Analytical essay- Christian Roe Vilandt 3.C 27/11/2015 Killing Child at Zoo in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Evil is a strange word. Evil can be many things. They are many forms of evil and many motives for evil. Evil can either be when a man tells his wife that she is ugly, or when a teenager bully’s his classmate, both have motives that doesn’t please the victim, this is what defines evil. Gennerally people might not see these exampels as evil deeds but there are different levels of evil. The husband and wife example is gennerally seen as low level evil deed, meanwhile Osama Bin Laden’s attack on the world trade towers are seen from the American and the western peoples perspective as the most evil deed that anyone can do. But others might not see it that way, different societies and different countries have different definitions of how evil is viewed. E.g. Osama Bin Laden, destroys the World Trade Center’s, he is from the American and Western perspective as evil as a man can be. But from a terrorist perspective he is seen as a god, meanwhile Gorge Bush is the evilest profound man alive. The Evil that is present in this text, is not evil that a sane mind could perform. The title of the book “American Psycho” says a lot about the man’s character, he is a psycho. This psycho like evil is not something thats common, it’s evil that pleasures the individual. The main character, from an objective point of view, is a very wealthy and successful man with little error in his life. He is well dressed, has a good job, and looks like a sane man. But he is far from sane, he is not like any other business man. He suffers from lack of sleep, cant control his actions and basically enjoys other peoples pain. The first signs of his evil in the chapter of the book is presentet when the main character walks by the seal’s at the zoo. There is a warning sing that clearly states that you must not throw coins in the water, because the seals will die from eating the coins. When the people that are watching look away, he throws in a whole handfull of coins in the pool, not because he has anything against the seals, but because he dose not like that people enjoy watching the seals. This is a great example of how he thinks and who he really is. The incident with the child portrays the sick and evil mind he possesses. When he at the penguin pool he scans the area looking for people who enjoy the penguin swimming in the gross pool. He looks at a boy not more that five years of age, and sees that the boy is having fun looking at the penguins. He stares at him, and the boy notices him. They look at each other for a while, the boy looks with a curiousness and fear in his eyes. the man walks over and offers him a cookie. The second the boy says yes, the psycho stabs him the the neck, and pushes him discreetly behind the trashcan, then he proceeds to mingle back in with the crowed to watch the situation unfold. The mother of the child notices that her boy is gone and the fear in her look excites the psycho. She discovers him in blood behind the trashcan and falls down in pain. The psycho is pleased by the sight of a mother crying for her dyeing boy. This is nothing that an ordinary person would every do, this shows again how much evil there is hiding behind his identity. This paints us a big picture of how he really thinks and what his motive and pleasure in life is. That is enjoying other peoples pain and making other peoples lives miserable for his pleasure. “ Though i am satisfied at first by my actions, I’m suddenly jolted with mournful despair at how useless, how extraordinarily painless, it is to take a child's life. This thing before me, small and twisted bloody, has no real history, no worthwhile past; nothing is really lost. It’s so much worse (and more pleasurable) taking the life of someone who has hit his or her prim.” (Page 3, Line:41-44, Page 4, Line:1-2.) This extract from the text substantiates that the more pain he cause people the more pleasure he gets, and the prestige they have the more reward full it is. After mingling in with the crowed and watching the situation unfold he runs over to the mother saying that he is a doctor. This means that there is less supposition of him doing the crime, and people will see him as a good man if he dose something to try and save the boy. He dose nothing but hold the boy and slap the mother for his pleasure, telling her to calm down. The police show up and he disappears discretely, and proceeds to do his daily chores. After the chaos his excitement is gone and he is in a total different state of mind. This incident dosen’t affect him at all, and dosen’t give him anyhing but joy, with defines him as the title does, a ture psycho.