Book Festival

            Despite enjoying an occasional required book for English class, I have never been an avid reader. To be honest, I would rather do pretty much anything than sit down and read a book for fun. However, I somehow ended up at the Baltimore Book Festival this weekend in the Inner Harbor, and to my surprise, I loved it. I loved it not because I loved looking at the books, but because I enjoyed people watching. I have never experienced Baltimore in this way before. Even though I live in Baltimore at Loyola, I am secluded to a tiny campus full of people who are all different, but hold similar beliefs and morals. Attending the Book Festival showed me the true character of Baltimore: a city full of the most interesting, weird, but unique group of people who come together to make it a diverse but amazing place. As I sat on a bench in the Harbor, I just absorbed the Baltimore culture and people from every walk of life and I found a new love for the city, not just because of its beauty but also because of its diversity. I began to realize that all these people in this city are completely different. Some people walked by with their families, eating vendors from the Festival and laughing. However many people were on the opposite side, begging for money on the streets and from the vendors. I enjoyed reading these three pieces of literature, especially after attending the Book Festival. In so many ways, the two short stories and the poem all compliment each other and the city of Baltimore as it touches on the role of mental health, diversity, and isolation.

            In “The Birthmark,” Nathanial Hawthorne explores the definition of true beauty and flaws: what makes a person beautiful? And how far is too far when it comes to making something perfect? In our society today, many people, especially woman, are so obsessed and fixated on beauty. Every ad, it seems, on TV and the Internet is about having a more beautiful and attractive appearance. However reading this short story made me question this everyday norm. Aylmer, a scientist and philosopher, marries his a woman Georgiana. One day, he becomes infatuated with her birthmark on her face, telling her that it is her only imperfection and he even sees it as a sin. He told his wife that she was not beautiful with it, and as time passed he loved her less because of it. He begged her to remove it and even dreamed that he removed her heart. He says, “ . . . But seeing her otherwise perfect, he saw this one defect grow more and more intolerable with every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions” (468). Reading this passage upset me because Aylmer refuses to see his wife’s beauty despite one unique imperfection. This reminded me of the Book Festival as I remember the diverse groups of people that walked by me as I sat on the bench. I can now appreciate each and every one, because every person had defects and imperfections. I admit that I may have even thought of some as less beautiful because of these imperfections. But Nathanial Hawthorne’s argument about the definition of beauty urges all people to see beneath external appearances, something that is so obsessed over in modern culture.

                Similarly, the short story “The Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the poem “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” by William Wordsworth both touch on a major theme I saw at the Book Festival this weekend: isolation and loneliness. In “The Wallpaper,” the narrator of the story has severe depression and her husband refuses to allow her to try to heal. He confines her to her room and because of this she becomes completely enthralled in her bedroom wallpaper, in return only worsening her depression. Her depression and husband’s unwillingness to find a cure isolates her for the rest of her life. She no longer even has the ability to understanding her current suffering. Wordsworth also explores the role of isolation and loneliness in the human mind. In his poem, the speaker wanders about in a field and sees daffodils, which bring the speaker a sense of glee and happiness. Wordsworth writes, “When on my couch I lie/ In vacant or in pensive mood, /They flash upon that inward eye/ Which is the bliss of solitude” (19-22). The speaker finds beauty and consolation in such a small, simple thing and Wordsworth suggests that people must seek to look for the good in everyday things in order to feel fulfilled and happy, otherwise people can fall into a state of loneliness and despair. These two themes of isolation and loneliness in these works of literature made me reflect on my experience at the Baltimore Book Festival and find even more meaning in it. As I reflect on all the people I watched, the majority of them were suffering in some way, whether it was because of money which left them begging, or some kind of mental illness. The homeless were alone and afraid, and those with mental illnesses were left to fend for themselves. I never truly understood the extent of these people in Baltimore until this weekend, but it only helped me appreciate the city and its diversity even more. William Wordsworth’s poem helped me wrap up the Festival by appreciating every person and their differences, and not judging them by their imperfections.