There are many views as to what America is. To the rich it's an opportunity filled country with its problems on the lower levels, to the lower class it's a opportunity filled place where it is sometimes hard to achieve success, and to the foreign it's a strange and different place. Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities does an excellent job at portraying these three images of America. Wolfe's novel develops the Image of America through Sherman McCoy's rich, care-free life, Laurence Kramer's struggles as a low income assistant District Attorney, and Brittan-native Peter Fallow's views of America.

The first character the reader is introduced to in The Bonfire of the Vanities is Sherman McCoy. Sherman is an extremely wealthy bond trader employed by the famous Pierce & Pierce located in Wall Street, and a fancy fourteen room apartment on Park Avenue. In the beginning of the...