Structure

The text “Tuesday” by Bret Easton Ellis is a chapter from the novel American Psycho. The chapter starts in medias res with Patrick Bateman and others in a limousine as they are going to a party. 

The story has a linear structure and the events are told in chronological order. The focus of the chapter is the one-sided conflict between Patrick and Al, a homeless man whom Patrick mocks and then kills.

The text presents an element of foreshadowing. In the beginning, when Patrick stumbles upon Courtney, he caresses her face: “ ‘You look... voluptuous tonight,’ I say, touching her neck, running a finger up over her chin until it reaches the bottom lip”. This foreshadows the moment when he later meets the homeless man Al, and makes the same gesture: “I reach out and touch his face gently once more w...