Aiding my investigation are the Bret Easton Ellis novels Less Than Zero and American Psycho. Within this article, I shall be exploring how the construction of anonymity within a homogenising social class can catalyse acts of violence and criminality. Here, luxury wreaks apathy and social disconnect, with what The Twentieth-Century American City: Problem, Promise and Reality author Jon C Teaford calls America’s “urban hubs the chief characters in this drama of dreams and frustrations.” The cost of existing on such elevated platforms is measured spiritually more so than financially: the price one pays is that of their own individuality, subsequently forfeiting all comprehension of their own selfhood. As the centre of commerce, consumerism, and mass culture, the American city is where wealth is most broadly and brightly on display-albeit through a glass ceiling. The American metropolis is the zenith of capitalist aspiration.
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