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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What important piece of information does Kovitsky neglect to mention in his dismissal of the McCoy indictment?

2. Who does Sherman McCoy throw out of his condo at the end of the chapter?

3. What culturally insensitive term does the mayor's assistant use to describe a common event on his calendar?

4. According to Quigley, where is Maria Ruskin presently?

5. Whom does Reverend Bacon claim the Sherman McCoy is smearing?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the story that Arthur Ruskin tells Peter Fallow at dinner.

2. How is Sherman's experience at the di Ducci event different from his experience at the Bavardages'?

3. How does the information of Maria Ruskin's complicity in the hit-and-run eventually reach Peter Fallow?

4. Describe Maria Ruskin's testimony.

5. Where does the incriminating recording of Maria come from?

6. Why does Judge Kovisky decide to bring Sherman to his chambers along with the attorneys?

7. As Kramer is interviewing Maria Ruskin, what does he realize he loves about his job?

8. What promises does Tommy Killian make Sherman McCoy regarding his arrest?

9. What high-minded reasoning does Weiss give for his prosecution of Sherman McCoy in Chapter 23?

10. What does Fallow see at the funeral?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Using the high society parties in Bonfire of the Vanities, write an essay about Wolfe's attitude toward the ceremonies of the upper-crust of New York society. What is expected and decried within these functions? Use specific characters (Judy McCoy, Bunning) and their interactions with Sherman McCoy to argue your point.

Essay Topic 2

As life becomes more complicated and precarious for Sherman McCoy, fewer and fewer supportive people in his life offer him assistance. This is a shame, because those who are not connected to the case are the most sensible and honest around him, his family. Write an essay about the three truth-tellers in his family. How does Sherman lose each of them? How do each of them serve in some way as his conscience?

Part 1) Judy McCoy

Part 2) Sherman's Father

Part 3) Campbell McCoy

Essay Topic 3

Bonfire of the Vanities is often compared with a Dickens novel in its satirical expose of the realities of urban life and its attention to the social strata of a city. Wolfe also uses a Dickens device of naming his characters in ways that reflect their essence. Write an essay about the way Wolf uses names to develop plot. Focus both on personality and action in analyzing the purpose of a character's name:

Part 1) Peter Fallow

Part 2) Reverend Bacon

Part 3) Caroline Heftshank or Sally Rawthrote

(see the answer keys)

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