Abstract: Pinye Salzman, impoverished marriage broker Bernard Malamud's popular story Magic Barrel, is usually perceived as an insoluble mixture of preternatural and prosaic, ethereal mentor and plebeian hustler. He is shaman and a savant, a prophet and a procurer at same (Gunn 83), criminal, half messenger of God (Richman 119). He realm of sheer fantasy and in earthy sphere of gefilte fish, dingy tenements, and Broadway cafeterias (Reynolds 101). He possesses equal measure human and the characteristics of god Pan (Storey 180). He appears as a human being, now as possessed of supernatural but never indubitably (Dessner, Revisions 253). He is scheming pimp and holy spirit, placed on earth to bring Leo from an arid knowledge of law to perception that he can fulfill spirit of law only by loving this world (Solotaroff 36). He is archetypal Trickster who symbolizes instinctual and irrational, driven by basic needs of sex and hunger (May 94). Marcus Klein removes him from human sphere altogether: he is either a magician or a demon and exists outside all ordinary determinations (279). Klein's proposition works better inverted: Salzman entirely within ordinary determinations. Everything he does is explicable naturalistic terms. Thus approached, story becomes more dramatic and ingenious. The happy ending is no longer assured advance by elfin sorcery: celestial ingenuity yields to human variety. Salzman's magical powers, like magic barrel, vanish whence they came: Finkle's distracted globe. A naturalistic interpretation is consistent with Malamud's authorial creed: I would never, he said a rare interview, deliberately flatten a character to create a stereotype. Most of all I'm out to create real and passionate human beings (Field and Field 16).(1) The story can be profitably read along following lines. Even before he meets Finkle, on basis of what student revealed of himself a curriculum vitae (Malamud 195), broker contemplates a marriage between his daughter, Stella, and new client.(2) After he meets student, intention solidifies. Salzman heartily approved of Finkle (194) and let out a soft, contented sigh (195). As commercial Cupid, Salzman hopes to do to what Eros does to lovelorn Medieval and Renaissance emblems: put a hood over his head (hoodwink). If his stratagem works, he will one swoop save his daughter and elevate his own social status. From outset, Salzman envisions as son-in-law, persistently calling him rabbi - trying respected epithet on for size - and assuming a proprietary air. To preserve an appearance of occupational integrity and, more importantly, to buy time to sound his prey, broker masks, consummately as it turns out, his predatory intent. Salzman's comments about his clients disclose his hidden intent. The remarks are rife with double entendres and subtexts. His thespian skills, lavishly on parade throughout story, are foretold: On mother's side comes one actor (196). Around Finkle, he is always on: he adjusted his horn-rimmed spectacles, gently cleared his throat and read an eager voice. . He can under- as well as overact. When spurns Sophie P., as Salzman secretly wishes, broker hunched his shoulders an almost imperceptible gesture of disappointment (196). Rather than betoken wizardly locomotion, as some have thought, his sudden entrances and exits have a patented theatrical quality. His motives, too, are of ordinary provenance. Like Ruth K.'s parents, he and his wife are particular people (197) when it comes to a son-in-law. They are interested a professional man, and his anxiety to reel in, Salzman has become, a la Ruth K.'s father, a specialist stomach disorders (197). …
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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