Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

304-5, 328); a child (298), and a street musician (347). However, it is important to note
that apart from the stockbroker (and perhaps the child), all of these victims constitute
social “others”: what liberal capitalism and patriarchal society consider “inferior” beings
leading pointless existences. At one point, Bateman goes so far as to call a vagrant “a
member of the genetic underclass” (266). Interestingly enough, as women accept
becoming consumer products, as explained earlier, so do the homeless. After Bateman
gouges out one vagrant’s eyes (131-2), the latter realizes he can exploit the situation by
claiming he lost his sight through war injuries (385)—a satire of conditioned
victimization.
158
Although most killings are markedly graphic, the most telling passages of the
novel turn out to be the ones that involve acts of sexual violence. During the
pornographic description of the threesome quoted above among Bateman, Christie and
Elizabeth, the passage jump cuts to the following scene, where after apparently being
tortured by Bateman, Elizabeth has unsuccessfully attempted to escape:
After I’ve stabbed her five or six times—the blood’s spurting out
in jets; I’m leaning over to inhale her perfume—her muscles
stiffen, become rigid, and she goes into her death throes; her throat
becomes flooded with dark-red blood and she thrashes around as if
tied up, but she isn’t and I have to hold her down. Her mouth fills
with blood that cascades over the sides of her cheeks, over her
chin. Her body, shaking spasmodically, resembles what I imagine
an epileptic goes through in a fit and I hold down her head, rubbing
my dick, stiff, covered with blood, across her choking face, until
she’s motionless. (290)
Even though this passage and others like it come late in the novel, and form only a minor
part of the novel, they have prompted critics such as James Gardner to deem them
“excessive.” In more senses than one, they are. While these scenes of sexual aggression