Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 18

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The Popular Culture Review

such options: he can "act dead," become entirely passive and allow
the external machinery of politics, law, and press to take control; he
can commit suicide, thereby bringing his physical condition into line
with his perception of self; or, the most difficult option of all, he can
attempt to emerge whole from the cavity, to resurrect and reconstitute
the self. Eventually he will choose the last of these options, and
that difficult choice is a measure of the great emotional distance that
Wolfe has taken his protagonist since Sherman's initial self
involvement. Even more impressive is the fact that Wolfe allows
Sherman's choice to turn upon the actions of two characters who
earlier represented the narcissistic mirrors in which Sherman
preened himself: Pollard Browning and Maria Ruskin.
Near the beginning of Bonfire, Pollard Browning is shown to
be the "true Knickerbocker" against whom Sherman measures his own
worth in the world (15). As narcissistic as Sherman but with a selfpossession bom of inherited wealth and position. Browning assesses
his contemporary and deems him inferior though socially tolerable.
In light of Sherman's subsequent notoriety, however, Pollard's
tolerance comes to an end, and, when he appears in his official
capacity as president of the co-op board to suggest that Sherman find
living quarters elsewhere, he treats Sherman with the contempt that
the egotistical upper classes reserve for those who live beneath the
perch of power and position, indeed, as Sherman himself would have
treated social inferiors earlier in the book. Sherman's response to
Pollard is quick, vulgar, and nearly violent: "You were a ridiculous
fat blowhard at Buckley and you're a ridiculous fat blowhard now,"
he says, taking Pollard by the arm and forcibly shoving him toward
the kitchen door, the servants' entrance (557). Then Sherman admits
to Tommy Killian that he had been considering suicide until
Pollard's visit. Is it simply pride, another form of self-involvement,
that leads Sherman to reject one of the available options? I would
like to reserve judgment on that question for a moment.
The other catalyst to change in Sherman's attitude is Maria
Ruskin, and, ironically, it is the very person responsible for the events
leading to the death of the old Sherman who unwittingly helps to
bring about his resurrection. Even after his troubles have overtaken
him, Sherman naively persists in the belief that Maria had always
cared for him, that she still has his best interests at heart. It is not
until he learns that she has lied to the Grand Jury to protect herself