Al

Outer characterization

Al is another character in the novel excerpt “Tuesday” by Bret Easton Ellis. He is a homeless man that Patrick encounters while walking through the neighborhood. He is a black man in his forties, without a job or a place to live and whose clothes are dirty and worn: 

The bum wakes up, opens his eyes, yawning, exposing remarkably stained teeth between cracked purple lips.
He’s fortyish, heavyset, and when he attempts to sit up I can make out his features more clearly in the glare of the streetlamp: a few days’ growth of beard, triple chin, a ruddy nose lined with thick brown veins. 

From his physical description, Al is the exact opposite of Patrick. This creates a contrast between the two characters.

Inner characterization

From Patrick’s descriptio...