I’ve talked a lot about the top 1 percent and the enormous amount of wealth that they hold however, for those of us not included in that elite class, it can be difficult to imagine what kind of lifestyle that wealth provides. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to be rich beyond your imagination, look no further than Less than Zero by Bret Easton Elis.
This novel provides a window into the lives of Hollywood’s wealthiest in the 1980’s through the lens of the main character Clay. Clay is a college student born into an extremely wealthy family who has returned to his home in Los Angeles for Christmas break. Clay and his friends are characterized as party-going, drug-doing, sexuality fluid kids who know no boundaries and consequences because of their parent’s enormous wealth. The live in the nicest mansions, drive the fanciest foreign cars and snort the best coke that money can buy. The novel provides and outlet for the audience to experience the life in the shoes of the extremely wealthy without facing any of the moral repercussions.
A word of caution when reading this novel: it can be easy to excoriate the characters that Elis presents because their actions seem immoral but it is important to remember that their extreme wealth allows them to operate under a different code of morals. To an average audience, Clay and his friends can be seen as gluttonous and inhuman as they buy prostitutes and are seemingly unaffected by death however, it is important to note that the characters do have morals and they do have values. It’s just that their morals and values are not the same as ours. Elis is often criticized for the lack of morality his character possess but really all he is doing is illustrating our obsession with wealth and exploring what that wealth looks like in the hands of college-age students. In my opinion, this novel illustrates how different people’s ideas of utopia actually are and serves as an example as to why an absolute utopia can never really be achieved.
Resources:
Ellis, Bret Easton. Less than Zero. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Print.
URL for Image:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rGt8%2BPs0L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
This novel provides a window into the lives of Hollywood’s wealthiest in the 1980’s through the lens of the main character Clay. Clay is a college student born into an extremely wealthy family who has returned to his home in Los Angeles for Christmas break. Clay and his friends are characterized as party-going, drug-doing, sexuality fluid kids who know no boundaries and consequences because of their parent’s enormous wealth. The live in the nicest mansions, drive the fanciest foreign cars and snort the best coke that money can buy. The novel provides and outlet for the audience to experience the life in the shoes of the extremely wealthy without facing any of the moral repercussions.
A word of caution when reading this novel: it can be easy to excoriate the characters that Elis presents because their actions seem immoral but it is important to remember that their extreme wealth allows them to operate under a different code of morals. To an average audience, Clay and his friends can be seen as gluttonous and inhuman as they buy prostitutes and are seemingly unaffected by death however, it is important to note that the characters do have morals and they do have values. It’s just that their morals and values are not the same as ours. Elis is often criticized for the lack of morality his character possess but really all he is doing is illustrating our obsession with wealth and exploring what that wealth looks like in the hands of college-age students. In my opinion, this novel illustrates how different people’s ideas of utopia actually are and serves as an example as to why an absolute utopia can never really be achieved.
Resources:
Ellis, Bret Easton. Less than Zero. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Print.
URL for Image:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51rGt8%2BPs0L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg