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American Psycho Essay

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AMERICAN PSYCHO
Brett Easton Ellis
Chapter: Killing Child at Zoo

If you were asked to describe a trip to the Zoo it most likely would include phrases regarding exotic animals, great atmosphere, happy children and the chance to knife a kid in the throat. That is of course if you are Patrick Bateman.
In the thirty-eighth chapter of American Psycho we are introduced to what will become a mothers worst nightmare. Patrick Bateman is filled with homicidal needs. “… my homicidal compulsion, which surfaces, disappears, surfaces, leaves again …” He is incapable of truly escaping this need for murder. He is a sadistic, lethal and complex person with the skill set needed to get away with murder.
As we follow him through the Zoo of Central Park in New York City, we quickly learn what foul thoughts travel through Patrick’s devious mind. He sees joy but wants chaos. He sees laughter but wants despair. He throws coins into the seal habitat with the purpose of them choking to death for Gods sake. The man is without a doubt a psychopath! He gets a rush of excitement from the scene he can create and control. He wants the attention and he wants it now. As he’s standing in the darkness of the penguin habitat he spots a young boy with his mother. The mother asks the boy to throw away the wrapper of the last meal of the five-year-olds life – a candy bar. As the boy approaches the trash can in the dark corner of the room the merciless Patrick crouches behind it. Patrick quickly catches the attention of the young boy and lures him in his reach like a killer animal lures in its pray. “Would you like – a cookie?”. Those are the last words the small boy hears before a knife blade is cutting open his neck thus ending his life. Don’t ever talk to strangers.
One might wonder what could drive a person to kill a defenseless five-year-old child. Is it a lust for blood? Is it insanity? A yearn for fatal power? Or is it simply the need to be able to take away the one thing we all have in common: life. Only deep within the deranged mind of Patrick Bateman lays the true answer as to “why?”. As a reader we can only speculate.
Even though Patrick expresses that he is satisfied with taking the life of the poor boy, he also says how painless it is. He isn’t satisfied yet. He pretends to be a doctor. He holds the dying boy in his arms. He feeds off of the attention he is getting. He needs to dare himself into his situation of playing God. He needs this exact moment to happen for him to be able to fill the hole of insanity in his heart. Without doing this obscure and insulting fake gesture of playing the “hero” it wouldn’t be complete. Patrick has to kill and be in control of the situation to keep himself sane. And yet he feels empty when it’s all over. It’s a quick fix for him. To kill a person isn’t a big deal to him. It’s a need. A horrible, horrible need.

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