The Magic Wall Literary Analysis

The Magic Barrel “The Magic Barrel” is a story that uses objects and actions with double meanings to accomplish the main character’s ultimate purpose; one of self-discovery. Throughout the story, the main character, Leo, learns about himself through his search for a wife. The events of the story have many meanings which contribute to his overall self-awareness and change that are shown by the end of the story.
The story’s theme is one of self-discovery. This is manifested throughout the story by Leo’s search for a wife, which he eventually realizes is a search for love, and his discovery that he “came to God, not because [he] loved Him, but because [he] did not” (Malamud 616). His journey to self-discovery was one that came in short bursts
The story begins in February towards the end of winter, when Leo beings to search or a bride. His hope for a bride blossoms with the spring, but when his date with Lily, whose name also points towards a new beginning, does not go as well as he hoped, his expectations are dashed to pieces and he becomes gloomy. The year goes on and Leo is depressed through most of the fall and winter, until one day when he discovers a picture of a woman with whom he instantly falls in love with. As his hopes rise again, spring comes, and he is able to bring the woman, Stella, a “small bouquet of violets and rosebuds” (622).
The first time Leo meets Stella, he notes that “she wore white with red shoes, which fitted his expectations, although in a troubled moment he had imagined the dress red, and only the shoes white” (622). In this case, the colors Stella wears represent her sin and innocence. Leo is concerned when he mistakenly thinks that she is wearing mostly red because this would embody her sin being at a much higher level than he is comfortable with. When he realizes that only her shoes are red, and that the rest of her clothing is white to show her innocence, he decides her level of sin is