Exploring the Existential Allen

For the past two classes we've been discussing the writings of Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky (I thought it might be festive to list his formal name). We've been discussing his book Crime and Punishment which is a story about a poor Russian student who's hatred for a pawnbroker leads him to murder her and take her money. Throughout the novel themes of rationalism and utilitarianism are evident and Rashkolnikov, the murderer, is constantly justifying his act of murder. The story is interesting and its plot is comparable to American Psycho. Patrick Bateman shares similar characteristics of Rashkolnikov, such as his trying to utilize the ideologies of rationalism and his motives for murder. Both characters kill out of impulse and in some way or another feel regret. It is interesting to see how there are two different stories being told in completely different settings and periods of time, however they are extremely similar in themes and main character relation. The clip that I included within this post is the American Psycho trailer in which Patrick Bateman's character can truly be seen. In the trailer Bateman's erratic and unusual behavior is evident. I interpret this as Bateman being fed up with taking so much care of materialistic things in order to be socially accepted and rebelling against the social norms that are present. By him killing his colleague, he is almost killing that person that he loathes so much, himself.