The Bonfire of the Vanities

“Cattle! Birdbrains! Rosebuds! […] You don’t even know, do you? Do you really think this is your city any longer? Open your eyes! The greatest city of the twentieth century! Do you think money will keep it yours? Come down from your swell co-ops, you general partners and merger lawyers! It’s the Third World down there!”

This passage reflects the complexity of race relations in the world of the novel. When the mayor is heckled by a largely Black crowd, he imagines the white people watching the event on TV enjoying it as a spectacle removed from them. However, the mayor wants to tell white New Yorkers that they cannot live in their insulated bubbles any longer. The city belongs to everyone, and unless racial and cultural inequalities are addressed, they will lead to unrest for everyone. While the mayor’s observation is pertinent, the vocabulary here is outdated and problematic, especially the use of the phrase “Third World.”

“It was that deep worry that lives in the base of the skull of every residence of Park Avenue south of Ninety-sixth street, a Black youth, tall, rangy, wearing white sneakers.”

The narrative caricatures the insularity and prejudice of white, wealthy New Yorkers, such as Sherman, who reflexively associate young Black men with danger. Sherman feels nervous just at the sight of the Black youth, which shows his bias and white privilege. This quote is also an example of the way the text satirizes its characters’ follies and holds up a mirror to them.

“Nobody from the District Attorney’s Office went out into the park on a sunny day in May to have lunch, not even somebody who could bench-press two hundred pounds, the way he could. […] They stayed inside the building, this island fortress of the Power, of the white people, like himself, this Gibraltar in the poor sad Sargasso Sea of the Bronx.”

Kramer’s observation is yet another example of the insularity and prejudice of a white character in the novel. What is ironic is that Kramer, a public official, thinks of the Brox as a weed-covered sea, while the courthouse, a symbol of white institutional power, is the solid ridge of Gibraltar. The Sargasso Sea and Gibraltar metaphor is also an example of Wolfe’s use of figurative language.

“He worked on Wall Street, fifty floors up, for the legendary Pierce & Pierce, overlooking the world! He was at the wheel of a $48,000 roadster with one of the most beautiful women in New York […] He was of that breed whose natural destiny it was…to have what they wanted!”

Sherman’s vain belief in his destiny is tragicomic because it foreshadows his downfall. He might believe he has everything he wants and deserves, but these superficial markers will soon be taken away from him.

“Perfect love! Pure bliss! Priapus, king and master! Master of the Universe! King of the Jungle!”

An example of Wolfe’s hyperbolic, humorous narrative style, this quote shows Sherman reveling in having returned alive from the so-called jungle of the Bronx. Sherman feels a surge of masculine power, but the description only shows his naivete, since he will soon learn he is neither master nor king. Priapus refers to a Greek fertility god, often depicted with an erect phallus. Sherman often thinks of himself as Priapus when making love to Maria, another instance of his male vanity.

“Very early in life he had picked up the knowledge that the Italians and the Irish were animals. The Italians were pigs, and the Irish were mules or goats. He couldn't remember if his parents had actually used any such terms or not, but they got the idea across very clearly.”

Kramer’s observation depicts how communities are taught mistrust of each other early in life. In Kramer’s milieu of intellectual families of Jewish heritage, children were taught that people of Irish and Italian represented unthinking, animal force.

“And here they were, the three of them, sitting in this Good Enough for Government Work Office at $36,000 to $42,000 a year instead of down at Cravath, Swain, and Moore or some such place at $136,000 to $142,000.”

While characters in the novel behave in questionable ways, the narrative contextualizes their conduct against socioeconomic realities. Kramer notes that the ADAs in his office behave crudely, but they have also chosen to work in low-paying public jobs instead of the lucrative private sector. The income disparity adds to the frustration the ADA’s experience.

“There was no turning back! Once you had lived in a $2.6 million apartment on Park Avenue—it was impossible to live in a $1 million apartment! Naturally, there was no way to explain this to a living soul. Unless you were a complete fool, you couldn't even make the words come out of your mouth. Nevertheless—it was so! It was…an impossibility!”

Sherman’s panicked observation about the potential fallout of the hit-and-run shows how exhausting it is to maintain a front of wealth and social relevance. While it is tragicomic that Sherman worries about living in a million-dollar apartment, Sherman’s statement mirrors the social worries of his milieu. The statement also foreshadows his fate: He will end up in a far more modest apartment but still survive.

“If you people were worried about the children, you would build the day-care center yourself […] No, my friend, you’re investing in something else. You’re investing in steam control. And you’re getting value for money. Value for money.”

Reverend Bacon’s words to Fiske establish the manipulative nature of his character. Bacon indulges in classic gaslighting by trying to make Fiske believe the only reason his diocese is investing in Harlem is to manage public anger and opinion, or the “steam.” However, Bacon’s words also carry a grain of truth: White institutions may perform token acts of charity and inclusiveness to control their public perception.

“‘You’re thinking about “honor students” and “higher achievers” and all that…But at Colonel Jacob Ruppert High School, an honor student is somebody who attends class, isn’t disruptive, tries to learn, and does all right at reading and arithmetic.’

‘Well, let’s use that standard. By that standard, is Henry Lamb an honor student?’

‘By that standard, yes.’”

The conversation between Fallow and the principal of Henry’s school shows two things: one, that Fallow can twist the principal’s words to fit his narrative of Henry being an honor student, and two, that the public only cares about “good” Black victims. Henry has to be made as sympathetic as possible for his case to appeal to the prejudiced white public.

“Just imagine that a bond is a slice of cake, and you didn’t bake the cake, but every time you had somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that.

[…] If you pass around enough slices of cake, then pretty soon you have enough crumbs to make a gigantic cake.”

Judy’s analogy of the cake for a bond is an example of Wolfe’s use of literary devices in the text. The analogy emphasizes the non-creative and transactional nature of Sherman’s job. Sherman does not bake the cake but collects crumbs. This shows that Judy has a low opinion of Sherman’s work and also reflects her anger against Sherman.

“The apartment’s salon […] was enormous, but it appeared to be […] stuffed…with sofas, cushions, fat chairs and hassocks, all of them braided, tasseled, banded, bordered and…stuffed…Even the walls were covered in some sort of padded fabric.”

Sherman’s description of the Bavardages' salon is an example of Wolfe’s descriptions of the excesses of high society. The salon is huge but crammed and padded to the extent that it appears claustrophobic. It symbolizes the dazzling but stultified world of high society and also shows how Sherman’s perception of that world is changing after learning he may be in trouble with the law.

“The hive buzzed with the sheer ecstasy of being in this mellow rosy stuffed orbit. Hack hack hack hack hack hack, the horse laugh of Inez Bavardage rose somewhere. So many bouquets of people…grinning faces…boiling teeth.”

The metaphor of the hive for the Bavardages' party is an example of the text’s use of animal symbolism. Animal symbolism in the novel describes the ruthless, animalistic nature of humans. Here, the party is presented almost in nightmarish terms, buzzing with voices and boiling with laughing teeth.

“He still had a shot at that much-prized, ever-elusive, and in the Bronx, very nearly mythical creature, the Great White Defendant.”

Kramer uses the literary reference of the great white whale that Captain Ahab singularly pursues in the great American novel Moby Dick to describe the DA’s office’s pursuit of Sherman. The narrative satirizes the quest: While Ahab’s motives could be described as noble, Weiss and Kramer’s are downright dubious. They want to prosecute Sherman to win public approval rather than actually help underserved communities.

“A foot came flying out of the ledge. The mouse went skidding across the tile floor like a hockey puck. Another leg flew out. The mouse went flying back towards the ledge.”

The defendants in the pens at the Bronx Courthouse kick around a hapless mouse, treating it like an object, rather than a living thing. Sherman’s pity for the mouse shows he identifies with it: Just like the mouse is kicked around by people, Sherman is tossed around by fate. The cruel treatment of the mouse also shows that the defendants have been subjected to so much indignity they have turned callous.

“She has been absorbed as an artist and a woman…with full Italian Dirty-Girl lips…in himself.”

Kramer’s objectifying description of the court artist who painted his picture shows the extent of his moral corruption and toxic masculine values. The artist has only been doing her job, but Kramer imagines she is absorbed in him. He describes her good looks in overtly sexualized terms and links her perceived sexual appeal with her heritage.

“The Sherman McCoy of the McCoy family and Yale and Park Avenue and Wall Street is dead. Your self—I don’t know how to explain it, but if, God forbid, anything like this ever happens to you, you’ll know what I mean. Your self…is other people, all the people you’re tied to, and it’s only a thread.”

After his public humiliation, Sherman tells Killian his self is dead. This shows how Sherman, like most people in the novel, partly derives his sense of self from his social image. Now that Sherman is no longer the person he was supposed to be, he feels unmoored. The lesson Sherman must learn is that his self is more than his image and what other people think of him.

“Madame Tacaya Madame Tacaya Madame Tacaya.”

While Arthur Ruskin lies dead across a dinner table and Fallow scrambles for help, all he can hear in the background is the waiters' worry about the impending arrival of their esteemed guest, Madame Tacaya. This ironic situation shows how little human life matters in the world of the wealthy. Now that Ruskin is dead, he is expendable. However, Madame Tacaya is alive and must be entertained because she will buy an expensive meal.

“It prevented you from relishing these expensive morsels arranged in such pretty pictures on your plate.”

In the novel, reminders of mortality often poke through the glitzy bubble of the wealthy. The diners at the restaurant hate the fact that Ruskin has died not because of sympathy but because the sight of his mortal remains keeps them from indulging in their superficial world.

“A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.”

This observation by Sherman is an example of Wolfe’s use of wit and black humor in the novel. After his courthouse stint, Sherman has developed more empathy for underserved communities.

“In that moment he had something that these Wasp counselors, these immaculate Wall Street partners […] would never know and never feel the inexpressible pleasure of possessing. […] [I]t was nothing less than the Power, the same Power to which Abe Weiss himself was totally given over. It was the power of the government over the freedom of its subjects.”

In this passage, Wolfe captures the sense of power morally corrupt public officials feel over citizens. Kramer has been feeling inadequate in Maria’s sumptuous apartment; however, when he senses her fear, he exults in the control he exercises over her. No amount of wealth or beauty can inure the likes of Maria from Kramer.

“COME INTO MY RENT-CONTROLLED LOVE NEST!

Millionairess Maria entertained McCoy in $331-a-month tryst pad”

This headline in The City Light is an example of the sensationalistic tabloid journalism in which Peter Fallow engages. The lurid words, accompanied by a provocative photo of Maria, show the moral corruption of the press in the novel.

“In this little room full of people he was suffering the pangs of men whose egos lose their virginity—as happens when they overhear for the first time a beautiful woman's undiluted, full-strength opinion of their masculine selves.”

Kramer’s response to hearing Maria’s true opinion of him is a takedown of his male vanity. Wolfe’s writing here shows the social and psychological realism of this novel. All of Kramer’s notions of masculine power come tumbling down. Kramer experiences the humiliation as a deflowering, feeling emasculated.