What Is Bateman's Use Of Greed In American Culture

The first time Patrick Bateman explicitly reveals his murderous habits to the reader, he states, “The Chinese dry cleaners I usually send my bloody clothes to delivered back to me yesterday a Soprani jacket, two white Brooks Brothers shirts and a tie from Agnes B. still covered with flecks of someone’s blood” (Ellis 81). Bateman’s violent endeavours are, at this point, solely related through the blood stains on his expensive designer clothing. Ellis links Bateman’s violence unequivocally to his materialism, only exposing violence through a greater tragedy in Bateman’s eyes, the ruining of his material possessions. As Bateman walks through Manhattan on a hot day, he notices sweat running down his face, relating, “I can taste it when I lick
All four of my texts were written by American men about successful American men at different points within the past one hundred years. I first read The Last Tycoon, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Published in the United States in 1941, The Last Tycoon is a drama novel that focuses on the life of Monroe Stahr, a wealthy, caucasian, 1930’s Hollywood executive. Though not based in New York like the other three novels, The Last Tycoon depicts the hub of wealth and power that Hollywood was at the time, and details Stahr struggle to navigate such a place as a rich man himself. Next, I read The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, published in the United States, 1955, and written by American Author Sloan Wilson. In his novel, Wilson, follows the life of veteran and corporate worker Tom Rath. Tom is a middle class caucasian man conflicted with his busy occupation in New York City and his family’s personal complications. This novel deals with Tom’s struggle defining the importance of money in his life while flashing back to Tom’s wartime experiences, which in Tom’s eyes, seem much simpler and easier to deal with. My next novel is my fourth text, American Psycho, written by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. American Psycho follows the endeavors of wealthy 1980’s Wall Street businessman, Patrick Bateman, as he moves through New York’s social scene committing murder and
I think these two will work best together because of their heavily contrasting time periods and the ways that wealth and power affect the protagonists. In The Last Tycoon, because of his wealth and status, Stahr feels invincible and, wrongly, places himself above others. In Ghosts of Manhattan, Nick’s wealth and greed put him in the passenger seat, making him feel hollow and unfulfilled, completely understanding the dangers of his wealth, but not being able to do anything about it. The transformation of the American mindset on money and power is evident here in the drastic changes from the early 20th to the early 21st centuries. At first, money was used as a way to access power, the negative effects were less evident and seemingly secondary to the benefits of power. Now, even though the downsides to wealth and power are evident, it seems to share characteristics of addiction, wherein people lose control and forced to live the destructive lifestyle that so many people strive to attain. My second pairing would be The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit with American Psycho. Although the Tom’s killings, fighting in World War II, are completely different than those of Patrick, both novels both books describe greed in terms of killer instinct. Both books seem to suggest through the violence of their protagonists that greed and a lust for wealth and power, stems from a killer instinct. Tom, not yet a