Violence and Consumerism in Bret Easton Ellis’s "American Psycho" and Chuck Palahniuk’s "Fight Club" E-Book

Michael Frank

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Examination Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,5, University of Heidelberg, language: English, abstract: "Art has always reflected society. […] Fight Club examines violence and the roots of frustration that are causing people to reach out for such radical solutions. And that's exactly the sort of discussion we should be having about our culture. Because a culture that doesn't examine its violence is a culture in denial, which is much more dangerous." This assessment of Fight Club by Edward Norton, who plays the narrator in the novel’s movie adaptation, explains the reasoning behind this thesis, which examines the basic principles of today’s consumer culture, its connection to aggression and violence, and the way these topics are presented in two contemporary novels: Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. In these books, the respective protagonists face similar deadlocks connected to life in the consumerist world of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite, evidently, having everything a person could ask for, both main characters’ lives remain unfulfilled, leaving them frustrated and dissatisfied. As it turns out, acts of violence become the only thing that lets them get away from the boredom of their daily routine and gives them a sense of satisfaction.

Leseprobe

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Consumerism and Violence in Society Today

2.1 Consumerism comes into Existence

2.2 The Origin of Aggression and Violence

2.3 Connecting Consumerism and Violence

3. A Look at the Authors

3.2 Chuck Palahniuk

4.1 April Fools

4.2 Beauty is only Skin-Deep

4.3 Patrick Bateman - When Consumerism goes Wrong

5.2 Tyler Durden - A Way Out

6. Conclusion

Page 1

Page 2

1. Introduction

Art has always reflected society. […] Fight Club examines violence and the roots of frustration that are causing people to reach out for such radical solutions. And that's exactly the sort of discussion we should be having about our culture. Because a culture that doesn't examine its violence is a culture in denial, which is much more dangerous.1

This assessment ofFight Clubby Edward Norton, who plays the narrator in the novel’s movie adaptation, explains the reasoning behind this thesis, which examines the basic principles of today’s consumer culture, its connection to aggression and violence, and the way these topics are presented in two contemporary novels: Bret Easton Ellis’sAmerican Psychoand Chuck Palahniuk’sFight Club.

In these books, the respective protagonists face similar deadlocks connected to life in the consumerist world of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite, evidently, having everything a person could ask for, both main characters’ lives remain unfulfilled, leaving them frustrated and dissatisfied. As it turns out, acts of violence become the only thing that lets them get away from the boredom of their daily routine and gives them a sense of satisfaction. Bret Easton Ellis’sAmerican Psychowas first published in 1991. Set in Manhattan in the late 1980s, the story covers roughly two years in the life of Patrick Bateman, a 26-year-old, successful, Wall Street investment banker, who claims to be a serial killer. As the story’s narrator, Bateman describes in detail many aspects of his everyday life among New York’s upper class, including a series of gruesome murders he apparently commits. While seemingly living the American Dream, Bateman is completely caught up in a world of appearance and materialism. Violence, rape and murder become his only way of escaping his hollow life in a consumer society. Dr. Alex E. Blazer, the author of several publications dealing with Bret Easton Ellis’s work in general andAmerican Psychoin particular, describes Patrick Bateman’s character the following way:

Page 3

Patrick Bateman […], exists in the banal hollow of popular culture, specifically the height of the Reagan-era, Wall Street, me generation in which everything revolved around money and image; as such, Bateman is an idea and an image, but empty and void of deep identity. As a walking billboard for elite, conspicuous consumption and high-end product placement, he lacks inner resources and glosses over an emotionally sterile existence. […] He has so filled himself up with hype, pomp, pretense that his identity is nothing more than an advertisement, an illusion, a mask under which no human character dwells. […] He cannot differentiate between products and people, consumption and affect: he's flat, superficial, and ultimately infathomable. His character is a mask covering a void; his identity is an aberrational reaction to the abyss of being that founds his existence.2

The book contains scenes of disgusting violence, especially against women, some of which were printed as excerpts in different magazines before its publication, resulting in massive protests against the novel. As a result, Ellis’s publishing house, Simon & Schuster, refused to publish it, even after having paid him $300 000 in advance. The novel was later published by Vintage Books and finally hit bookstores in 1991. Today,American Psychois referred to as a cult classic. Nevertheless, the detailed presentations of the sadistic torture procedures and subsequent killings are still shocking, nearly twenty years after its original publishing. Chuck Palahniuk’s debut novel,Fight Club,was published in 1996. Its nameless narrator (or “Joe” as he refers to himself on occasion) is an average guy, who has spent his entire life being a member of a brain-dead consumer culture. His life changes when he meets Tyler Durden, who seduces Joe into co-founding a secret fight club where men beat each other bloody and whose members eventually develop into an anarchist army, called “Project Mayhem”.

However, at some point the narrator suspects that Tyler is taking “Project Mayhem” too far. When the story reaches its climax, the narrator not only discovers the ultimate plan behind “Project Mayhem”, but also uncovers the fact that he and Durden are the same person. Tyler Durden is part of the

Page 4

narrator’s personality, his attempt to escape the consumerist world that is holding him captive.

While the publication ofFight Clubput Palahniuk’s name on the map (it received positive reviews and won some awards, such as the Oregon Book Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award) his rise to prominence reached new heights with the novel’s film adaptation in 1999. The movie, the novel and its author have since reached cult status, evidenced by the fact that Palahniuk’s Web site (www.chuckpalahniuk.net) is nicknamed “The Cult”.

After this introduction, the second chapter will deal with the sociological aspects of consumerism and violence. The emergence of consumerism following World War II and different theories on the origin of aggression and violence will be presented before these subjects are linked to one another.

Following the theoretical framework, chapter three focuses on the authors, Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk, in an attempt to find biographical connections between their lives and their respective novels. Chapter four concentrates exclusively onAmerican Psycho.Beginning with an in-depth analysis of the books first chapter, “April Fools”, this section goes on to elaborate on Patrick Bateman’s obsession for material goods and links it to his violent outbreaks. Furthermore, the reasons behind the book’s most gruesome passages are explained, as is the steady increase of violence and the differences between male and female victims. The fifth chapter then deals withFight Club.First, the influence of consumer society on the life of the unnamed narrator is presented. After this, the character of Tyler Durden is introduced and the function of violence within the novel is examined. The last section details the narrator’s struggle to escape Tyler’s grasp as he attempts to find contentment without Fight Club or Project Mayhem.

Concluding remarks in the final chapter give a short summary of the results gathered by the analysis of the two novels, and attempt to provide a suggestion for further research.