Editing Patrick Bateman (section)

==Biography and profile==
At the beginning of ''American Psycho'', Bateman is a 27-year-old successful specialist in [[mergers and acquisitions]] with the fictitious [[Wall Street]] investment firm of Pierce & Pierce (also Sherman McCoy's firm in ''[[The Bonfire of the Vanities]]'').<ref>{{cite news|first=Hermione|last=Hoby|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/10/bonfire-of-vanities-tom-wolfe|title= The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London, England|date=January 9, 2010|access-date=August 24, 2018}}</ref> He lives at 55 West 81st Street on the [[Upper West Side]] of [[Manhattan]], on the 11th floor of the American Gardens Building, where he is a neighbor of actor [[Tom Cruise]]. In his secret life, Bateman is a serial killer, murdering a variety of people, including colleagues, the homeless, and prostitutes. His crimes, including [[rape]], [[torture]], [[necrophilia]], and [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], are graphically described in the novel.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.academia.edu/1319297 | title=Serial Masculinity: Psychopathology and Oedipal Violence in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho | journal=MFS Modern Fiction Studies|first=Chris|last=Schaffer|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|location=Baltimore, Maryland|volume=54|issue=2|date=Summer 2008|pages=378–397|doi=10.1353/mfs.0.0014| s2cid=143568176 }}</ref><ref name="Examiner"/><ref name="Ustaer"/>

Bateman was born on 23 October 1961 and comes from a wealthy family.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Das |first=Amrita |date=December 24, 2022 |title=What does sigma mean on TikTok? Viral Patrick Bateman trend explored |url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/what-sigma-mean-tiktok-viral-patrick-bateman-trend-explored |access-date=July 5, 2023 |website=www.sportskeeda.com |language=en-us}}</ref><ref name="Patrick Bateman22">Guardian Unlimited; [http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,,-61,00.html BRET EASTON ELLIS].</ref><ref name="Patrick Bateman12">{{cite web |last=Howell |first=Peter |date=April 19, 2000 |title=Psycho killer is no pop culture anti-hero |url=http://www.thefreeradical.ca/americanPsycho/psychoKillerNoHero.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806084918/http://www.thefreeradical.ca/americanPsycho/psychoKillerNoHero.html |archive-date=August 6, 2018 |access-date=January 2, 2016 |work=[[Toronto Star]] }}</ref><ref name="Villalba"/><ref name="Trudon"/> His parents have a house on [[Long Island]], and he mentions a summer house in [[Newport, Rhode Island|Newport]]. His parents [[divorce]]d sometime earlier, and his mother resides at a [[sanatorium]]. His father, who first appeared in Ellis's preceding novel ''[[The Rules of Attraction]]'', grew up on an estate in [[Connecticut]], and now owns an apartment in the [[Carlyle Hotel]] in Manhattan.  He is assumed to be dead, as he is mentioned only in the past tense during the novel.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Lynsay|last=Smith|url=http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/blog/i-am-blameless-the-failure-of-the-father-in-american-psycho-part-2-of-2/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824135316/http://www.gothic.stir.ac.uk/blog/i-am-blameless-the-failure-of-the-father-in-american-psycho-part-2-of-2/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 24, 2018|title='I am blameless': The Failure of the Father in American Psycho (Part 2 of 2)|journal=The Gothic Imagination|publisher=University of Stirling, Scotland|location=Stirling, Scotland|date=March 29, 2016|access-date=August 23, 2018}}</ref>

In [[Mary Harron|Mary Harron's]] [[American Psycho (film)|2000 adaptation]], however, it is mentioned that Bateman's father "practically owns" the company that Bateman works at, implying that Bateman's father is still alive. Bateman's younger brother Sean attends Camden College and is a protagonist of ''The Rules of Attraction'', in which Patrick Bateman was first introduced. Bateman attended prominent [[Phillips Exeter Academy]] for prep school. He graduated from [[Harvard College]] and [[Harvard Business School]], and then moved to [[New York City]].<ref name="GQ"/><ref>{{cite web|first=Lisa|last=Desai|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/08/26/corporate.psychopaths/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040828015257/https://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/08/26/corporate.psychopaths/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2004-08-28|title='Corporate psychopaths' at large|website=[[CNN]]|date=September 3, 2004|accessdate=January 25, 2022}}</ref>

By the end of the novel, he believes he is about to be arrested for murdering a colleague named Paul Owen (Paul Allen in the film) and leaves a message on his lawyer's answering machine confessing to his crimes. When he runs into his lawyer at a party, however, the man mistakes him for somebody else and tells him that the message must have been a joke, as he had met with Allen only days earlier. Bateman realizes that the punishment and notoriety he desires will be forever out of his reach, and that he is trapped inside a meaningless existence: "This is not an exit".<ref name="Patrick Bateman22"/><ref name="Patrick Bateman12"/><ref>{{cite book|first=Brett Easton|last=Ellis|author-link=Brett Easton Ellis|title=American Psycho|url=https://archive.org/details/americanpsychono00elli|url-access=limited|publisher=Vintage|location=New York City|date=1991|page=[https://archive.org/details/americanpsychono00elli/page/399 399]|isbn=9780679735779}}</ref>