Bret Easton Ellis
Pages 300-399
Plot Summary/Characters
- This section starts with Patrick bringing 2 more prostitutes, Tiffany and Torri, to his apartment and torturing them to death.
- One chapter consists of a phone conversation between Patrick, McDermott, and a guy named Hamlin as they try to make dinner plans. It goes on for a while, and they end up not even going.
- Patrick brings an unnamed girl that he met at a party over and tortures her to death.
- Patrick goes to dinner with Evelyn where he breaks up with her.
- Patrick has killed another girl and he dismembers her body, eats part of it, and then tries to cook it. While doing this, he breaks down and begins crying, then says "I just want to be loved."
- While walking through the city, Patrick shoots a man playing a saxophone. He doesn't realize that a cop car is right behind him. Patrick is chased through the city. He kills several people, including a cap driver, a cop, and several men who work in a building he hides in. He hides in an office and calls his lawyer, Harold Carnes. Carnes doesn't answer so Patrick leaves him a message and confesses everything.
- Patrick talks for an entire chapter about Huey Lewis and the News.
- Patrick describes several events without going into great detail. These include going to Courtney's, visiting his mother in the hospital, and having dinner with a girl named Jeannette that he has been seeing.
- Patrick goes to Paul's apartment, where he killed Christie and Elizabeth. No bodies were found, but the apartment is for sale. The real estate agent tells Patrick that Paul does not own the apartment, and asks him to leave.
- Patrick goes on a date with Jean. She confesses her love for him, saying how sweet, kind, and mysterious he is. During this, Patrick describes a land he is imagining (a never-ending desert landscape), and describes an epiphany he has had.
- Before going to Aspen for vacation, Patrick drops Jeannette off at her apartment. He has convinced her to have an abortion.
- At a party a few months later, Patrick sees Harold Carnes. Carnes says his phone call was hilarious, thinking it was a joke. Carnes says that it couldn't have been true because Patrick Bateman is too much of a goody-goody (he thinks Patrick is someone else), and he just had lunch with Paul Owen ten days ago.
- A cab driver recognizes Patrick as the man who killed Solly, who is apparently the cab driver that Patrick killed. He doesn't report Patrick but takes all of his money and valuables.
- The final scene has Patrick at dinner with his coworkers.
Personal Reaction
The book gets confusing. I figured it would happen this way, because of the movie, but it ends up being left open to interpretation as to whether or not Patrick actually killed anyone. At first it seems like he is simply delusional, since Paul's apartment is being sold and no bodies were reported. But then he meets the cab driver who recognizes Patrick as a murderer. And he confesses his crimes to his lawyer, but he dismisses it as a joke.
Personally, I think Patrick really did commit the crimes. That makes everything easier to explain. As for the apartment, well the whole book has cases of mistaken identity. Maybe Patrick showed up at the wrong apartment. The cab driver seems to offer proof that Patrick really did do these things. Mistaken identity also easily excuses the lawyer situation. When the lawyer says that he just had lunch with Paul Owen, it isn't hard to believe that he had lunch with someone that he thought was Paul Owen. That happens a lot in the book- Paul believed for the entire book that Patrick was someone else, a guy named Marcus Halberstam.
One thing worth mentioning is that during the police chase scene, Patrick begins referring to himself in the third person. It only happens for a few paragraphs, from when Patrick steals a cab to when he calls the lawyer. I'm not sure why the author chose to do this.
Additional Thoughts
What ideas or happenings in this novel relate to your life?
Honestly, there really aren't any. Except for maybe mistaking someone for someone else. I think everyone has done that though.
Which character is most like you? Why?
I would say Jean. Obviously that sounds odd since she's a woman, but her personality and actions are more like mine. She's the only person in the book that isn't constantly getting high, drinking, or killing people. She genuinely cares about people, and I'm like that with my friends. She also is hard working and diligent, and I think for the most part I'm like that, atleast with school.
What major events helped to resolve the plot?
There isn't really a resolution. We don't find out if Patrick is crazy in that he kills people, or crazy in that he imagined it all. He doesn't stop killing people, since he describes several murders right up until the end of the book.
But major events towards the end are Patrick killing the saxophone player. If it weren't open to interpretation, that would have certainly helped to resolve the plot. In that case, it would have led to Patrick almost being caught, then confessing, and then probably being arrested.
What message did you get from this novel? How was it conveyed?
I think the message was that everything is not how it seems. In the book, people are mistaken for others constantly. And people that seem one way are actually completely different. Patrick seems normal, but he isn't. Jean seems sort of timid and obedient, until she confesses her love for Patrick and becomes more forceful. And the biggest example is the whole story- you spend the entire book thinking that everything you are reading is happening, but it may not be.
Why would or would you not recommend this book to others?
If you are easily offended or grossed out, this is not the book for you. There is constant profanity. And the murder scenes are hard to read. I don't usually find movies or books to be that gross, but these were especially sick. If you don't want to read about torture with nailguns, Mace, body dismembering, etc., this is not the book for you.
But it was very well written and has an interesting story and I would recommend it for that. But it definitely is not for everyone.
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