Zero Is Not a Social

¶ … Zero is not a social commentary on decadent youth of Beverly Hills but a story of a young confused person who wants some aim and direction to give his life meaning.

Bret Easton Ellis's novel 'Less Than Zero' follows closely the bleak and dreadful life of a rich teenager, Clay whose sense of identity comes from the group of 'brats' he roams around with. Clay and his vain group lives in the most trendy area, Beverly Hills and have a common identity. They all talk the same way, wear same designer labels, drive similar cars, look tanned and beautiful and are 'coke' addicted. The word coke, repeatedly used in the book refers to nothing but cocaine. The life of sex, drugs and parties is completely void of any real excitement and this is one fact that everyone knows but no one is ready to acknowledge. To be able to see the flaws in this society means you are no longer a part of this group and this was something those rich kids couldn't afford. 'Fitting in' was all about doing what everyone else did and not paying any attention to real feelings or emotions. This was the Southern California lifestyle of 1980s- a paradise for the self-absorbed and self-indulgent. Everything about Clay's behavior, his family, his friends, his lifestyle signifies a wasted life -- a life with no hope, no future, no real achievement and a life completely devoid of any real meaning. Clay's life is a symbol of an aimless life. This is Hollywood literature at its realistic peak. A scene at a restaurant where Clay and his parents are celebrating Christmas reveals the real emptiness and shallowness of a Beverley Hills lifestyle.

I'm sitting in the main room at Chasen's with my parents and sisters and it's late, nine-thirty or ten, on Christmas Eve. Instead of eating anything, I look down at my plate and move the fork across it, back and forth, and become totally fixated on the fork cutting a path between the peas. My father startles me by pouring some more champagne into my glass. My sisters look bored and tan and talk about anorexic friends and some Calvin Klein model and they look older than I remember them looking, even more so when they hold their glasses up by the stem and drink the champagne slowly; they tell me a couple of jokes that I don't get and tell my father what they want for Christmas.

I don't look at my parents too much, just keep running my hand through my hair, wishing I had some coke, anything, to get through this and I look around the restaurant, which is only half-full; people are murmuring to each other and their whispers carry somehow and I realize that all it comes down to is that I'm this eighteen-year-old boy with shaking hands and blond hair and with the beginnings of a tan and semistoned sitting in Chasen's on Doheny and Beverly, waiting for my father to ask me what I want for Christmas. 64-66)

The life is empty because it lacks aim and meaning. The kids in this part have everything they could ask for and they received it all on a silver platter. They do not know which road to take from here. They choose a life of sex and drugs in exchange of hard work and real accomplishments and lost the meaning of their existence in the bargain. Clay and his friends, it appears are seriously following a suggestion given on a billboard in Sunset Boulevard, 'Disappear Here. They have all disappeared in the endless whirl of senseless and meaningless activities. There is just one appropriate word to describe the novel and the story it tells- 'sad'- hopelessly, painfully and awfully sad.

Literary Analysis

If Less than Zero's narration appears rather deadpan do not blame it on writer's youth or inexperience. This style of writing was absolutely intentional to match the flat, monotonous and almost half-dead life of Clay, his family and friends who are the main characters of the story. Their life was dead not because of lack of excitement but due to overdose of the same. It was so exciting that the word 'excitement' lost meaning or sense and monotonous thrills did little to fill the void that everyone felt and no one acknowledged.

When the novel first came out in 1985, Less than Zero's author Bret Ellis was only 21 years old. His age was one reason this novel was discarded as quasi-fictional version of author's own teenage experiences. Critics even went on to label Ellis as one of the 'brat pack' who was closely familiar with "the lifestyles of the young and naughty." (Lehman: 72) the novel received few favorable reviewers and no one appeared willing to read between the lines and unearth author's real intention for telling this story. Ellis was attacked probably because his fictional depiction of life in Beverley Hills actually resembled the real version of it. Critics assumed it was more of an autobiography than a novel of real worth and value..".. You sometimes get the feeling that chunks of this book were lifted whole from the high melodrama and adolescent angst of Ellis's diary," observed one critic. (McCarthy: 80) Another reviewer claimed that this novel was "almost more interesting as a cultural document than as a novel," (Lehman: 70). Even those who felt that the author possessed talent maintained that Less than Zero.".. ends up feeling more like a '60 Minutes' documentary on desperate youth than a full-fledged novel." (Kakutani) One critic was however saw the realism in the work and termed it "a rather juvenile attempt to capture the sense of purposelessness that seems to afflict so many young people these days." (New Republic)

But it appears the critics themselves couldn't decide why the novel was 'worthless'. Some felt it was due to excessive literary borrowing..".. his descriptions of Los Angeles carry a few too many echoes of Raymond Chandler, Joan Didion and Nathanael West" (Kakutani) while others felt the novel lacked any literary value: "Reading [the novel] is like watching MTV." (New Republic) While some claimed that the style and tone reminded them of "an obvious indebtedness to... Hemingway" (Salter), there were others who argues that the novel is "written in the inarticulate style of a petulant suburban punk." (New Republic) One critic maintains that Ellis' characters were a little too real and hoped he would "write a story that doesn't merely depress us with sociological reports" (Kakutani); and yet there was another who found nothing real about the characters: "Prematurely world-weary, these martyrs of anomie and non-existential alienation go from party to party looking for cheap thrills...." (New Republic)

In short, it was Ellis' youth and not the actual 'worth' of his work that went against him upon publication of this novel. Every reviewer probably found Ellis too young to have written a novel of merit. And thus most people refrained from conducting a close literary analysis of the novel. The novel almost went into oblivion after these first few negative reviews and became even more obscure when Ellis' next work 'The Rules of Attraction' (1987) failed to attract critics or readers. But that should have enfeebled the real strength of this work as a carefully created and skillfully shaped reflection on the dreadfully empty lives of the rich and young.

Critical comments failed to do justice to the novel as close reading of the novel reveals that it is anything but a shallow rendition of author's teenage life. Ellis' protagonist, Clay is not an empty hollow figure without range and depth. If he appears that way initially, it is because he actually was meant to resemble all the other rich kids. But the fact that he is capable of noticing the flaws in this lifestyle shows that he possesses mental depth and psychological range needed to qualify as a worthy narrator. His deadpan style of narrating suggests that he is completely devoid of feelings or at least tries to suppress them because real emotions are likely to result in painful awareness of the nothingness of his life. Careful reading of two situations in the novel explain that the narrator understands is capable of feeling but chooses not to fee. In first situation, he finds himself in an intimate encounter with a girl but notices the extreme lack of intimacy between the two:

The girl and I get into her car and drive off into the hills and we go to her room and I take off my clothes and lie on her bed and she goes into the bathroom and I wait a couple of minutes and then she finally comes out, a towel wrapped around her, and sits on the bed and I put my hands on her shoulders, and she says stop it and, after I let go, she tells me to lean against the headboard and I do... she reaches into the drawer by her bed and brings out a tube of Bain De Soleil and she hands it to me and then she reaches into the drawer and brings out a pair of Wayfarer sunglasses and she tells me to put them on and I do.... She puts a robe on and stares at me. I can hear thunder in the distance and it begins to rain harder. She lights a cigarette and I start to dress. And then I call a cab and finally take the Wayfarers off and she tells me to be quiet walking down the stairs so I won't wake her parents. (Ellis 1985, 120-122)

In the second situation, he is with a girl Blair who was once his girlfriend. The girl needs to know if Clay has any feelings for her and his response explains why he was so devoid of emotions.

BLAIR: What do you care about? What makes you happy?

CLAY: Nothing. Nothing makes me happy. I like nothing.

BLAIR: Did you ever care about me, Clay?

CLAY: I don't want to care. If I care about things, it'll just be worse, it'll just be another thing to worry about. it's less painful if I don't care. (205)

All this suggests that Clay knows that there is something wrong with his life. But he doesn't want to question or probe since it is likely to lead to unwelcome and unflattering answers. For this reason, he chooses to silence his feelings and appears more like a mechanical mannequin that does what everyone else does because there appears to be no easy way out of the situation. But this doesn't follow that the novel has a non-existentialist theme. Far from it- the protagonist in this case knows and believes that his life is his own making but he is simply confused as to what could bring an end to the painful 'hollowness' of his existence.

Clay's existentialist bend of mind is visible from his various efforts to break free of the vicious circle of sex and drugs. He knows he needs help but help it appears is not forth coming. Clay has no one to turn to but he tries hard and this suggests that he was not exactly a non-existentialist being, willing to succumb to the dead monotonous of his indulgent lifestyle. On one occasion for example, his father shows concern and asks if he is fine. Clay murmurs "It's the drugs,' " his father replies, " 'I didn't quite hear that' " (43). This is a sign of his detachment from his children, which is one reason Clay, and his friends are 'lost'. But Clay is different because he is aware of his problems unlike some others who had simply given up and were tired of struggle. The protagonist knows that their lives are just a hollow picture of perfection because more than one glance could reveal the inner turmoil everyone was suffering from. "My father looks pretty healthy if you don't look at him for too long" (42) He knows, understand and feels every single problem like any other person of his age but he refuses to react probably because he realized long time ago that it was absolutely futile to feel and react. On one occasion, he dispassionately explains: "It doesn't bother me that my father leaves me waiting... For thirty minutes while he's in some meeting and then asks me why I'm late" (41)..."doesn't really make me angry" (42).

Clay understands that they are not like other kids. For them spending time with parents is considered an embarrassment and parents are usually the most destabilizing force in their lives.

Jesus, Clay, you look like you're on acid or something," Blair says, lighting another cigarette.

I just had dinner with my mother," I tell her. (96-97)

The fact that Clay wants change and needs someone to pay him attention is clear from his conversation with a young psychiatrist. The protagonist is desperately seeking an answer to his inner turmoil and confusion but the psychiatrist is just as shallow as the rest of them. Clay admits that he has problems but psychiatrist starts some meaningless discussion on Elvis Castello showing that like others in Beverley Hills, he didn't take drug problems seriously. But Clay is adamant, he wants answers: "What about me?" he demands. The psychiatrist simply shrugs it off nonchalantly: " 'Come on, Clay... Don't be so... mundane' " (123).

Clay wants to survive, not like his other friends, but like a real human being. However those who are supposed to care ignore his survival attempts on most occasions. The only source left to him is himself. Clay realizes that his survival depends on him so he begins observing how this decadent lifestyle had affected his friends.

Julian is a perfect case of someone who succumbed to peer pressure in Beverley Hills lifestyle and has long given up. Finn, the drug dealer, who regularly injects Julian with heroin dose, is a symbol of evil influences that one attracts to himself when life is aimless and man has conceded defeat. Clay observes how Finn deals with Julian: "Now, you know that you're my best boy and you know that I care for you. Just like my own kid. Just like my own son...' " (171). Finn knows that these kids need love and he makes a mockery of their problems by using gentle kind words to give them a sense of belonging.