Alienation and Loss of Identity Essay Example
Alienation and Loss of Identity in ‘American Psycho’ by Bret Easton Ellis and ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger
‘A modern world based on pure individual self-interest, ironically leaves the individual in a chronically weak condition. Without a binding collective culture, without solidarity, the individual – isolated, adrift on tides of momentary desires – is open to manipulation and the most subtle forms of freedom.’1
Slater’s words fully encapsulate the grasping feelings of alienation that continuously mark the lives of both the protagonists in BRET E. ELLIS’ American Psycho and J.D. SALLINGER’S The Catcher in The Rye. He deems that in a money-driven society where everyone stands only for himself, the individual remains isolated in his attempts to find a sense of belonging.
Born in the postmodern society of the 20th century, after the second World War was finished, these modern generations so accurately represented by Patrick Bateman and Holden Caulfield no longer have to fight in wars, they do not have to stand up and fight for causes and beliefs – shortly, they do not have to struggle as most generations before them had to. Instead, they live in a world in which everything seems to be at the ready for them. However, they experience a spiritual crisis. In such a world, marked by America’s launch into economical prosperity and the emerging of consumer society, the individual finds himself deprived of any real freedom when following the many rules that society imposes and thus lost with no identity, he can only desperately attempt to break free and be different.
While in The Catcher in the Rye the hero has this constant (apparently innocent) inner struggle in the search of a place to fit in, in American Psycho, this idea is truly carried to an extreme: Patrick Bateman lives in a world which presents itself as the embodiment of the American Dream. On a closer look, though, we can see just how much of it is fake, and the ‘dream’ rapidly switches into
‘A modern world based on pure individual self-interest, ironically leaves the individual in a chronically weak condition. Without a binding collective culture, without solidarity, the individual – isolated, adrift on tides of momentary desires – is open to manipulation and the most subtle forms of freedom.’1
Slater’s words fully encapsulate the grasping feelings of alienation that continuously mark the lives of both the protagonists in BRET E. ELLIS’ American Psycho and J.D. SALLINGER’S The Catcher in The Rye. He deems that in a money-driven society where everyone stands only for himself, the individual remains isolated in his attempts to find a sense of belonging.
Born in the postmodern society of the 20th century, after the second World War was finished, these modern generations so accurately represented by Patrick Bateman and Holden Caulfield no longer have to fight in wars, they do not have to stand up and fight for causes and beliefs – shortly, they do not have to struggle as most generations before them had to. Instead, they live in a world in which everything seems to be at the ready for them. However, they experience a spiritual crisis. In such a world, marked by America’s launch into economical prosperity and the emerging of consumer society, the individual finds himself deprived of any real freedom when following the many rules that society imposes and thus lost with no identity, he can only desperately attempt to break free and be different.
While in The Catcher in the Rye the hero has this constant (apparently innocent) inner struggle in the search of a place to fit in, in American Psycho, this idea is truly carried to an extreme: Patrick Bateman lives in a world which presents itself as the embodiment of the American Dream. On a closer look, though, we can see just how much of it is fake, and the ‘dream’ rapidly switches into