Essay of Vanity by Charles Baxter

Essay of Vanity by Charles Baxter

Just like we find strange things to be odd and weird, we associate strangers with the unknown and therefore most people find strangers to be potentially scary. Sometimes a stranger stays a stranger, sometimes a stranger becomes a person you never will forget.

In a short story named “Vanity” by Charles Baxter, two strangers cross each other’s paths and by came to sit next to each other on a plane, they develop some kind of friendship.

Vanity is told by a limited third person narrator from Harry Albert’s point of view “He had stuffed his suitcase into the empty overheard bin, having purchased early-boarding rights from the airline, and had settles into his nonreclining seat, 32-B, when he had to stand up again to let the passenger in 32-A get past him.”^[1] 

Harry Albert is along with David Lowie the main character of the short story.

When it comes to the outer characterization, our knowledge is limited by what we are told by the narrator, David or Harry himself. Albert is portrayed as a well-dressed handsome gay man: “Harry Albert […] by contrast, dressed rather elegantly and could still turn heads for him handsomeness […]”^[2] “Well, I’m gay^[3][…] I’m queer”^[4] and mentions that he maintains his good looks by working out^[5]. We get the image of Harry being a young man as David refers to him as a kid^[6]. The outer characterization of Harry is also depicted by David Lowie, who acknowledges his handsomeness: “With your looks, a handsome English prince like yourself, they never leave you down there.”^[7] (p. 2, ll. 78-79). Harry Albert is overall a handsome man, who is aware of his good looks and of the advantages his looks can bring him: “I don’t think about my looks too much, anyhow not much more than must people do, but it gets me results.”^[8]

Regarding inner characterization, the first thing we find out about Harry is that likes to be occupied and does not like to be bored. When some stranger sits next to him in the plane Harry is eager to make a conversation with the man. As his attempt fails he looks for something else to engage in and reaches for a copy of the Schindler’s List, which tells that Harry is an intelligent man. That is when the conversation with the stranger in seat 32-A begins.

The conversation between these two strangers depicts a sympathetic person. When David tells that he never got a role in movie Schindler’s List which he was eager for, Harry shows his sympathy for him, which tells that Harry is friendly, caring, loving, kind and compassionate.