The Bonfire of the Vanities

“Ain’ nobody can eat statistics, man!”

When the mayor offers the crowd in Harlem statistics about his outreach program, someone from the crowd shouts that they need livelihood, not tokenism. This quote is an example of Wolfe’s use of witty dialogue and vivid dialect to build the teeming world of his novel.

“Cattle! Birdbrains! Rosebuds! […] You don’t even know, do you? Do you really think this is your city any longer? Open your eyes! The greatest city of the twentieth century! Do you think money will keep it yours? Come down from your swell co-ops, you general partners and merger lawyers! It’s the Third World down there!”

This passage reflects the complexity of race relations in the world of the novel. When the mayor is heckled by a largely Black crowd, he imagines the white people watching the event on TV enjoying it as a spectacle removed from them. However, the mayor wants to tell white New Yorkers that they cannot live in their insulated bubbles any longer. The city belongs to everyone, and unless racial and cultural inequalities are addressed, they will lead to unrest for everyone. While the mayor’s observation is pertinent, the vocabulary here is outdated and problematic, especially the use of the phrase “Third World.”

“It was that deep worry that lives in the base of the skull of every residence of Park Avenue south of Ninety-sixth street, a Black youth, tall, rangy, wearing white sneakers.”

The narrative caricatures the insularity and prejudice of white, wealthy New Yorkers, such as Sherman, who reflexively associate young Black men with danger. Sherman feels nervous just at the sight of the Black youth, which shows his bias and white privilege. This quote is also an example of the way the text satirizes its characters’ follies and holds up a mirror to them.