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Chapter 5
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
The next day at work, Sherman can’t concentrate. He keeps thinking about the thudding sound he heard when Maria drove away the night before. He’s scoured the papers for any mention of a hit-and-run but hasn’t found anything. He considers calling a lawyer, but he would want to call someone who doesn’t know him or his family. Any trace of scandal would cause his career to blow up, Sherman thinks. He then tallies his expenses, including the monthly payment on the apartment, the salaries for servants, and his daughter’s private school. He’d be ruined if anything happened. And what would he do then? There’s no going back, he thinks. Once you’ve lived in a $2.8 million apartment, you can’t just go and live in a $1 million apartment.
Notably, when Sherman thinks about the hit-and-run, his concerns are self-centered. Instead of thinking about what has happened to the person he hit (who the reader now knows is Henry Lamb), Sherman instead thinks about how if anyone finds out he was involved in the hit-and-run, it would damage his career. The novel underlines Sherman’s economic precarity to suggest that Sherman is not the “Master of the Universe” that he has imagined himself to be. His fixation on money also shows that, to him, everything comes down to money, and he is more concerned with money than the well-being of the person who Maria hit with his car.
Active
Themes
Edward Fiske III and a lawyer named Moody, who are both White, sit across from Reverend Bacon, who is Black. Fiske begins to explain why they’ve come to see Bacon. He says that the diocese of the Episcopalian Church, of which he (Fiske) is a representative, recently gave Bacon $350,000 to start a daycare center. However, Fiske just learned that the Human Resources Administration turned down Bacon’s license application for the daycare center nine weeks ago. That Administration also found that seven of the nine people on the board for the Little Shepherd Day Care Center had criminal records and three were on parole. Fiske pauses to give Bacon time to speak, but Bacon doesn’t respond. Fiske nervously continues speaking to fill the silence. Fiske suggests that they put whatever money hasn’t gone toward leasing a building into an escrow account. That sum should amount to $340,000.
This passage further introduces Reverend Bacon, who is one of the novel’s principal characters. This section establishes this conflict in which the Episcopal Church gave Bacon $350,000 to set up a daycare center that the city did not approve. Bacon’s response to Fiske’s inquiry will be telling in one way or another. Fiske’s line of questioning implicitly asks whether Bacon will simply return the $340,000 to the Episcopal Church or whether he will hold onto that money. And, if Bacon holds onto that money, what rationale will he give for that decision?
Active
Themes
Reverend Bacon then speaks. He asks Fiske if they want White women from elite colleges to staff the daycare. When Fiske says no, Bacon says that if someone grew up in Harlem, it’s not unlikely that the police would target them, and they would have a record as a result. If Fiske doesn’t want to acknowledge that, then he’s just “practicing the same old colonialism,” Bacon says. Moody says that’s not really the issue. Instead, the issue is the $350,000 that the diocese gave Bacon for a daycare that doesn’t exist.
Active
Themes
A reporter from Channel 1 news then calls, and Reverend Bacon speaks to him. Bacon tells the reporter that his group, All People’s Solidarity (APS), is going to stage actions against restaurants that won’t hire waiters who are Black. When he gets off the phone, Bacon tells Moody and Fiske that APS is engaged in a fierce battle to defeat New York City’s racist mayor. Fiske asks how much of the money for the daycare Bacon still has on hand. Bacon responds that he doesn’t have any of it. Moody and Fiske are shocked. Bacon explains that the money is all tied up in contractors. Fiske says that Bacon has only rented a rundown warehouse, so there should still be money left over. Bacon argues that when the diocese invested in the daycare, they were really investing in Harlem. And that’s exactly what he is doing, Bacon says.
Active
Themes
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Fiske says that there will be an audit to determine where the money went. Reverend Bacon says that Fiske and the diocese are on the right track by investing in the daycare, but they don’t want to take the extra step of actually putting their money where their mouth is and working with people in Harlem. Bacon says they can run all the audits they want, but he’s already done their investing for them. A representative from an insurance company then calls and asks to speak to the president of Urban Guaranty Investments. Bacon talks to the man, and while he’s on the phone, he mentions Pierce & Pierce (the firm where Sherman works). Fiske wonders if Bacon took the $350,000 and put it into securities investments.
After getting off the phone with the insurance representative, Bacon gets a call from Annie Lamb, Henry Lamb’s mother. Annie explains what happened to Henry and says that she’s afraid to go to the police because there’s a warrant out for her arrest due to parking tickets. Bacon hangs up and tells Moody and Fiske there’s an emergency he has to deal with before ushering the two men out of his office. While they walk to the car, Fiske and Moody debate whether Bacon is a con artist or a financial magnate in the mold of Rockefeller or Carnegie. All Fiske knows for sure is that he has to get that $350,000 back.
