This essay analyzes the protagonist Patrick Bateman of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho in order to demonstrate his perceived lack of agency and his inability to express individuality. By using the insights of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social, economic and cultural capital, and by analyzing the shifting masculine ideal during the 1980s and how it manifests itself in the protagonist, this essay tries to show how the powerlessness of the protagonist is demonstrated through his inability to manifest individuality. The result of the essay is that although Bateman demonstrates a high amount of the different forms of capital, he still lacks both perceived agency and the means to express his individuality, since he is bound by the masculine culture in which he finds himself and the social rules which are applied therein. The fact that Bateman has no way of demonstrating his individuality provides a possible explanation as to why he has a desire to kill those he feels superior to since they threaten his traditional masculine ideals.