E C Bateman Popular Books

E C Bateman Biography & Facts

Patrick Bateman is a fictional character created by novelist Bret Easton Ellis. He is the villain protagonist and unreliable narrator of Ellis's 1991 novel American Psycho and is played by Christian Bale in the 2000 film adaptation of the same name. Bateman is a wealthy and materialistic yuppie and Wall Street investment banker who, supposedly, leads a secret life as a serial killer. He has also briefly appeared in other Ellis novels and their film and theatrical adaptations. Biography and profile Bateman, at the beginning of American Psycho, is a 27-year-old specialist in mergers and acquisitions at the fictional Wall Street investment firm of Pierce & Pierce (also Sherman McCoy's firm in The Bonfire of the Vanities) and lives at 55 West 81st Street, Upper West Side on the 11th floor of the American Gardens Building (where he is a neighbor of actor Tom Cruise). In his secret life, however, Bateman is a serial killer murdering a variety of people, including colleagues, the homeless, and prostitutes. His crimes—including rape, torture, necrophilia, and cannibalism—are graphically described in the novel. Bateman was born on 19 September 1962 and comes from a wealthy family. His parents have a house on Long Island, and he mentions a summer house in Newport. His parents divorced sometime earlier, while his mother became sick and now resides at a sanatorium. His father, who first appeared in Ellis's preceding novel The Rules of Attraction, grew up on an estate in Connecticut, and now owns an apartment in the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan. He is assumed to be dead as he is mentioned only in the past tense during the novel. In Mary Harron's 2000 adaptation, however, it is mentioned that Bateman's father "practically owns" the company that Patrick Bateman works at, implying that Bateman's father is still alive. Bateman's younger brother Sean attends Camden College and is a protagonist of The Rules of Attraction, in which Patrick Bateman was first introduced. Bateman attended prominent Phillips Exeter Academy for prep school. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School, and moved to New York City. By the end of the novel, he believes he is about to be arrested for murdering a colleague named Paul Allen (Paul Owen in the novel) and leaves a message on his lawyer's answering machine confessing to his supposed crimes. When he runs into his lawyer at a party, however, the man mistakes him for somebody else and tells him that the message must have been a joke, as he had met with Allen only days earlier. Bateman realizes that the punishment and notoriety he desires will be forever out of his reach, and that he is trapped inside a meaningless existence: "This is not an exit". Personality As written by Ellis, Bateman is the ultimate stereotype of yuppie greed; wealthy, conceited, and addicted to sex, drugs, and conspicuous consumption. All of his friends look alike to him, to the point that he often confuses one for another; they often confuse him for other people as well. While Bateman delights in obsessively detailing virtually every single feature of his wealthy lifestyle, including designer clothes, workout routine, business cards, alcoholic drinks, elaborate high-end stereo and home theater sound system, he cannot recognise his own friends, work colleagues and acquaintances. He is engaged to an equally wealthy, shallow woman named Evelyn Williams and has a mistress on the side named Courtney Lawrence, the girlfriend of Luis Carruthers, a closeted homosexual whom Bateman despises, and has regular liaisons with prostitutes and women he encounters at clubs, many of whom end up being his victims. The one woman (and possibly the one person) in his life for whom he has anything approaching feelings is his secretary, Jean. He feels that she is the only person in his life who is not completely shallow, so he cannot bring himself to seduce or kill her. He casually acknowledges her as "Jean, my secretary who is in love with me" and introduces her in the narration as someone whom he "will probably end up married to someday". Despite his affluence and high social status, Bateman is constantly plagued by unsettling feelings of anxiety and low self-esteem. He kills many of his victims because they make him feel inadequate, usually by having better taste than he does. He is hated by others as well—his friends mock him as the "boy next door"; his own lawyer refers to him as a "bloody ass-kisser... a brown-nosing goody-goody"; and he is often dismissed as "yuppie trash" by people outside his social circle. Bateman often expresses doubts regarding his own sanity and he has periodic attacks of psychosis, during which he hallucinates. It is left open to reader interpretation whether Bateman actually commits the crimes he describes, or whether he is merely hallucinating them; he is, therefore, an unreliable narrator. In the climax of the story, Bateman calls his lawyer and leaves a lengthy, detailed message confessing all of his crimes. He later runs into his lawyer, who mistakes him for someone else and dismisses the confession as a joke, whilst also claiming to have had dinner with one of Bateman's victims after he had supposedly killed him, leaving the supposed reality of Bateman's acts open to audience interpretation. Although Bateman often claims that he is devoid of emotion, he also describes experiencing moments of extreme rage, panic or grief—being on the "verge of tears"—often over trivial inconveniences such as remembering to return videotapes or trying to obtain dinner reservations. In the middle of dismembering a victim, he breaks down, sobbing that he "just wants to be loved". He takes psychotropics, like Xanax, to control these emotions. He publicly espouses a philosophy of tolerance, equality, and "traditional moral values" because he thinks it will make him more likable, but is in fact virulently racist, homophobic, and antisemitic. Bateman compensates for his anxiety through obsessive vanity and personal grooming, with unwavering attention to detail. He buys the most fashionable, expensive clothing and accessories possible (e.g., Salvatore Ferragamo, Alan Flusser and Valentino suits, Oliver Peoples glasses and Jean Paul Gaultier, Louis Vuitton, and Bottega Veneta leather goods) as a means of effecting some "control" over his otherwise chaotic life. Likewise, whilst often being confused about people’s names and identities, he categorizes them by what they wear and how they look because they are more easily "understood" in terms of labels and stereotypes. Bateman's apartment also is firmly controlled in terms of look and taste, with the latest music, food, and art. Bateman kills more or less indiscriminately, with no preferred type of victim, somewhat targeting any woman and man who gets in his way, and no consistent or preferred method of killing. Throughout the novel, he kills men, women, animals, and, in one instance, a child. Bateman murders women most.... Discover the E C Bateman popular books. 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