Structure

The novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis has a chronological plot structure as it follows a couple of years in the life of the main character, Patrick Bateman. The novel is split into 60 chapters of varying lengths, with the shortest being only a paragraph long (Ch 53 Working out). 

The chapter titles usually reflect what’s happening in that particular chapter, such as “Shopping”, “Business Meeting”, “Lunch”, or “Dry Cleaners”. The first chapter, “April Fools”, sets the tone for the whole novel. It hints at deception, as April Fools’ Day is associated with pranks and tricks. This foreshadows the unreliable and manipulative nature of Patrick’s narration throughout the book. The rest of the titles seem ordinary, which often contrasts with the gruesome events Patrick describes in that particular chapter, highlighting the stark difference between the appearance of normalcy and the gruesome reality. For example, the chapter where Patrick murders a homeless man is simply titled “Tuesday”. 

The novel begins in medias res as Patrick and his friend Timothy Price are in a taxi in New York on their way to meet with their friends:

Abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Misérables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn’t seem to care because he tells the driver he w...