Research
Wolfe took the name "Dupont University" from Dupont Hall, one of the halls where classes are held at his alma mater, Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. The school discussed in the book appears to be an amalgamation of several elite universities. Wolfe denies that the book is fully based on Duke, from which his daughter Alexandra graduated in 2002.
The fictional Dupont is set in Chester, Pennsylvania so Chester's Widener University with approximately the same number of students, must be considered source material, as well. The names of settings include Faircloth Arena (the "Buster Bowl"), Abbotsford Hall (the dining hall), Farquhar Fitness Center, Phipps Hall, Edgerton House (Charlotte's co-ed dorm), Ryland Reading Room at the Dupont Memorial Library, Ladding Walk, Marsden Hall, Fiske Hall, and Ladding Walk. Other residences include Crowninshield College (home to basketball players), Lapham College, Carruthers, and Giles. "Mr. Rayon" is the name of a food court on campus, and "The I.M." is a dance club.
The basketball star, Jojo Johanssen, is a jock/celebrity character, derived from colleges like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Kentucky, Duke, Stanford, Indiana University and the University of Florida, where, in Wolfe's perception, student athletes are treated as superior. There is also a reference in the book to a freshman dormitory "Giles", which is an actual freshman dorm at Duke University.
Besides college life, athletics, and youth sex culture, another major theme that also began in Hooking Up is Tom Wolfe's interest in Neuroscience; more specifically the relationship between brain chemistry and free will. Simmons is exposed to questions about inevitability and genetics from her professor Dr. Victor Ransome Starling. In the context of the book the questions of free will are posed by the characters various dramas as Charlotte decides whether or not she will adopt the sexual norms of campus life and Johanssen attempts to become a better student and more disciplined person generally. Interestingly despite the main characters seemingly confirming the science of inevitability, two side characters (Adam Gellin and Hoyt) are both altered considerably by a chance encounter with a presidential candidate.
Read more about this topic: I Am Charlotte Simmons
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