Essay/Term paper: The magic barrel

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Book Reports

The Character of Salzman





The character of Salzman, throughout the novel becomes increasingly mysterious. His appearance at many different times is extremely awkward. It is also spooky how he has the knowledge of things that he plainly should not be informed of. His character to put it plainly is just weird. Salzman has the typical salesman characteristics in the start of the novel. Instead of selling the products of material possession, he is already weird because he chooses to sell other people. His work is also mysterious. He doesn't simply lie out all he has on the table, but instead sifts through what he has, and shows what he wants. This is evident in his choosing of just a few perspective females out of the "magic barrel." He took the small amount of information that he acquired from a short conversation and said to have weeded out all of the choices that were not fit for Leo. Also, he made Leo wait and go through steps before he agreed to show the pictures of these individuals to him. It was just plainly weird. In the end of the story is where it becomes increasingly stranger. At the point in which Leo seemed to finally find out some of the secrets about Salzman, when he went to his house and found that it wasn't exactly what he had expected. The "magic barrel" was not there. This was the basis of the story and a main point in what we knew about the mysterious salesman of people. Leo was supposed to be one step closer to finding out what is hidden about Salzman, but instead after he returned to his apartment, he was more shocked by how the man knew exactly where to be at that time. The final sentence or final thought of the novel makes the reader even more confused about the actual character of Salzman. He commences to say a prayer when the man in whom he has been searching for a match for, finally found a female. He was supposed to be happy about his success, along with being satisfied that his "daughter" found a nice man to date. This should have been a happy time, yielded a prayer. This is plain awkward. Salzman is a mysterious person, and in this novel, even in the end, he was not "solved." He was just as mysterious at the end as he was in the start.