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Smith & Wollensky
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 in his apartment, getting ready for a date with Jeannette, and watching a two-part episode of “The Patty Winters Show” which he’s recorded. The first part features Guns n’ Roses front man Axel Rose telling Patty about his violent urges, and the second part features Patty reading strange letters Ted Bundy (a famous serial killer) wrote to his wife from prison. Bateman keeps repeating one line from the letter: “I can feel her spreading hot sauce on me already.”
Having quickly moved on to a new girlfriend, Bateman seems to be up to usual activities. The day’s episode of “The Patty Winters Show” seems not as strange as it has been recently – perhaps Bateman is having a moment of clarity. The violent nature of both topics, however, is an interesting coincidence. Bateman’s fixation on Bundy’s “hot sauce” line is important, as it links women and flesh and the consumption of food – three things that have become virtually indistinguishable for Bateman.
Themes
Bateman is hanging around his apartment, waiting to leave. He does some extra coke he has left over from a previous night and goes to meet Jeannette. When he invited her out to see a new musical tonight, all she said was “I’ll go.” After the show, the two are sitting at Progress having dinner. Jeannette is quiet and drunk; she sighs and orders another glass of champagne. When Bateman suggests she should slow down, she curses him out and he retorts rudely back.
Bateman’s relationship with Jeannette seems to be the coldest he’s had yet. He does cocaine before the date just because, and she seems to have no passionate feelings about seeing him or not – until, of course, he hypocritically criticizes her drinking. This detached and tepid relationship makes sense, as Bateman has receded more and more into his own mind and totally isolated himself .
Themes
