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Similarities Between A Clockwork Orange And American Psycho

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American Psycho and A Clockwork Orange highlight and present demoralization of society through the use of narcissistic figures, who utilize violence to reflect their desire for dominance. Burgess and Ellis within their novel construct a single character that conflicts with the alleged moral beliefs of the society that besiege around them. One could argue that in both novels the drive of violence that the characters manifest orientate to the societies which the novels uphold. American Psycho reflects the time it was written in - an American consumerist society in the late 1980s, early 1990s in which moral ideals were overlooked as desires were very much dependent on opportunities to make money. Ellis uses the 1980s New York setting to express …show more content…

Burgess uses the setting of the 1960s to explore the order of society that imposed certain ideals on citizens and how people were stripped of their identity and morals. There is no doubt that both novels explore the demoralization of society through the perspective of narcissistic male narrators. The narcissistic nature of the central characters, Alex and Bateman are portrayed in their treatment of women, who they see merely as objects and nothing more, thus degrading them in society 's eyes. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ has been notably criticized for its presentation women; feminist critic Beverly Walker claims in A Clockwork Orange 'all of the women are portrayed as caricatures; the violence committed upon them is treated comically '. The representation of women in American Psycho is demonstrated in a similar way, with violent treatment of women being underlined with comic remarks, expressing the narcissistic nature of Bateman, but also his lack of morality. In 'A Clockwork Orange ', women are immediately presented as merely something to voyeur in the first chapter opening with the Korova Milk Bar. The bar consists of naked mannequin

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