Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 19

The Limits of Narcissism

15

and misaccuse him that Sherman comes to reject the other option open
to him—quiet passivity. Stripping himself of the last shreds of
vanity and conscience he possessed, he prepares to fight back, even
offering to perjure himself in court by claiming ownership of some
taped conversations between him and Maria that his attorney has
illicitly obtained. When Killian expresses surprise over his client's
uncharacteristically deceitful offer, Sherman explicates the nature of
the new man he has become:
". . . something's gradually dawned on me over the
past few days. I'm not Shennan McCoy anymore. I'm
somebody else without a proper name. I've been that
other person ever since the day I was arrested . . . .
I'm somebody else. I have nothing to do with Wall
Street or Park Avenue or Yale or St. Paul's or Buckley
or the Lion of Dunning Sponget. . . . I'm a different
human being. I exist down here now . . . . You know
the way they take a dog . . . and train it to be a
vicious watchdog? . . . They don't alter that dog'