The first six chapters of Tom WolfeÆs (1990) Bonfire of the Vanities provides the cast of characters and contrasting settings of Park Avenue and the South Bronx whose tensions will boil over when protagonist Sherman McCoy and his mistress hit a black man with their car. These chapters provide the background and lifestyle of characters like McCoy, ôa Yale man,ö who believes he deserves the opulent life of luxury his million dollar a year Wall Street job provides him (Wolfe, 1990, p. 11). We are also introduced to his wife, his mistress, a manipulative African American leader, and other characters. We discover there are two distinct worlds in New York; one for the haves and one for the have-nots. In these chapters Wolfe sets up his characters as largely unappealing, self-interested people, whether they exist on Park Avenue or in the South Bronx.
I felt Wolfe did an excellent job in these chapters of conveying the contrasting worlds of Park Avenue and the South Bronx, two worlds whose underlying tensions will collide in the person of Sherman McCoy. He also makes his characters in this section appear one way, when in the end we will perceive them differently. For example, Judy seems ôbitchyö and Maria ôharmless,ö but we come to learn Judy is merely dissatisfied with a life she didnÆt expect and Maria is dangerous.
WolfeÆs (1990) first six chapters of Bonfire of the Vanities depicts the rarified world of upper-crust New York, where Sherman McCoy dresses in leather boating moccasins, khakis, and a checkered shirt, admires his profile in the mirror, and we are told, his entire appearance is only to say ôIÆm going out to walk the dogö (p. 11). These chapters show us Park Avenue society is filled with top dogs in a dog-eat-dog environment that eventually swallows the weak. However, we also see the contrasting world of the South Bronx
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