Description

A wall street yuppie ## Personality Powers / Skills Manipulation Charisma Physical fitness Brute strength Above-average intellect Murder methodology Torture methodology Criminal methodology Economic prowess Wealth and resources Stealth Evasion Bateman spends much of the novel detailing the accouterments of his lifestyle, including expensive designer clothes and stereo equipment and his extensive workout and body beautification routines. He is vain, self-centered, materialistic, and shallow; he cares for nothing but his own gratification and, by his own admission, has no real personality beneath his attractive exterior. He even claims that his only emotions are greed and disgust. He is also virulently racist, sexist, classist, murderous, torturous, homophobic, and anti-Semitic, but feigns concern for equality and "traditional moral values" for the sake of his public image of modernity, or simply out of the misguided notion that this would render him more agreeable. It does not: his peers ridicule him behind his back, his equally shallow fiancé Evelyn is cheating on him, his own lawyer calls him a "bloody ass-kisser", and people outside of his social circle call him "yuppie trash". A running theme throughout the story is that Bateman is, on the surface, virtually indistinguishable from his friends, to the point that they mistake him for someone else. The only person in his life he has anything approaching feelings for is his secretary, Jean, who he knows is in love with him and who he passively accepts that he will probably marry one day. Even then, however, it is made clear that he sees her not as a person, but more as a beautiful object not to be destroyed. He also constantly neglects her feelings for him and talks down to her throughout the novel. Consequently, Jean is also the only person that Patrick shows visible restraint in killing, ushering her out of his apartment in fear of not being able to control himself and hurting her. When Patrick was driven to insanity, he began to shake and seemingly feel remorse for his murder spree, which is soon shown to be little more than fear. Not fear for the damage he had seemingly caused, but fear that this time he'll be caught. The only definitive and not negative trait Patrick seems to have for his personality is his affinity to music, as when he talks about it he is particularly engaged and knowledgeable about it as seen during his monologue just before he murders Paul Allen. He also attempts to converse with Jean about it, but when she actually indulges (something he didn't expect, hinting most people shut him down immediately) Patrick says "nevermind" and changes the subject. Biography Patrick Bateman was born on October 23th, 1962 in Long Island to wealthy parents, and lives in Manhattan's Upper West Side in an expensive and exclusive apartment; Tom Cruise is one of his neighbors. His father is long dead and his mother resides in a sanitarium, and his younger brother Sean Bateman (the anti-hero of Ellis' 1987 novel The Rules of Attraction) attends Camden College in New Hampshire. Bateman is a stockbroker at Pierce & Pierce but does little actual work, instead spending his time going to trendy restaurants, bars, and clubs, using cocaine, and picking up prostitutes—many of whom end up being his victims. He usually hangs out with his coworkers at P&P but secretly hates most of them. Bateman kills men and women, the latter for sadistic sexual pleasure and the former because they anger him and make him feel inferior. At one point in the novel, he kills a child just to see if he will enjoy it (he does not). His murders involve brutal and often complicated torture; at one point, he forcibly inserts a Habitrail into a woman's vaginal tract (which he loosened with acid) and lets an oversized rat loose in it so it will literally devour her from the inside out. In the film At one point, he met Paul Allen, who works at another firm. Mistaking Bateman as a coworker, Marcus Halberstram, Allen is lured into his apartment, where Bateman kills him with an axe because he was handling an account that Bateman wanted. He then disposes of the body, breaks into Allen's apartment, packs his clothes into a suitcase, and rerecords the answering machine's greeting to say that Allen has left for London. Later, he picks up two prostitutes, giving them his name as Paul Allen, brings them to his apartment, and has sex with both of them, while videotaping it. Just as they are about to leave, he opens a drawer full of sharp tools, takes out a coat-hanger, and growls "We're not finished yet." The prostitutes are bruised and bleeding by the time he lets them leave. A few days later, he picks up one of the same two prostitutes, phones up a lady friend of his, and brings them to Paul Allen's apartment. He drugs their wine and gets them to make out. He then cuts up his friend with a chainsaw and sticks the body parts in the closet. He ends up chasing the prostitute out into the hallway and she makes it down the stairs ahead of him. Bateman drops the chainsaw over the edge, which hits and kills the prostitute. Several nights later, Bateman is at the ATM when it flashes the message "FEED ME A STRAY CAT". He picks up a stray cat and pulls out his gun, but an old woman sees him and cries out. Bateman drops the cat and shoots down the old woman. Two police cars roll in with sirens blaring, and Bateman unloads his gun at them, causing the cars to explode. Bateman flees to his office, where he calls up his lawyer and leaves a message confessing everything. Bateman awakes the next morning and is surprised that the cops are not looking for him. He goes to Allen's apartment, only to find that it is completely empty and up for sale. He goes to work and then goes for a drink with some coworkers. He meets his lawyer there, who compliments Bateman on his great "gag". When Bateman insists that he killed Paul Allen, his lawyer balks, saying that Allen had dinner with him in London recently. Bateman has an epiphany: that the punishment and notoriety he craves will forever elude him, and he is trapped in a meaningless existence—"THIS IS NOT AN EXIT".