American Psycho – Patrick Bateman’s daydreams in relation to Odyssey 14

 

In American Psycho the main character Patrick Bateman has psychotic daydreams about killing his co-worker Paul Allen as well as many prostitutes and homeless people, these murders are not revealed as a daydream until the end of the film due to the first two acts being told through Bateman’s narrative, making these follow the literary method of invented dreams. This is similar to Eumaeus’ Dream in The Odyssey 14 who invents Odysseus, among others telling him of the ambush of Troy; in the case of American Psycho, Patrick Bateman is Odysseus and we the viewer are Eumaeus blindly being informed the narrative. Moreover, Odysseus tells Eumaeus “What I say will be a bit of boasting”, this is very similar to the way Bateman portrays himself committing these murders dressed in a designer suit, kept clean by a raincoat but otherwise revelling in the blood boasting to the audience of himself being an unstoppable force. This reflects the literary use of invented dreams to change the viewers perception to the narrative to purely being what the narrator tells us, it is lulling the viewer into a false sense of security. Moreover,

invented dreams often appear much more flamboyant in their storytelling, such as Odysseus claiming the “mad wine” made him kill but this was allowable because “Wine sets even a thoughtful man to singing, or sets him into softly laughing, sets him to dancing”, this is seen as a normal comparison however, the act of murder juxtaposes that of singing and dancing. This is similar to Bateman famously dancing and singing to Huey Lewis and the News whilst murdering Paul Allen in American Psycho although we later learn that this is just what he was imagining whilst listening to the record. Invented dreams are used to make the abnormal seem normal, as dancing whilst committing murder is highly unlikely, yet neither Eumaeus nor the audience questions this.