His popularity level is more suitable, but she finds him rude and arrogant. Charlotte is discovering that she wants to become popular herself. Charlotte likes Adam, admiring his intellect, but is disappointed with his lack of popularity. Adam tries to commandeer the computer Charlotte is using, saying he needs it more than she does, but she stands up to him. Adam hopes to win a Rhodes scholarship for himself.Īdam and Charlotte meet at the computer lab, where both need to write a paper. Adam writes for the college’s newspaper and is a member of a society called the “Millennial Mutants,” which rails against Dupont’s culture of anti-intellectualism and classism. Jojo’s tutor is Adam Gellin, an intellectual student from a poor background. This is implied to be a perk of being a college athlete. Jojo takes advantage of the college’s tutoring system to force other, brighter students to do his homework for him.

Being benched means he is likely to miss out on moving on to the NBA after graduation. This year, Dupont has recruited a promising black freshman, and the coach intends to put him on the court in Jojo’s place, benching him in his senior year. College athlete Jojo Johanssen struggles as a white member of Dupont’s mostly-black basketball team. Beverly favors members of the college lacrosse team. And unlike the sheltered, virginal Charlotte, Beverly has sex often, “sexiling” Charlotte out of her shared room when she does so.

Beverly is the daughter of a wealthy CEO, so her background is nothing like Charlotte’s. When Charlotte arrives at Dupont, she clashes with her roommate, Beverly. Word spreads across the college and Hoyt becomes even more popular. A bodyguard spots Hoyt and Vance, but the boys successfully beat up the guard and escape the scene. Just before the semester begins, returning student Hoyt Thorpe and his friend Vance, both members of the prestigious Saint Ray fraternity, witness the unnamed Republican governor of California receiving oral sex from a female college student. Dupont, a big-name school, is overwhelming for Charlotte, who comes from a rural backwater as a full-ride scholarship student. The novel covers student Charlotte Simmons’s first six months attending the fictional Dupont University.

Wolfe is a journalist and author famous for such works as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and more. To gather material for the book, Wolfe interviewed students from campuses including UNC-Chapel Hill, Penn U, Duke, and Stanford. I Am Charlotte Simmons is a 2004 novel from Tom Wolfe depicting student life at a fictionalized American university.

I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe