence, and even more so with the thousands of debates between readers. One of the most contentious issues surrounding the book is whether the horrific events depicted in it actually occurred. Did Patrick commit all of these crimes, or was it all a product of his deuterating psychotic mind? The book follows a Manhattan investment banker in the 1980’s. A rich, handsome, and almost man who seems to have it all. A man by the name of Patrick Bateman. During the day, he partakes in lovely dinners at expensive restaurants such as Dorsia or worries about what his fellow co-worker, Paul Owen, is up to. During the night, he takes up the mantle of a serial killer, and a very violent one at that. Patrick is shown to be materialistic and cares for nothing apart from his looks and the type of seats he gets in restaurants. Patrick carries himself as a suave man even though, in reality, he is a violent man who loves to fantasize about murdering people. Patrick Bateman describes himself as an entity with no conscience. At the beginning of the book, he describes himself as simply "not there" (Ellis 4). He even states that his This paper will focus on the reasons why the heinous actions of Patrick were just a part of his fantasies and his collapsed mental state. The fact is that Patrick is not a serial killer but simply believes himself to be one. Due to the fact that Patrick is recognized as multiple different people, the murders that he imagines are incoherent, and the ending of the book itself. 

The book itself is tedious and drawn out. The book can be very descriptive of such small details as his favorite face cleanser, the brands people are wearing, or the business cards of his co-workers. He can take up to 30 pages describing his morning routine or just describing a horrific murder. Throughout the book, many other characters confuse Patrick with other coworkers. For example, when Patrick first arrives at his workplace, he is called Marcus Halberstam by Paul Owen. Throughout the book, he gets called different names, like it's nothing and everybody else just goes along with it. names such as Allen, Davis, and McCoy, names that he has no connection with, apart from being the names of his coworkers and friends. This shows Patrick Bateman as having a crisis of identity. It shows him as being almost an unreliable narrator who does not know what is truly happening in front of him as his own mind will not allow it. The contents of the book are the big question of his true identity that has developed in the head of Patrick. He developed these hallucinations and murders as a way to cope with the horrible society he was a part of. The murders seen throughout the book are all just a part of an elaborate fantasy. 

The next point of this argument is the fact that many of the murders Patrick Bateman commits throughout the book are incoherent and unrealistic. While Patrick Bateman describes himself as having killed over 50 people in his life, the first true murder Bateman describes where we really start questioning his mental health and asking ourselves if these events really took place is the murder of Bateman’s supposed arch-nemesis, Paul Owen. He convinces Paul to go to dinner with him since Paul thinks he is going with Marcus Halberstam, another of Patrick’s coworkers. Patrick is able to get Paul incredibly drunk and take him to Paul’s own apartment, where he brutally kills him with an ax. He then disposes of the body in a body bag and drags him all over the apartment complex outside. Throughout the book, we see Patrick not trying to cover up his crimes, but due to the strong connection he has with Paul, Patrick is shown disposing of the body, leaving a trail of blood all over the floors. He then leaves messages on his answering machine stating that he has left for London. He then packs a duffel bag full of clothes to follow the story he has made. This murder is where we start to see the holes in Patrick's head and his disconnect from reality. This murder is the climax of the book and where everything changes in the book. The second time we see Patrick’s mind slipping is in the minds of the prostitutes. After having sex with one of the prostitutes, Patrick proceeds to cut her up with his chainsaw and stuff her in the closet. The second prostitute is shown to escape, or so it seems. The prostitute has it made outside of the apartment and is banging on doors that nobody seems to answer. While going down a flight of stairs, Patrick throws his chainsaw, which then kills her. Patrick then proceeds to leave her body there and goes back to his own room to freshen up. The murder would be almost impossible to pull off in a realistic setting. The fact that nobody was able to hear the women being murdered with a chainsaw and the fact that nobody opened up the door for the prostitute makes the scene in the book seem heavily dramatized and almost dreamlike.  

The ending of the book is what people truly still talk about when reading this piece of literature. The ending of the book really shows how terrible events were all part of Patrick’s fantasies. Near the end of the book, Patrick Bateman breaks down due to the ongoing investigation into Paul Owen's disappearance near an atm. The last scene of the book is shown to be exceptionally dreamlike. Patrick Bateman's character is told by the atm to feed him a stray cat, which obviously cannot happen in real life. So, when an old lady sees Patrick pointing a gun at a cat, she screams, which results in her being shot dead by Bateman. After the murder, the police arrive near the murder scene. This is the first time we see the police in the book. This is very hard to believe since, according to Bateman, he has killed over 50 people. Bateman and the police then end up having a shootout, which unrealistically ends with both cop cars being blown up by two shots from Bateman. He calls his lawyer, Harold Carnes, to confess his crimes. In the morning, he goes back to Paul Owens' apartment, which seems to be clean and not full of dead bodies. He meets up with his lawyer. Harold tells Bateman it's impossible that Paul Allen is dead since he "had dinner with Paul Owen twice in London just ten days ago" (Ellis 233). Once again, Bateman is confused for someone else when Harold states, "Bateman doesn’t have the bones for that," once again bringing his identity into question by confusing Bateman with "Davis".  

American Psycho is a controversial and ambiguous work of art. The book itself has been talked about for decades and many more decades to come. Bret Easton Ellis wrote something that will always be left open for discussion, especially regarding the murders. If they were truly occurring or were just a part of a rich conformist’s head to escape the materialistic hell he was living in, the debate would keep on going, but the latter seems to be the reasonable choice as the book keeps pointing the reader in that direction.