American Psycho Essay''You're a fucking bad bitch, I want to stab you to death and play with your blood''. Bret Easton Ellis wrote the rather controversial and controversial book, American Psycho, in 1991, in which the aforementioned disturbing quote exists. The novel, due to its incredible amount of dirt, blood and incomprehensible evil, has been at the heart of countless controversies, where the limits of literature (and whether or not they exist) have been discussed. However, Bret Easton Ellis has previously written other novels similar to American Psycho in which satire is used to implement fragments of constructive social criticism through very well-written and darkly humorous plots and characters. This is of course no different for American Psycho, since the novel provides a disturbing description of the society of the 1980s (1987) where excessive consumerism, moral decadence and superficiality thrive. It is precisely about this so-called yuppie lifestyle, made of materialism, narcissism, emotional detachment and general illegality, that the novel is written. Overall, we have to interpret it as transgressive fiction, as it includes many characteristics such as nihilism, drug addiction, and outright mutilation (read again). My analysis will focus primarily on some of the notable and significant quotes and how they seem to allude to Patrick's perpetual dissatisfaction and increasing misguidedness in his search for recognition and pleasure. Hopefully this will facilitate my attempt to understand and familiarize myself with the mind of Patrick Bateman. “Abandon all hope, you who enter here” – this rather peculiar and frightening phrase is what the reader first encounters when co. ..... middle of paper ......e reality in which everything/everyone seems superfluous and disposable. On top of that, Bret Easton Ellis obviously satirizes the wickedness and objectification of capitalism, the concept of hyper-masculinity, consumerism and superficiality and the sometimes idiotic need for conformity. p=20937 http://www.studieportalen.dk/Opgaver/American-Psycho-af-Bret-Easton-13220.aspx http://tech.mit.edu/V111/N18/jackso.18o.html http:/ /www.tabula-rasa.info/BurntToast/Issue10/AmericanPsycho.html https://www.academia.edu/2118058/Discuss_American_Psycho_as_a_portrait_of_alienation_and_despair http://biblioklept.org/2011/06/14/is-american-psycho-profound -artistic-nihilism-or-stupid-shallow-nihilism-bret-easton-ellis-vs-david-foster-wallace/ http://swordofelysium.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/american-psycho-the-madness -of-materialism/