The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)
"The Bonfire of the Vanities" is a film adaptation of Tom Wolfe's acclaimed novel, which explores the complex social dynamics of New York City in the 1980s. The narrative centers on Sherman McCoy, a wealthy Wall Street bond trader whose life spirals out of control after a fateful encounter in the Bronx with two young Black men. This incident leads to a hit-and-run trial, where McCoy becomes emblematic of the racial and class tensions prevalent in society. The story unfolds against a backdrop of political maneuvering, media sensationalism, and the pursuit of power, showcasing how McCoy's privilege becomes a liability amid the city’s harsh realities.
The film delves into themes of vanity, power, and societal critique, illustrating the consequences of obsession with status and the fear of loss. The title itself references historical events, suggesting a metaphorical cleansing of the superficial values that dominated 1980s American culture. Through its portrayal of diverse characters—including ambitious prosecutors and a charismatic activist—the film highlights the intersectionality of race, class, and morality in a rapidly changing urban landscape. Overall, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" serves as a thought-provoking commentary on the complexities of human ambition and societal judgment.
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Subject Terms
The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)
Identification Best-selling novel
Author Tom Wolfe
Date Serialized 1984-1985; novel published 1987
The first novel by controversial journalist Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities demonstrated its author’s reportorial skill, irreverent social insight, and flamboyant style as it presented a panorama of New York in the 1980’s. The novel portrayed an ethnically divided New York where love of status triumphs over decency, the rich and the poor seldom meet, a demagogue manipulates the news media, and most politicians care more about votes than about justice.
Key Figures
Tom Wolfe (1931- ), American journalist and novelist
Tom Wolfe became famous before the 1980’s for his innovative nonfiction, but during the early 1980’s he began work on a book he had long hoped to write. This novel about New York City would bring together characters from diverse social levels. To achieve such juxtapositions convincingly, he decided that he would need to conduct serious research, emulating realist novelists such as Émile Zola and Sinclair Lewis.
To combat writer’s block, Wolfe arranged to write in installments, each of which would be published in Rolling Stone. His daring plan worked, although he became dissatisfied with aspects of the serialization as it appeared from 1984 to 1985. When revising the novel for publication as a book in 1987, he made significant changes, most notably in transforming the protagonist, Sherman McCoy, from a writer to a Wall Street bond trader. The novel’s McCoy became an expensively dressed thirty-eight-year-old with a big income but bigger debts, a questioning daughter, a spendthrift wife, and a voluptuous mistress.
In The Bonfire of the Vanities, McCoy’s lifestyle and sense of power begin their decline when he and his mistress find themselves lost at night in the Bronx. They encounter two young, seemingly threatening black men, and as a result of the encounter McCoy becomes the defendant in a hit-and-run trial. McCoy, a rich, white suspect in a crime with a black victim becomes a pawn for many other characters: District Attorney Abe Weiss, for example, wants to convict him to ensure his reelection, while Assistant District Attorney Larry Kramer sees a conviction as a means to increase his income, as well as his status with his boss and with the woman he wants to make his mistress. Meanwhile, the shrewd Reverend Bacon of Harlem stirs up journalists, including tabloid reporter Peter Fallow, in order to further his own political agenda. As a result, an initially obscure accident captures the public’s attention, as it is made by journalists and politicians to stand for racial and class divisions in the city. As the novel ends, the tough, impartial Judge Myron Kovitsky, a Jewish American like Weiss and Kramer, has lost his reelection campaign, and McCoy has lost the status he once thought essential. In its place, he has gained the shrewdness and ferocity of a beast fighting for survival in the jungle of the United States’ biggest city.
Impact
The title of Wolfe’s novel alluded to Girolamo Savonarola’s famous bonfire in Florence, Italy, on February 7, 1497, at which thousands of objects were burned as occasions of sin. As he suggested with this title, Wolfe used the novel figuratively to burn away the vanity of status in 1980’s American culture. While the book offended one group after another, it detailed the importance of sexual, monetary, and political power to that culture, as well as the consequences of both the obsession with obtaining power and the fear of losing it.
Bibliography
Bloom, Harold, ed. Tom Wolfe. Broomall, Pa.: Chelsea House, 2001.
Ragen, Brian Abel. Tom Wolfe: A Critical Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Shomette, Doug, ed. The Critical Response to Tom Wolfe. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992.