Style and Technique
As Salzman is employed by Leo to procure a bride, so is he employed by the author as the vehicle through which Leo’s self-discovery is attained. A man of much depth and sorrow, Salzman conceals a pain so great that he rejects even the attentions of a religious man. However, it is only through Leo that he can hope to find peace of mind and a reunited family.
Salzman is an unsuccessful man whose office, his wife tells Leo, is “in the air.” In immigrant English, Salzman explains his lack of success: “When I have two fine people that they would be wonderful to be married, I am so happy that I talk too much. . . . This is why Salzman is a poor man.” The compassion lacking in Leo is discovered in Salzman, whose greatest desire is to provide happiness.
References to Salzman’s ethereal and somewhat mystical qualities recur throughout the story. He appears and disappears in direct, yet unspoken, response to Leo’s needs; he is described as a “skeleton with haunted eyes,” his appearance often “haggard, and transparent to the point of vanishing,” whose magic barrel, Leo concludes, is probably “a figment of the imagination.” In this fusion of the down-to-earth and the otherworldly, the literal and the symbolic, the characterization of Salzman is representative of Bernard Malamud’s distinctive style.
Historical Context
Bernard Malamud's story, "The Magic Barrel," was initially published in the Partisan Review in 1954 and later included as the title story in Malamud’s first short fiction collection in 1958. The period between these two dates was marked by significant events in American history. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled against segregation in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, declaring that separate classrooms or schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.
Also in 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured by the Senate for wrongfully accusing numerous Americans of being communists. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to successfully orbit the Earth, raising fears that the Soviets might dominate space exploration.
Although "The Magic Barrel" contains few specific historical or topical references to pinpoint its exact timeline, one detail indicates that Leo's encounter with Salzman takes place around the mid-1950s, aligning with the story's publication date. Leo Finkle is nearing the completion of his six-year rabbinical studies at New York City's Yeshivah University. The term Yeshivah, which means a place of study in Hebrew, refers to the oldest and most prestigious Jewish institution of higher learning in the United States. Although its origins date back to 1886, the institution was not officially named Yeshivah University until 1945, following a revision of its charter. Given the traditional six-year study period to become a rabbi, Leo would likely be contemplating marriage in the early 1950s.
By seeking a professional matchmaker to find a bride, Leo is behaving more like his immigrant grandparents than a typical American Jew of the 1950s. In Yiddish, the language spoken by many Jewish communities in Europe and America, the word for "matchmaker" is shadchen (pronounced shod-hun). Before the seventeenth century, the shadchen was a highly esteemed individual responsible for ensuring the continuity of the Jewish people through arranged marriages. However, as Jewish communities in Europe expanded and modern secular ideas of romantic love spread, professional matchmakers became less reputable and often the target of satire and ridicule. This sentiment is encapsulated by the Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem (1859–1916), who humorously described the shadchen as "a dealer in livestock."
Nonetheless, the shadchen tradition endured through Jewish immigration to the United States....
(This entire section contains 496 words.)
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In his account of Jewish immigrant life on New York City's Lower East Side,World of Our Fathers, Irving Howe portrays the typical shadchen as reminiscent of Malamud’s Pinye Salzman: “Affecting an ecclesiastic bearing, the matchmaker wore a somber black suit with a half-frock effect, a silk yarmulke (skullcap), a full beard.” According to Howe, the matchmaker “customarily received 5 percent of the dowry in addition to a flat fee, neither one nor both enough to make him rich.”
Pinye Salzman is, in many respects, a stereotypical character who has transitioned from the realm of Jewish oral humor into the pages of Malamud’s story. By seeking the shadchen’s assistance in the 1950s, Leo reveals himself as not only formal but also a very old-fashioned young man.
Literary Style
Point of View
The term "point of view" refers to the perspective from which a story is
narrated. In Malamud’s ‘‘The Magic Barrel,’’ the narrative is told from a
third-person limited point of view. This means the narrator is not a character
within the story but an external observer who refers to the characters as
‘‘he,’’ ‘‘she,’’ and ‘‘they.’’ However, this narrator is not all-knowing and is
confined to the viewpoint of one character. In this story, the events are seen
through Leo Finkle's eyes, even though Leo himself is not the one
narrating.
Symbolism
Symbolism is a literary technique where an action, person, object, or image
represents something beyond its literal meaning. In ‘‘The Magic Barrel,’’ the
arrival of spring holds significant symbolic value. The narrative starts in
February, ‘‘when winter was on its last legs,’’ and concludes ‘‘one spring
night’’ as Leo approaches Stella Salzman under a street lamp. The transition
from winter to spring symbolizes Leo's emotional renewal as he strives to
develop as a person.
Idiom
An idiom can be defined as a specific vocabulary used by a particular group or
a unique manner of expression characteristic of a certain people. Essentially,
different groups have distinct ways of speaking. In ‘‘The Magic Barrel,’’ while
the narrator and most characters use standard English, Pinye Salzman, the
matchmaker, speaks Yiddish. Yiddish, written in Hebrew characters and based on
medieval German grammar, was the common language of many European Jewish
communities. For instance, a Russian Jew in the early 20th century (like
Malamud’s father) might read the Torah in Hebrew, converse with non-Jewish
neighbors in Russian, and manage business and household affairs in Yiddish.
Since World War II, Yiddish has declined in use across Europe and North American Jewish immigrant communities. It might vanish entirely in another generation. Nevertheless, many of Malamud’s characters still use this idiom. When Salzman asks Leo, ‘‘A glass tea you got, rabbi?’’; when he exclaims, ‘‘what can I say to somebody that he is not interested in school teachers?’’; and when he laments, ‘‘This is my baby, my Stella, she should burn in hell,’’ readers encounter an idiomatic form of English infused with the rhythms of Yiddish speech.
Compare and Contrast
1950s: Decades of immigration from both Eastern and Western Europe have resulted in a significant Jewish population within the United States. Numerous American cities boast strong and vibrant Jewish communities. However, discrimination against Jewish individuals persists.
1990s: Due to intermarriage and assimilation, many within the Jewish community feel that Jewish culture is at risk. Despite ongoing discrimination in the United States, many organizations are actively combating misinformation and prejudice against Jews.
1950s: The Jewish matchmaker, known as the ‘‘shadchen,’’ plays a crucial role in the community. Although arranged marriages are becoming less common among Jewish families, they remain a viable option for young Jewish men and women.
1990s: Matchmaking is largely seen as an outdated practice. It is predominantly utilized in orthodox Jewish communities, as other social opportunities enable Jewish men and women to meet and find potential marriage partners.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Antin, Mary. The Promised Land, originally published in 1912, reprinted
in New York by Penguin, 1997.
Cahan, Abraham. The Rise of David Levinsky, first released in 1917, reprinted in New York by Harper’s, 1960.
Cramer, Carmen. "The Americanization of Leo Finkle," in Cyahoga Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 1983, pp. 143–147.
Hoffer, Bates. "The Magic in Malamud’s Barrel," in Linguistics in Literature, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1977, pp. 1–26.
Miller, Theodore C. "The Minister and the Whore: An Examination of Bernard Malamud’s ‘The Magic Barrel,’" in Studies in the Humanities, Vol. 3, 1972, pp. 43-44.
Reynolds, Richard. "'The Magic Barrel': Pinye Salzman’s Kadish," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 10, circa 1973, pp. 100–102.
Richman, Sidney. Bernard Malamud, Twayne, 1966.
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers, first published in 1925, reprinted in New York by Persea Books, 1975.
Further Reading
Astro, Richard and Jackson Benson, eds. The Fiction of Bernard Malamud,
Oregon State University Press, 1977. Offers a comprehensive study of Malamud’s
short stories and novels.
Field, Leslie A. and Joyce W. Field, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice-Hall, 1974. Discusses various facets of Malamud’s writing.
Meeter, Glenn. Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth: A Critical Essay, Eerdmans, 1968. Analyzes the two authors within the context of Jewish literature.
Pinsker, Sanford. "The Achievement of Bernard Malamud," in Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 10, July 1969, pp. 379-389. Provides an evaluation of Malamud’s literary career.
Richman, Sidney. Bernard Malamud, Twayne, 1966. Offers a thorough overview of Malamud’s life and works.
Bibliography
Abramson, Edward A. Bernard Malamud Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1993.
Astro, Richard, and Jackson J. Benson, eds. The Fiction of Bernard Malamud. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1977.
Avery, Evelyn, ed. The Magic Worlds of Bernard Malamud. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Bernard Malamud. New York: Chelsea House, 2000.
Davis, Philip. Experimental Essays on the Novels of Bernard Malamud: Malamud’s People. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995.
Field, Leslie A., and Joyce W. Field, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical Essays. Rev. ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
Field, Leslie A., and Joyce W. Field, eds. Bernard Malamud and the Critics. New York: New York University Press, 1970.
Nisly, L. Lamar. Impossible to Say: Representing Religious Mystery in Fiction by Malamud, Percy, Ozick, and O’Connor. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Ochshorn, Kathleen. The Heart’s Essential Landscape: Bernard Malamud’s Hero. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
Richman, Sidney. Bernard Malamud. Boston: Twayne, 1966.
Salzberg, Joel, ed. Critical Essays on Bernard Malamud. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
Sío-Castiñeira, Begoña. The Short Stories of Bernard Malamud: In Search of Jewish Post-immigrant Identity. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.