Literary Devices in The Magic Barrel
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The setting takes place "not long ago" in "uptown New York," which gives us a pretty good starting point for parsing the specifics. After all, "The Magic Barrel" keeps things spare, so we have to i...
Narrator Point of View
Malamud falls back to the old stand-by of third-person omniscient to tell us his tale. He moves us effortlessly wherever we need to go, and doesn't feel bound by the perspective of one single perso...
Genre
Families: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Well, you can live without them, but as Leo and Salzman find out, it's pretty dang depressing.Leo wants a bride to rid him of his crushing lon...
Tone
Malamud doesn't mince words and he tells his story is crisp, objective terms. He wants us to understand the facts, and he doesn't use a lot of embellishment or adjectives. Check out this autumn app...
Writing Style
Malamud keeps things as sparse and direct as possible; we don't see a lot of flowery phrases and run-on sentences here. He sticks to the point, he uses easy-to-understand words, and he never wants...
What's Up With the Title?
How in the name of all things literary does a story about frustration, uncertainty and loss earn the title "The Magic Barrel?" It barely gets a mention in the story. Salzman says that his drawers "...
What's Up With the Ending?
The ending is where the story's philosophy and attitude towards God comes right to a head. In a lot of ways this story ends prematurely, since we don't know if Leo and Stella hit it off, whether Le...
Tough-o-Meter
You got this one, oh loyal Shmoopers. Bernard Malamud won't use six words when three will do perfectly well. That's actually why the story is so good: he packs all kinds of subtlety and meaning int...
Plot Analysis
Leo Needs A Wife In His LifeAll stories starts with a desire. Leo doesn't have a girl and wants to get one: not because he's particularly lovelorn, but because this rabbinical student thinks it "mi...
Trivia
Bernard Malamud's most famous book was The Natural, which got made into a movie with Robert Redford. The movie has a happy ending, unlike the book. (Source).Bernard Malamud was so awesome he has hi...
Steaminess Rating
For a story about love and marriage, this bad boy is pretty sex free. We don't get much direct interaction with the girls Leo is "interviewing," and in fact the close he gets to an actual romantic...
Allusions
The Forward (1)Matchmakers (throughout)Yeshivah University (1)Second Avenue (14) Riverside Drive (96)