Attraction, Not Love

English > Analysis
Literature > American

A review of the novel "The Rules of Attraction" by Bret Easton Ellis with an emphasis on how it is a reflection of our decimating moral standards.

1,135 words () | 0 sources | 2001 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes Bret Easton Ellis's novel, "The Rules of Attraction", a commentary on society's loss of family values where the pages are filled with the characters' mindless bouts with sex, drugs and alcohol. It questions why each character accepts the meaningless, arbitrary sexual and drug-related acts they commit on a regular basis and attributes the answer to the idea that true love is unobtainable and senseless sex is the only thing that is real. Ellis has created a world where everybody loves someone who loves somebody else or who does not care to love anyone.

From the Paper:

"From the very first sentence of the novel, the reader can see that The Rules of Attraction will offer no fulfilling conclusion. The book begins in the middle of a sentence. If there is no clear opening to the story, how can it be concluded in a standard sense? The sentence also runs on for roughly 13 lines. It is Lauren discussing the loss of her virginity. The passage is amazing though because in its several lines it provides no real information. The sentence is pointless because Lauren only remembers flashes of the experience, not including the date of the event or the man present."