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Summer
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in American Psycho, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Materialism and Consumption
Identity and Isolation
Monotony and Desensitization
Vice and Violence
The Truth
Summary
Analysis
Bateman is in his apartment with a girl named Elizabeth and the prostitute he calls “Christie”. Elizabeth complains about the restaurant they went to. Bateman tells her he thought it was “hip,” and she tells him it couldn’t be, because Donald Trump goes there. Earlier in the night, he had left Elizabeth at a bar to go pick up “Christie,” who he left waiting in a locked limo while they finished their drinks. “Christie” had expressed reservations about seeing Bateman again after what had happened the last time they met, but some vodka and cash quickly changed her mind.
Up to his old tricks, Bateman leaves Elizabeth hanging while he goes in search of a prostitute – this is just what he did to Courtney the first time he hired “Christie.” Elizabeth is clearly only interested in Bateman for his money, arguing with him that a restaurant even favored by the idyllic Wall Street man, Donald Trump, wasn’t good enough. Though “Christie” is reluctant to see Bateman again after being so badly beaten during their previous encounter, he knows that flaunting his money and using alcohol to cloud her judgment will get him just what he wants.
Themes
Back in the apartment, Elizabeth is making small talk with “Christie”, telling her how she and Bateman met at the Kentucky Derby when he was with that girl Alison Poole. Today’s episode of “The Patty Winters Show” was about “People Who Weigh Over Seven Hundred Pounds – What Can We Do About Them?” Elizabeth clearly has no idea “Christie” is a prostitute, and assumes she runs in their same crowd. Though it’s 3 AM, she tries to make a phone call to score drugs, but the dealer isn’t answering the phone. Soon enough, Bateman, who has dissolved ecstasy into the girls’ wine, is on the couch coercing them into having sex with each other. Elizabeth maintains that she is not a lesbian.
Today’s episode of “The Patty Winters Show” has a topic that, once again, is a bit strange (and notably obsessed with physical appearance in a dehumanizing way), though not as wildly unrealistic as some of the ones before. This is a gauge for Bateman’s hallucinations; perhaps this encounter is real and its memory unclouded. Elizabeth is oblivious to her surroundings, having no idea that “Christie” is a prostitute and assuming that she can just call to purchase drugs whenever she’d like. Meanwhile, Bateman is using drugs to prepare his victims; this will make his attack easier. He is beginning to incorporate drugs directly into his violence more and more.
Themes
Despite these objections, the women start having sex with one another, which Bateman describes in graphic detail. He gives them a makeshift strap-on to use with one another, which they take great pleasure from. With no transition, Bateman then begins to describe himself attacking a horrified Elizabeth with a butcher knife, citing this moment as his orgasm in the sexual encounter. He slices her body and throat before returning to “Christie”, whose nipples have been hooked up with jumper cables to a spare car battery. Bateman tortures her and describes her pain in detail. The next morning, Bateman describes the scene: “Christie” (who is dead) has had her breasts exploded, her lips are gone, and there is “a black pit where her vagina should be,” though he doesn’t remember doing anything to it. He contemplates a lunch appointment he has, unsure of whether or not he should cancel.
It’s interesting to note that Bateman’s disgust for homosexuality only applies to men; he is turned on by lesbian encounters (though perhaps only when he is the one controlling them), but despises gay men. There is a jarring narrative shift here, when Bateman immediately transitions from sex to torture. It’s almost as if he’s blacked out while narrating. This break is never explained – are there events Bateman is hiding or doesn’t remember, or is he merely skipping to the “good stuff?” From here on in he becomes even more of an increasingly unreliable narrator. As usual, his sexual and sadistic violence has no effect on him, and he goes about his day as normal after.
Themes
