American Psycho Literary Devices

Bret Easton Ellis is an American author, screenwriter, and short story writer, Ellis made is breakthrough at the early age of 21 and has made several novels ever since but is most known for his novel “The American Psycho”. This story is revolved around a young stockbroker who is a a average man by day with friends and a fiancée who attends dinner events and party but by night he takes joy in taking the lives of other human in New York and engaging in sexual activates with multiple women. In the American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis uses Literary devices such as foreshadowing and allusions all while leaving readers with the theme that thing are not always what they seem. Ellis continuously gives readers clues throughout the first half of the story as to what Patrick Bateman does by night. As well as giving us readers clues, Bateman constantly admits that he kills people and that he would even kill his friends if they pushed him to his breaking point but due to his social class and their naive manner they overlook it because they believe he is joking. This idea of him being over
looked is shown in the first chapter of the story where he is in casual conversation with Evelyn and Tom who are flirting and Evelyn refers to Patrick as “the boy next door”, Bateman being the maniac he is, nonchalantly whispers under his break “I’m a fucking Psychopath” but neither Tom nor Evelyn even notice this comment. Situation much like this happen throughout the story where Patrick is over looked or mad seem like a nut job for these accusations against himself. Throughout the story readers are convinced that Bateman is an actual serial killer due to the detailed stories and large numbers of murders that occur as well readers being convinced that Bateman is a suave, handsome young man who ladies find irresistible but when in reality we later find out that this is a a fragment of Batemans imagination and downfall, all the murders were fake and his suave manner was a character all composed in his mind to cope with the fact that he is really an ordinary and kind of wimpy man that is desperately trying to fit in with the rest of the crowd.
When looking back on the story we realize that the closest thing we get to a clue of this is when Evelyn mentions the redundancy of him working on wall street when he is already a wealthy man since his father is already an established man, Bateman soon shuts her up by saying wants to “fit in” (Ellis
20). Readers learn that reality is not always what it seems and sometimes you must play attention to small details. This theme is shown in many aspects such as Batemans attitude and his want to kill many people but never really having the courage, he channels this aggression and releases it in his imagination through murders and nights out with his so-called friends. In the end, Bateman never fully makes the connection until ironically coming face to face with his psychologist, who seems as though the phone call Patrick left him was a joke and tells him he enjoyed it but Bateman persists on the idea that it was all real (Ellis 388) When readers look back on the story many of the details soon all come to connect including the foreshadowing used by Ellis when Patrick Bateman discusses the murders or the major allusion that last during the entire novel, leaving readers and the main character stunted, almost giving readers the chance to connect with Bateman on a new level in which we couldn’t before because now he is more ordinary rather then lavish. Along with these literary devices, Ellis ties them all up into one theme that thing may not always be what they seem in which we clearly can see by the end of the plot when everything is revealed to readers and Bateman himself by the one man who should of told him all along.