Previous
Chapter 21
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bonfire of the Vanities, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality, Power, and Self-Interest
Stereotypes, Ignorance, and Racism
Wealth, Class, and Status
Transactional Relationships
Truth and Bias
Summary
Analysis
That night, Sherman can’t sleep. His heart pounds as he thinks about being arrested the next day. Mentally, he goes through what he imagines the arrest will look like and can’t believe that he’s really going to be arrested. Killian arrives at Sherman’s apartment building at 7:15 AM. Sherman says goodbye to Judy and goes downstairs to meet Killian. Martin and Goldberg then drive up, and Sherman and Martin get in the car with them. On the way to the Criminal Courts building and Central Booking, Martin says that when they get there, the press will be there. Killian is furious. He says that Bernie gave him his word that the press wouldn’t be involved. Martin says he doesn’t know what Bernie said, but his orders came from Weiss.
This passage shows that Bernie and Weiss’s conflicting views of how Sherman’s arrest should go have ended in a kind of compromise. While Weiss doesn’t get his way completely, and Sherman isn’t arrested at his apartment, Weiss does succeed in getting the press to show up. Weiss’s emphasis on getting the press involved again suggests that, regarding Sherman’s case, Weiss is perhaps primarily concerned with how it will play in the media rather than with whether he is actually achieving justice.
Active
Themes
When they arrive at the Criminal Courts building, there’s a mob of photographers. When Sherman gets out of the car, the photographers close in around him. Martin and Goldberg try to shove their way through the crowd, but it’s too dense to move easily. The photographers hurl insults and taunts at Sherman to get him to look their way. Martin then says that there’s a group of people inside who have just been arrested, so Sherman will have to wait outside in the crowd for longer. Fallow is also in the crowd. The reporters ask Sherman to give a statement. Killian says his client isn’t going to give a statement, but Killian speaks to the reporters. He calls the arrest a circus and says it goes against what he and the DA’s office agreed to.
This passage portrays the press as a ravenous mob. The novel suggests that the press is so eager to cover Sherman and his involvement in the hit-and-run because the dynamics of the story—in which a wealthy and inordinately privileged White man is charged with hitting a high-achieving Black man from humble beginnings—taps into the longstanding tensions the novel details between a powerful White elite that has hoarded institutional power on the one hand and disenfranchised Black communities on the other. However, the novel suggests that the media is so fixated on the symbolic nature of that story that it overlooks pivotal facts of Sherman’s case, namely that Maria was driving the car when it hit Henry.
Active
Themes
The crowd continues to yell at Sherman until Martin and Goldberg bring him inside. Once inside the Criminal Courts building, Martin and Goldberg take Sherman to another room. Killian can’t go with him. Sherman reflects on the arrest and the press and thinks ruefully that Killian was supposed to have connections to help him avoid those kinds of things. Sherman then goes to a desk to surrender his possessions. He has to hand over his shoelaces, too. Afterward, Sherman struggles to keep his loose shoes on his feet. Martin and Goldberg then leave Sherman, and another police officer brings him to a cubicle across from a cell with about a dozen other people in it.
Active
Themes
In the cubicle, the officer takes Sherman’s fingerprints. Sherman then has to pass through a metal detector, but it keeps going off. Eventually, the police officer realizes that Sherman’s fillings are setting it off, but not before making Sherman walk back and forth through the metal detector multiple times. The officer then takes Sherman’s mug shot before leading Sherman to the cell with a dozen other people in it. In the cell, someone asks Sherman why he’s there, and Sherman says, “Reckless endangerment.”
Active
Themes
Get the entire The Bonfire of the Vanities LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Later, a group of other people arrive in the cell. One of them asks what Sherman is there for, and Sherman says, “Manslaughter,” and then adds that he’s innocent. That person says he was arrested for armed robbery. When lunch comes, Sherman grabs a plastic-wrapped sandwich and a drink from a tray. The person who asked Sherman why he’d been arrested asks for Sherman’s drink. When Sherman doesn’t give it to him, the man grabs it and drinks it before tossing the cup onto Sherman’s lap. Sherman thinks he should do something, but he’s too afraid to act.
Active
Themes
A mouse runs across the cell, and someone kicks it. It lands near Sherman and is too injured to walk. Without thinking, Sherman picks it up and starts walking toward the bars of the cell. The mouse then bites him and won’t let go. Sherman bangs his hand on the bar to try and get it off, and it eventually flies off and lands at the feet of the nearest police officer. The officer looks up and asks Sherman what’s wrong with him. The person who’s been arrested for armed robbery then approaches Sherman and says he’s cold, so he wants Sherman’s jacket. Sherman doesn’t know what to do, but he gets to his feet and tells the man to shut up. A police officer then calls Sherman’s name and takes him out of the cell.
Active
Themes
Sherman is brought to the courtroom, where he’s reunited with Killian. Kramer is also there. He’ll be the lawyer prosecuting the case. Kramer opens the proceedings by saying that he knows he and Killian agreed to a $10,000 bail for Sherman, but given recent developments in the case, that amount is too low. Instead, Kramer says, he would like bail to be set at $250,000. Killian argues against Kramer’s motion strongly. Eventually, the judge sets bail at $10,000 and tells Kramer that if the DA’s office wants the bail to be higher, they can make a formal presentation about the new amendments to the case.
Active
Themes
Police officers then escort Sherman out of the courthouse. There is a crowd out front gathered in support of Henry Lamb, and the crowd yells at Sherman. Outside, Killian addresses the press and says that everything that happened today has been a circus. Sherman thinks that he’ll do whatever he has to do to never return to that building, even if that means he has to take his own life.
Active
Themes
