Previous
Chapter 29
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
Kramer has carefully rehearsed how the grand jury hearing will go. The purpose of the grand jury hearing is to present evidence to the grand jury, and the jury will then decide if the evidence warrants pursuing the case further. Kramer first calls Roland as a witness, who testifies that Sherman was driving the car when it hit Henry and that Maria then got in the driver’s seat and drove away. Kramer then calls Maria as a witness. Maria says that Sherman was driving the car and hit Henry. Sherman stopped the car and got out. Roland walked toward them, and Maria was afraid that he might attack them because Sherman had hit Henry with the car.
Maria’s testimony shows that Sherman’s attempts to go behind her back to record her saying that she drove the car during the hit-and-run have completely backfired. Now, instead of confirming Sherman’s version of events, Maria is confirming the version of events that Kramer has put forth. With both Roland and Maria corroborating that version of the story, Sherman seems doomed.
Active
Themes
Maria says she then got into the driver’s seat, and when Sherman got back in, she sped off. Maria adds that Sherman compared the incident to a “fight in the jungle” and agrees with Kramer when Kramer asks if Sherman meant the comment in a racist way. Maria also says that she wanted to report what happened to the police, but Sherman was afraid that his wife would learn he was having an affair so told her not to report it. Maria then adds that Sherman said that because he was the one driving, he was the one who would make the decision about going to the police or not. Kramer thinks that the hearing, and especially Maria’s testimony, could not have gone better. As he’s leaving the courtroom, Bernie approaches him with the latest edition of The City Light.
Notably, Maria points out Sherman’s racist reaction to the events that led to the hit-and-run. She leaves out, though, her own racist reactions to those events. By pointing to Sherman’s racist understanding of the situation, though, Maria’s testimony underlines the idea that Sherman’s reckless and rash reaction to Roland and Henry led to the hit-and-run. And, because the reader knows that Maria also reacted in a racist way and that she was driving during the hit-and-run, her testimony also implicitly reinforces the idea that Maria and Sherman’s racist fear was the principal factor that caused the hit-and-run.
Active
Themes
While the grand jury hearing is happening, Sherman goes to Killian’s office. Killian shows him the latest edition of The City Light. Fallow’s front-page story is about Maria’s “love nest” and says that she paid $750 per month to sublet the rent-controlled apartment, which costs $331 per month. Sherman is distraught. He tells Quigley and Killian that if he had just been honest with Maria, she wouldn’t have turned on him. The article also says that Maria frequently brought various men to the apartment, and Killian and Quigley refer to her as a sex worker. Sherman is mostly concerned about how the article will impact Judy and his family.
Active
Themes
Sherman also isn’t sure how the landlord could know exactly how much Maria paid for the apartment because he knows that neither Maria nor the person she sublet from would tell the landlord. Quigley leaves and says he’s going to talk to the landlord of that apartment. Bernie then calls. In not so many words, Bernie tells Killian that Maria turned on Sherman, and the grand jury decided to indict him. Tomorrow morning, the DA will request a higher bail for Sherman, and if Sherman can’t meet that bail immediately, he’ll go back to jail until he can. The idea terrifies Sherman.
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.
Sherman returns home, and Judy and Campbell are gone. Sherman considers taking his own life. He desperately calls the house in Southampton where they’ve gone, and eventually, Judy picks up. Sherman asks if she left because of the article in The City Light, and Judy says she can’t take any more lies and betrayal. Sherman tells her about the issue of raising the bail amount and his possible return to jail. Judy says she wishes she could help him and be there for him, but she can’t anymore. After Judy hangs up, the phone rings again. It's Killian, and he says he has something he needs to show Sherman.
Active
Themes
Sherman returns to Killian’s office, and Killian and Quigley show him a recording from Maria’s apartment. On the recording, Maria and Sherman talk on the night after the first article in The City Light was published. In the recording, Maria agrees with Sherman that Roland tried to rob them but doesn’t quite say that she was driving the car when they hit Henry. Sherman asks where the recording came from, and Quigley said the landlord had bugged the apartments in the building to try and find grounds to evict people. Quigley found the recordings and just took them, knowing that the landlord wouldn’t try to track down the recordings because it’s illegal to make them.
Active
Themes
Killian says that there are two issues with the recording. First, Maria doesn’t confess straightforwardly to driving the car. Second, the recording was made illegally, so it won’t be admissible as evidence in court. Kilian explains that it’s lawful to record one’s own conversations but that it’s illegal to record conversations one is not involved in. Sherman then says that he’ll claim he made the recording, and he equipped himself with a wire that night. Killian and Quigley look at each other, surprised. Killian says he didn’t know Sherman had it in him. Sherman says he knows now that it’s time to fight.
