Untitled - Sexey's School Moodle

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As a satire, American Psycho does not escape—in fact it perfectly abides by—the
limitations of its genre. Bakhtin observes that the role of the Menippean satire is to be
symptomatic, to reveal the defects of the subject it addresses without attempting to
correct them (The Dialogic Imagination 26), a point that was precisely made by Young
earlier regarding Ellis’ novel. “THIS IS NOT AN EXIT,” the novel concludes, because,
quite simply, there is no way out. The novel’s cutting brand of criticism has not affected
the prevailing ideology of mainstream culture because it is unfeasible. The ideology of
consumerism is so deeply engrained in daily life that it is impossible for the public to
renounce to it. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, consumer capitalism represents
such a totalizing society that American Psycho is unlikely to carry deeper consequences
than it already has.