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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 sitting with his mother, Mrs. Bateman, at the home where she lives; it’s April. They sit quietly, and Bateman stares at the dried blood on his hands. She tells him he looks unhappy (though he insists he isn’t) and then asks him for details about a recent party – how many people were there, and what time did he leave? Bateman looks at his mother’s bedside table and notices an old photograph of his father, sitting next to a photo of himself and his brother Sean on their father’s estate in Connecticut.
This is the novel’s first mention of Mrs. Bateman. It’s not entirely clear whether or not Sandstone is an assisted living facility. At first, the encounter looks like it might be heartfelt, with Bateman’s mother asking after his happiness, but she then ends up taking interest in shallow, materialistic things like everyone else in the novel. The tone of the chapter, however, is subdued, as if seeing his mother and the family photos in her room causes Bateman to have a rare moment of self-reflection.
Themes
