Angrily, the Mayor thinks of all the smug white New Yorkers who will watch the melee on the news and enjoy the thrill of it. For the low end, I went to the South Bronx.” Sherman McCoy’s working world is Wall Street; Larry Kramer’s is the Bronx. We provide an educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary literature. Please check back weekly to see what we have added. . "The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary". The difference between Sherman and Kramer is that Sherman really has it all, and Kramer wants it. Kramer avoids him, embarrassed to be seen in shabby clothes. In contrast to these three weak men is the figure of Judge Myron Kovitsky. Sherman and Judy McCoy's life of elegant apartments, profligate spending, and shallow friendship plays out amid Sheraton furnishings, marble floors, and $2000 suits. The Mayor, on confronting the mob in Harlem, can scarcely believe he is being heckled: “He’s the mayor of the greatest city on earth—New York! After his mistress runs over a young teen, a Wall Street hotshot sees his life unravel in the spotlight and attracting the interest of a down and out reporter. Why did he turn tail and run? They could be said to represent types—the aging socialite wife and the sexy young mistress—with few nuances to give them depth. The Bonfire of the Vanities, set in New York City in the nineteen eighties, has as its protagonist Sherman McCoy, a self-dubbed "Master of the Universe." His wife recognizes his voice. Horrified, Sherman hangs up on her. In the final scene, set five years later in 1990, there is a large audience applauding Peter Fallow's premiere of his very first book titled Bonfire of the Vanities. A prim English nanny, hired by Kramer’s mother-in-law, is temporarily staying in the Kramers’ living room to help with the baby. While Sherman struggles, his wife Judy comes to suggest that she take the dog out instead while he reads a book to their six-year-old daughter, Campbell. Still, he is relieved when he reaches his subway stop, the 161st Street station. He calls Maria and tells her he will be right over. Prologue and Chapters 1-2. Both Sherman and Kramer are good examples of what Wolfe dubbed the “Me Generation.” Taught to love themselves, they go a little too far and think they should indulge every whim. Kramer has begun to have his doubts about the system. Inside the building, an alarm goes off, possibly warning of an escaped prisoner. The Mayor’s security convinces him to make a retreat. It is through these two main characters that Wolfe introduces the two separate worlds of the novel, which are destined to collide. As a Master of the Universe, he feels entitled to have a mistress. He hasn’t been able to work out recently because there is no space in the apartment with the nanny there. On the train, people avoid eye contact. The book opens in Harlem, where the unnamed mayor of New York is holding a town-hall meeting. Kramer, beaming with admiration, congratulates the judge on shutting them up. GradeSaver, 17 April 2007 Web. The first two chapters describe the scene in high-class and low-class neighborhoods. Both sides must become expert media manipulators to win at this game, and it’s all-out war. White male vanity is the first thing that’s going to be burned in this bonfire. What does it all really accomplish? Anxiously, he tells Maria about his blunder, but she laughs it off. Check out this link, especially paragraph 7. http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lpbr/subpages/reviews/wolfe0408.htm, the book is great but I really do not think that the film does it justice, though the actors did a good job but it takes away from the authors vision. It’s ironic, it’s ridiculous, it’s petty, and for Tom Wolfe, it perfectly encapsulates the low level of discourse on racism in America. These men are not heroes; in fact, they’re really cowards, with nothing to back up their big egos. Now, with the TV cameras rolling, he realizes to his horror that the bad press will very likely cost him the next election. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Kramer uses the high profile of the case to attempt to impress his would-be mistress, Shelly Thomas. Bonfire Of The Vanities Summary. Now he has lost for certain. As he thinks to himself, he sees Judge Myron Kovitsky, a bald, wiry Jewish man of about sixty, arriving in his old boat of a car. Three African-American boys in black thermal jackets and sneakers stroll through the aisle with an affected strut Kramer thinks of as the “Pimp Roll.” He tenses up, flexing his powerful neck muscles, but nothing happens. Sherman has a palatial apartment, but Kramer lives in a tiny “ant farm.” Sherman can make $50,000 in one day; Kramer and his wife combined can’t net that in a year. Kramer, mortified, moves to get inside as quickly as possible, but the steely-eyed judge makes a beeline for the van, confronting and cowing the prisoners. The same Reverend Bacon has been vocally opposed to his campaign, accusing him of favoring white interests. Sherman calls them “social x-rays” because they keep themselves so thin he can see right through to the bones. Reverend Beacon, Jed Kramer, DA Weiss, Tom Killian, Judge White, Caroline, Annie Lamb, and the rest of people who had something to do with the case (except for Sherman McCoy) are in attendance. Wolfe’s goal was to write a novel of social realism about modern-day urban America in the manner of nineteenth-century novelists Dickens, Zola, and Balzac. So for the high end of the scale, I went down to Wall Street to do reporting. The predominately African-Americancrowd is not friendly, and the white, Jewish mayor is heckled and booed as a “Chuck” or “Charlie”—a white bigot. He’s a true warrior for justice and a hero of the book. Meanwhile, his Assistant District Attorney assigned to the case, Larry Kramer, wrestles with serious self-esteem issues. Bonfire of the Vanities is inspired by the 1497 bonfire of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, in Florence, Italy, during which he encouraged the population to burn all of their luxuries and precious possessions as a reaction to what he perceived as a shift towards materialism and empty consumerism, instead of the necessary cultivation of one's inner spiritual garden…. Kramer and Rhoda’s combined annual income is $56,000, or $41,000 after deductions—an amount Sherman McCoy can earn in just one day as commission on a bond deal. Sherman uses the services of a flamboyant and street-wise Irish-American lawyer, Tommy Killian, who knows the criminal justice system inside and out. Prologue - "Mutt on Fire" and Chapter 1 - "The Master of the Universe", Chapter 2 - "Gibraltar" and Chapter 3 - "From the Fiftieth Floor", Chapter 4 - "King of the Jungle" and Chapter 5 - "The Girl with Brown Lipstick", Chapter 6 - "A Leader of the People" and Chapter 7 - "Catching the Fish", Chapter 8 - "The Case" and Chapter 9 - "Some Brit Named Fallow", Chapter 10 - "Saturday's Saturnine Lunchtime" and Chapter 11 - "The Words on the Floor", Chapter 12 - "The Last of the Great Smokers" and Chapter 13 - "The Day-Glo Eel", Chapter 14 - "I Don't Know How to Lie" and Chapter 15 - "The Masque of the Red Death", Chapter 16 - "Tawkin Irish" and Chapter 17 - "The Favor Bank", Chapter 18 - "Shuhmun" and Chapter 19 - "Donkey Loyalty", Chapter 20 - "Calls from Above" and Chapter 21 - "The Fabulous Koala", Chapter 22 - "Styrofoam Peanuts" and Chapter 23 - "Inside the Cavity", Chapter 24 - "The Informants" and Chapter 25 - "We the Jury", Chapter 26 - "Death New York Style" and Chapter 27 - "Hero of the Hive", Chapter 28 - "Off to a Better Place" and Chapter 29 - "The Rendezvous", Chapter 30 - "An Able Pupil"; Chapter 31 - "Into the Solar Plexus" and Epilogue - "Financier Is Arraigned", Controversy over the making of the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, Read the Study Guide for The Bonfire of the Vanities…, View Wikipedia Entries for The Bonfire of the Vanities….