If I had time, I would have written a more in-depth analysis of Bateman's interpretation of reality. But since I am so busy right now, this will be a short post about the epiphany I had that will conclude my psycho-analysis of Patrick Bateman. Patrick Bateman is a psychopath because his only source of experiencing anything real is through extreme means. All this to say, Bateman is a victim of his perception of reality, which could be the result of a mental illness like schizophrenia, with which reality is difficult to comprehend. In any case, Bateman is seeking for some escape from the pain in his life, whether that is feeling loved, finding his identity, or some other void that he needs to fill.
The reason why Bateman is able to carry out these inhumane acts is because he does not consider the consequences to be real. For example, while in the middle of torturing a woman, he thinks, "This is my reality. Everything outside this is like some movie I once saw" (Easton Ellis, 345). Since he feels as if his life is a movie, the only way that he can get in touch with anything tangible is by murdering people, the most extreme form of reality. Anything outside from his reality is valueless to him: the world is simply a stage and everything is a prop, therefore he can't get in trouble. That is his way of justifying his actions, as demonstrated when he thinks, "[...] and though it does sporadically penetrate how unacceptable some of what I'm doing actually is, I just remind myself that this thing, this girl, this meat, is nothing, is shit, and along with a Xanax (which I am now taking half-hourly) this thought momentarily calms me and then I'm humming[...]" (245). To him, nothing from the "real world" -- morals, norms, laws, etc., -- is real, and the only thing that can make him truly feel present is by committing these heinous deeds.
Furthermore, Bateman feels so disconnected from his reality that he feels like he is playing a character in a movie. Since he feels no emotional attachment to reality, he detaches his life from himself. He demonstrates this when he says, “I am so used to imagining everything happening the way it occurs in movies, visualizing things falling somehow into the shape of events on a screen, that I almost hear the swelling of an orchestra, can almost hallucinate the camera panning low around us, fireworks bursting in slow motion overhead” (265). This sense of life being a movie is demonstrated further if you look into his calculated social interactions, where he bases his persona on what he expects others will expect. I invite you to analyse further into this perspective.
Since Bateman considers reality to be so unreal, he repeats "surface, surface, surface" a couple of times in the novel. His perspective of the world outside his own reality is, "Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in… this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged… " (375). Because reality is so disconnected, there is no depth to it -- everything is surface level, nothing matters. Since reality is not real to him, he sees it more like a game. The "game," to Bateman, is the game he plays with reality, where he teases it to see just how real it can be for him. When his ability to "play" his game is threatened, such as when he gets robbed by the cab driver as a consequence of his murder of another cab driver, he thinks, "I just want to…[...] keep the game going." (394). When reality is becoming actually real for Bateman, he does not accept it, since he wants to keep avoiding it. Similarly, when Bateman is confronted with his corrupt perception of reality, he distinguishes between reality and his game. When the real estate agent confronts him at Paul Owen's apartment, he thinks, "All frontiers, if there had ever been any, seem suddenly detachable and have been removed, a feeling that others are creating my fate will not leave me for the rest of the day. This… is… not… a… game, I want to shout, but I can't catch my breath though I don't think she can tell." (370). In this situation, Bateman is losing control of his game, since he is confronted with the fact that, perhaps, his murder of Paul Owen is not real. So, he reminds himself that at this moment, he is not playing the game anymore, that this is real life.
This simple realization that I have just made opens the door to so much more discussion. I could talk about mental illness, explore other themes and how they relate to this, further prove or attempt to disprove this thesis that is so revolutionary to me... There are so many things that can be explored, so I'm just going to leave this here until I have time to really dive in.
The reason why Bateman is able to carry out these inhumane acts is because he does not consider the consequences to be real. For example, while in the middle of torturing a woman, he thinks, "This is my reality. Everything outside this is like some movie I once saw" (Easton Ellis, 345). Since he feels as if his life is a movie, the only way that he can get in touch with anything tangible is by murdering people, the most extreme form of reality. Anything outside from his reality is valueless to him: the world is simply a stage and everything is a prop, therefore he can't get in trouble. That is his way of justifying his actions, as demonstrated when he thinks, "[...] and though it does sporadically penetrate how unacceptable some of what I'm doing actually is, I just remind myself that this thing, this girl, this meat, is nothing, is shit, and along with a Xanax (which I am now taking half-hourly) this thought momentarily calms me and then I'm humming[...]" (245). To him, nothing from the "real world" -- morals, norms, laws, etc., -- is real, and the only thing that can make him truly feel present is by committing these heinous deeds.
Furthermore, Bateman feels so disconnected from his reality that he feels like he is playing a character in a movie. Since he feels no emotional attachment to reality, he detaches his life from himself. He demonstrates this when he says, “I am so used to imagining everything happening the way it occurs in movies, visualizing things falling somehow into the shape of events on a screen, that I almost hear the swelling of an orchestra, can almost hallucinate the camera panning low around us, fireworks bursting in slow motion overhead” (265). This sense of life being a movie is demonstrated further if you look into his calculated social interactions, where he bases his persona on what he expects others will expect. I invite you to analyse further into this perspective.
Since Bateman considers reality to be so unreal, he repeats "surface, surface, surface" a couple of times in the novel. His perspective of the world outside his own reality is, "Surface, surface, surface was all that anyone found meaning in… this was civilization as I saw it, colossal and jagged… " (375). Because reality is so disconnected, there is no depth to it -- everything is surface level, nothing matters. Since reality is not real to him, he sees it more like a game. The "game," to Bateman, is the game he plays with reality, where he teases it to see just how real it can be for him. When his ability to "play" his game is threatened, such as when he gets robbed by the cab driver as a consequence of his murder of another cab driver, he thinks, "I just want to…[...] keep the game going." (394). When reality is becoming actually real for Bateman, he does not accept it, since he wants to keep avoiding it. Similarly, when Bateman is confronted with his corrupt perception of reality, he distinguishes between reality and his game. When the real estate agent confronts him at Paul Owen's apartment, he thinks, "All frontiers, if there had ever been any, seem suddenly detachable and have been removed, a feeling that others are creating my fate will not leave me for the rest of the day. This… is… not… a… game, I want to shout, but I can't catch my breath though I don't think she can tell." (370). In this situation, Bateman is losing control of his game, since he is confronted with the fact that, perhaps, his murder of Paul Owen is not real. So, he reminds himself that at this moment, he is not playing the game anymore, that this is real life.
This simple realization that I have just made opens the door to so much more discussion. I could talk about mental illness, explore other themes and how they relate to this, further prove or attempt to disprove this thesis that is so revolutionary to me... There are so many things that can be explored, so I'm just going to leave this here until I have time to really dive in.
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