Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities

A detailed Summary of Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities

Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities is an entertaining, amusing, yet serious story. It sheds light on the imperfections of man and says a lot about human nature, mostly negative. In the following paper, I'll discuss some of Wolfe's underlying themes and try to interpret what he wants the reader to take away from his book. Some of the things I'll talk about are class roles, the perception of ethnicity and race, money issues, self image, and lastly women's' issues.

We'll start off with the subject of class roles and differences. Sherman's ride through the Bronx is one of the best displays of these roles and differences. Here, a rich white couple is utterly lost in the worst part of the Bronx. They are driving a $48,000 Mercedes absolutely scared out of there minds. Sherman is in such fear of the locals he refuses to stay stopped at red lights because he thinks he might be attacked. The actions of Sherman and Maria prove how far apart the social classes in America really are. Two people from the upper class can't even feel normal driving through a part of a lower class neighborhood. The separation between rich and poor is incredible.

The conversation between Reverend Bacon, Moody, and Fiske also correctly portrays the class ga

Wolfe talks a lot of about people's perceptions about themselves in the book. He uses a motley crew of characters creating a number of interesting views on self esteem and confidence. I'll talk about the characters and their views in the following examples.

The next scene dealing with self esteem involves Kramer. He is standing in front of his bathroom mirror looking himself over and realizing his body had gone to mush in the last month. Wolfe writes, "Those powerful deltoids, those massive sloping trapezii...they looked deflated. He was freaking atrophying." Kramer obviously thinks poorly of himself since he hasn't worked out recently. The interesting part is that since Kramer's body isn't up to par he relates this to the rest of his life and he feels insignificant. In the midst of his mid-life crisis Kramer thinks to himself, "It's time to give up those childish dreams! You're an American workadaddy now! Nothing more."

p. Bacon talks about how the upper class simply helps the lower class out of fear. They want to lower the "steam effect" and keep the lower class happy. The success of the upper class relies on a content lower class. In order for the rich to stay rich they need the poor to stay poor.

Another simple example of the perception of race occurs on Kramer's subway ride to work. Three young black males enter the car Kramer is sitting in and start to walk towards the other side. Kramer observes their skin color and the clothes they are wearing and suddenly gets very frightened. The thought crosses his mind he could be attacked. He flexes his muscles, and makes it a point to look tough and bored so they won't harm him. This reaction is totally uncalled for and shows the prejudice Kramer has towards blacks. If three white males had entered the car he probably would have wondered what colleges they were going to attend instead of negative things about them.

The issue of money plays a very key role in many of the characters lives. In basically every scene Wolfe describes how expensive the cars, hotels, clothing, and other things are. He is trying to emphasize how important the value of money is to the people in the story. The underling theme throughout the text is that money is perceived to come with respect, power, and most of all happiness. Money is something to search your entire life for. It's perfectly acceptable to throw everything else out the window until you find it. Just look at Sherman's life and you can see how money can run a person's life. That's all he ever thinks about and his entire self worth is measured in how full his wallet

Some common words found in the essay are:
Fiske Moody, Kramer Andy, Master Universe, Bonfire Vanities, Racing Forum, Moody Fiske, Harassing Jews, Italian Irish, Sherman Maria, Ferdinand Arguello, lower class, i'll talk, self esteem, master universe, upper class, ethnicity race, italian irish, fiske moody, roles differences, class roles,

Approximate Word count = 1738
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels