American Psycho

Food is a fundamental marker of power and social status. Evelyn preparing sushi at her dinner party distinguishes her as part of a fashionable elite. So too does Patrick’s constant frequenting of expensive restaurants. Dorsia, the restaurant that he fails to get a reservation at, symbolizes the unsatiable within consumer culture. The unobtainable ideal powers frenzied competition and consumption. A character’s relationship to food signals their status. Stash’s ambivalent social position is seen when he plays with, rather than eats, Evelyn’s sushi. As Bateman says, “I caught my maid stealing a piece of bran toast from my wastebasket in the kitchen” (204). For the less wealthy, food, or its absence, is a continual and visceral reminder of marginalization.

This theme becomes more pronounced as the novel progresses. Standing over the remains of one of his victims, Bateman notes how, “her stomach resembles the egg plant and goat cheese lasagna at Il Marlibro or some other kind of dog food” (331). The disadvantaged don’t just lack food in American Psycho. They become food. The social elites chew up and spit them out. Patrick cooks his victims’ parts: “I grind bone and fat and flesh into patties” (332). The capitalism of the 80s and its Darwinian logic exploit and devour people, especially the poor.