Summary

The short story “Vanity” by Charles Baxter presents a young man named Harry Albert boarding on a plane to Las Vegas. His seat is 32-B. Soon, his fellow passenger from 32-A appears. Harry notices that the man is scruffy-looking and grumpy, and all his attempts to initiate a conversation with the man seem to fail. When Harry decides to begin reading “Schindler’s List”, the man from 32-A announces that he was one of the Jews rescued by Oskar Schindler during the Holocaust. Harry is obviously very excited and honored to meet the man, so the two of them begin a conversation about what it was like to be imprisoned by the Nazis.

The man in 32-A says that his name is David Lowie. Harry is not sure that he has correctly understood the last name, and he is ashamed to ask again. Still, the conversatio...