"Bonfire of the Vanities:" In Tom Wolfe's depiction of 1980s New York there are no moral values. All his characters are driven by the imperatives of greed and desire. How far do you agree?

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In Tom Wolfe’s depiction of 1980s New York there are no moral values. All his characters are driven by the imperatives of greed and desire. How far do you agree?

By Edward Worboys

The novel is a satirical novel based in 1980s New York. It highlights the problems of the era by using exaggerated characters and events, which are often blackly comical. Before passing judgement on Tom Wolfe’s multitude of characters, it is necessary to realise the economic situation in New York at the time the Bonfire of the Vanities is set, which was the 1980s. It happened to be a very prosperous period for America, and indeed most of the developed world. However, poverty in the Bronx is described very vividly by Wolfe, which contrasts heavily with the luxurious, opulent lives that those in Manhattan experience. We must be careful not to confuse prosperity with greed.

Sherman McCoy is immediately comes across as greedy, self-obsessed and unfaithful so our first impression of him is negative to say the least. He coins himself “Master of the Universe” and refers to himself in the third person, which is a sign of someone who thinks a lot of himself. He is a hugely wealthy bond trader who lives on Park Avenue with his wife Judy and daughter Campbell. He is portrayed as being self-centred from the start and a few pages into the book we find he is cheating on his wife. Here we have one of the novel’s many immoral characters, and Sherman is not nearly the worst. Although Sherman has been cheating on his wife, he does feel guilt, showing he is not completely amoral. One may argue, however, that he would not have felt guilt if he had not been caught. “He was of that breed whose natural destiny was…to have what they wanted!” This phrase sums up Sherman. He feels he deserves what ever he wants.

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Tom Wolfe satirises many aspects of New York life including the media, the judicial system, the legal system, the church and the political system. Each ‘category’ has its own figurehead that stands for just about everything that is wrong about it. For instance the figurehead for the media is Peter Fallow, a British alcoholic Journalist who works for the “City Light”, the tabloid of New York. He will say or do anything to get a good story and up his reputation and therefore increase the size of his wallet.

The whole city falls under the spell of ...

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