Social Problems In Bret Easton Eilis American Psycho
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Bret Easton Eilis’ classic novel, American Psycho, is a satire about the rampant consumerism, drug abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia, and elitism that was all too common during the time of its publication in regards to the Wall Street and the upper class culture. Today many of these problems are still present, and although each of these traits are societal problems that deserves to be talked about in depth, they can all be traced back to the same underlying problem, rich people play by there own rules. These rules are both visible in social settings as well our current economic, legal, and political system. Even when you exclude Patrick Bateman’s violent activities, American Psycho still shows that rich people do not have to conform to the…show more content… Take for example the infamous example of Ethan Couch, a 16 year old who drove drunk killed 4 people and seriously injured another. His lawyer hired a psychologist who argued before the court that Ethan suffered from Affluenza, the lawyer argued that because Ethan’s parents taught him wealth can fix any problem, Ethan did not know right from wrong, in other words he was extremely spoiled. The judge ended up siding with Ethan and sentenced him to rehab and probation for a crime that normally gives 2-20 years in prison. Now in fairness I personally believe that our criminal justice system should revolve around rehabilitation instead of punishment but this is truly a double standard, there is objectively no doubt that if Ethan had not been rich he would have gotten a much harsher punishment. One study in California shows that rich children drink more alcohol and use more drugs but are more likely to get sentenced to rehab or have reduced sentences than poorer kids, many times police will not even charge a rich child because they know it is a much longer legal process to prosecute them. Reading American Psycho’s ending, one of the deep ironies is that after Patrick confesses to killing all these women, he does not get in trouble because no one believes that he could have done it, one friend simply thinks he’s taking a bad joke too far. This is representative of our society as richer people either get the benefit of the doubt, or in the rare case they get in trouble, a reduced sentence due to a rigged legal