History Literature / AmericanPsycho

* {{Yuppie}}: Patrick Bateman is the archetypal affluent yuppie. He's rich, works on Wall Street, has a pretty girlfriend, and spends most of his life in trendy restaurants and clubs.

* BuxomBeautyStandard: Patrick certainly thinks that; every time he finds a woman attractive, he mentions that she has "big tits". When his favorite talk show features a woman who had breast reduction surgery, he calls one of his associates (who is also watching), and they spend the rest of the segment with ridiculing her.

* BuxomIsBetter: Patrick certainly thinks that; every time he finds a woman attractive, he mentions that she has "big tits". When his favorite talk show features a woman who had breast reduction surgery, he calls one of his associates (who is also watching), and they spend the rest of the segment with ridiculing her.

* OneHourWorkWeek: Patrick's job is very high-paying, with a cushy office, but he doesn't seem to ''do'' any actual work there and [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob has a lot of free time on his hands]]. He frequently arrives late to his office, cuts out early, or does ''both'', while he prioritizes shopping errands, lunch meetings, or feeding his more personal obsessions back at his apartment. Whenever Patrick actually ''is'' at his office, his time is still spent watching TV, listening to music on his walkman, doing crossword puzzles, lifting weights, and doing any number of other unrelated activities. Famously, when Patrick and all his associates attend a business meeting, the entire time is spent showing off their business cards, and later, when Patrick attempts to ''look'' busy when visited by Detective Kimball, all Patrick can think to do is pick up his phone receiver and ramble on about men's fashion and proper tipping etiquette, rather than pretend to actually be in the middle of business. When his secretary looks through his day planner, it's almost empty save for lunch dates. It's mentioned that [[{{Nepotism}} it's his dad's company]].

*** Characters look the same (probably because they all follow trends and try to get the best clothes, haircuts, etc.) to such extent that they often confuse each other, most notably Paul Owen/Allen always mistakes Patrick Bateman for Marcus Halberstam/Halberstram.

* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Bateman gets in an elevator with Creator/TomCruise and attempting to make small talk with him. The conversation is extremely awkward. This is based on a real event: Ellis lived in the same apartment building as Tom Cruise for some time.

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Patrick stomps a dog to death that belonged to a homeless man he previously stabbed. In a chapter in the book, he disembowels another dog, then shoots its owner; in a chapter set at a zoo, he throws nickel coins to the seals, just because he saw a table asking people not to do so (because they can choke on them).

* KickTheDog: Patrick ignores the signs at the zoo to not throw coins at the seals in hopes they'll choke on the coins and take away the happiness they give to the visitors.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Peanut butter soup is actually a real thing (nkatenkwan, the national dish of Ghana), although it's usually made with chicken and yam, rather than duck and squash.

* AnAxeToGrind: Patrick uses an axe to kill Paul Owen.

* KickTheDog: Patrick throws coins at seals at the zoo because they bring joy to others.

* EvilIsPetty: Patrick kills people for such things as having fancier business cards than he does.

* LameComeback: When someone calls Patrick a "fucking yuppie", all he can come up with is: "Hey... You may think I'm a really disgusting yuppie but I'm not, ''really''."

* KickTheDog: Patrick mentions deliberately trying to kill seals at the zoo for the sole reason that they bring joy to others.

** The story begins with Bateman reading graffiti sprayed in red. The story ends with him reading a bar sign in red flanked by red curtains. As well as allusions to Hell: the book begins with a quote from [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's Inferno]] and the quote in the summary, "This is not an exit," is probably a reference to Sartre's play ''Theatre/NoExit''.

* BerserkButton: Anything that gives Bateman [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex the idea that he has/gets less than the absolute best or that there is someone in his social circles that might be better than him]]. For instance, the very thought that Patrick will not get a good table at a restaurant is enough to put him ''on the verge of tears''.

* BerserkButton: Anything that gives Bateman [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex the idea that he has/gets less than the absolute best or that there is someone in his social circles that might be better than him]]. For instance, the very thought that Patrick will not get a good table at a restaurant is enough to put him "on the verge of tears".

** Timothy Price makes the claim when trying to sound world conscious that "Sikhs are killing ''tons'' of Israelis" in Sri Lanka. Neither Israelis nor Sikhs have any sizable presence in Sri Lanka in either a military or civilian capacity, and Sikhism is such an incredibly pacifist religion that the very idea of Sikhs inflicting mass casualties anywhere in the world would be patently absurd.

** He identifies the saddest song he knows as " 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' by Music/TheBeatles". It's actually by Music/TheRollingStones. It also humorously demonstrates complete ignorance of the uplifting, reassuring quality of the song's pop hook that explains, "You get what you need."

* PopCulturedBadass: Deconstructed. In place of an authentic, cultivated human personality, Patrick Bateman constantly strives to be recognized by his peers (as well as the reader/audience) for his knowledge and appreciation of music, art, and pop culture, but his grasp and understanding of the art and media that he consumes is reduced to what material is made the most appealing to the widest audiences and LowestCommonDenominator[[note]]In-universe[[/note]], such as dismissing early Music/{{Genesis|Band}} albums with Music/PeterGabriel (and his "lame solo career") as being "too artsy, too intellectual" and favoring the more commercially-driven direction of the group after Music/PhilCollins became the group's frontman. Other assessments he makes of popular singers and bands are frequently off-the-mark and factually wrong, like being convinced that Music/WhitneyHouston is a ''jazz'' singer or believing [[Music/TheRollingStones "You Can't Always Get What You Want"]] is a song by Music/TheBeatles. He often speaks of owning what's described as the original version of [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/600x315/5e/2e/c5/5e2ec5ee9ec77bb094ef1b45e762d45a.jpg "Sunrise with Broken Plates"]] by artist David Onica (while discreetly boasting of the high cost he paid to obtain it), only for his ex-girlfriend to later point out to him that he hung it upside down. All of this only serves to further demonstrate Patrick's emptiness, shallowness, and delusions about having "good taste."

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* GunPorn: Patrick sometimes describes weapons he has or likes in detail, for example in the chapter named "Taking an Uzi to the Gym".

* BorrowedCatchphrase: In part of the work's satire in shaping Bateman as a product of 1980's American culture and values, as molded by its media and most prominent political figures, Patrick appropriates other popular phrases of the era for himself. Most notably, Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No", and, more humorously while speaking on a telephone, George H.W. Bush's "Read My Lips".

* ObliviousMockery: Harold Carnes mistakes Bateman for someone named Davis, and tells him that Patrick Bateman is "a boring, spineless lightweight."

* BerserkButton: Anything that gives Bateman [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex the idea that he has/gets less than the absolute best or that there is someone in his social circles that might be better than him]]. For instance, the very thought that Patrick will not get a good table at a restaurant is enough to put him "on the verge of tears". Also (in the movie), as much as he despises Luis, it's the fact that Luis had business cards that Patrick thinks are better than his own that drives him to [[spoiler: attempt to]] murder Luis almost immediately.

* UnreliableNarrator: It's difficult to take Patrick at his word when he [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness obviously experiences surreal hallucinations]], [[CannotTellFictionFromReality occasionally sees his own actions and behaviors as if they are occurring in a work of fiction he might regularly enjoy]] (in the book), and other characters even dispute his accounts of events.

* PyrrhicVillainy: By the end of the story, it's clear that [[spoiler:all of Patrick's evil and depravity have afforded him nothing. He's still as lonely and miserable and empty as he was at the beginning, and no one gives a shit about him.]]

* DelusionsOfEloquence: Patrick has an incessant habit -- in narrative and dialogue -- of describing something at length and then haughtily opining on it, even though the things he fixates on are usually deeply banal, and his opinions or conclusions are dull, misinformed, and bigoted. In some ways this is his supreme ego talking, making him think he's above everyone, and thus the ultimate arbiter of taste or judge of human nature; in other ways, it's how he feigns having a human personality -- pretending he always knows what the hell he's talking about, just like everyone else around him. The one thing he seems to know well enough to speak genuinely eloquently on is what a monster he is.

** A character points out that he hung his cherished, original David Onica painting upside-down. [[DisproportionateRetribution This gets her killed.]]