Perspectives

Literary perspective

“Tuesday” by Bret Easton Ellis can be considered an example of postmodern literature. This literary movement dominated the 1980’s, which is also the period in which American Psycho is set. (“Tuesday” is an extract from this novel).

First, a feature of postmodern literature is the use of irony, which is also present in “Tuesday” through Patrick Bateman’s comments. For example, when Pa…

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Works with the same theme or by the same author

“Killing child at zoo” by Bret Easton Ellis is another chapter from the novel American Psycho (1991). While at the zoo, Patrick Bateman lures a child to him and stabs him to death with a knife. Just like in “Tuesday”, Patrick feels no remorse after committing the crime. Another similarity is that Patrick appears to want to help the child at first but changes his mind, just like he does with the homeless man. 

“The Man Who Loved Flowers” (1977) by Stephen King also explores the character of a young man living in New York. The story explores the difference between appearance and reality by looking at the main character. On the outside, he is young and beautiful but, in reality, he is a murderer. When comparing “The Man Who Loved Flowers” with “Tuesday” by Bret Easton Ellis, it could be useful to look at how the two main characters may be perceived by others at first and what they are really like. 

The short story “Don’t You Hate Having Two Heads” (2006) by Christine Poulson also explores deceptive appearances and the theme of evil. In the story, a man named Richard starts a conversation with a stranger named Jessica in a museum in Venice. The two discuss the news of a serial killer in Venice and Richard behaves strangely and appears on edge, which makes readers think he might be the killer and Jessica might be his next victim. However, the story’s ending reveals that the killer is Jessica. Similarly to Patrick, Jessica also has a secret identity…