Pat Bateman In American Psycho

INTRODUCTION
There are many different marketing phenomena including what it is to live in a consumer society, branding, the domain of consumption, consumers as emotional pleasure seekers, brand community and marketing and society. In this essay I will address what it is to live in a consumer society. The novel I have chosen as part of my study is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. This novel explores the life of an investment banker named Pat Bateman who works in Wall Street by day and is a cocaine sniffing murderer by night. Throughout the novel Bateman tells us about how he meets up with his friends and they critique how other people are dressed, argue about social etiquette and give one another fashion advice. It depicts perfectly how people are driven by material gain and superficial appearance and how they notice an individual because of their name or the

Pat Bateman and his friends are all very wealthy businessmen and trying to show off their wealth and achievements is all part of their daily lives. Initially Bateman is very proud of his new business card, he explains how the colouring is “bone” and the lettering is “Silian Rail”. His friends seem impressed but then they upstage him with their business cards. Even though the object is only something as simple as a business card, Bateman is so driven by superficiality that he is absolutely infuriated by the fact his friends have better cards than him. He is so obsessed that he even gets dizzy and starts breathing heavy as they are comparing cards, “Suddenly the restaurant seems far away, hushed, the noise distant, a meaningless hum, compared to this card”. This to a lower class person seems crazy, but sadly to a member of consumer society something as basic as a business card seems to be all they have to worry