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 at the gym and has placed an assault rifle in his locker. He goes about his regular activity, listening to his Walkman and exercising, thinking about an NYU girl who was recently raped and murdered. After his workout, he stares at the gun in his locker, calling it “a symbol of order to me.” He thinks about using it but decides not to and shuts the door; he has videotapes to return and a dinner reservation that was difficult to get.
Bateman’s behavior is becoming increasingly reckless, as he takes more and more risks in his violence. His calling the rifle a “symbol of order” is very interesting; for Bateman, his power to kill maintains his dominance, his control over individual situations and over his entire life. As he feels himself losing control, sliding deeper into drugs and sex and violence, he brings the gun to the gym as a way of holding on to what he feels is slipping away.
Themes
