英语文学赏析论文

The Magic Barrel : A Journey in English Literature

魔桶：一次英语文化之旅

Mao Xin 毛欣

Student Number：20106656

Course Paper

Submitted in partial fulfillment

Of the requirements for the Literature Course

College of Automation

Chongqing University

December 21, 2011

Abstract

Magic barrel is a well-known representative Malamud's short story ,

and widely included in the literature, teaching materials . The story describes the Jewish old man Salzman, in order to help his beloved daughter find her husband, he thought hard , and even unscrupulous and cunning .But the performance of his good-hearted nature, also depicts the Slazman's daughter and his favorite the image of Leo, in the harmony and witty which gives a warm feeling.

The plot of the novel is clear and marvelous . To introduce Jewish marriage as a career , the old man Salzman for Jewish students introduce to marriage Jewish students Leo, he strongly recommended several nice girls with wealthy families to Leo , but unfortunately no one suit Leo appetite. Finally, in a bunch of pictures he found the girl who he likes when he learned that's Schatzman's daughter, he still loved her, but he had some doubts . And they eventually came together.

This thesisaims to analysis the short stories Main characters ，

Narrative point of view，Symbolism in the work，Cultural implications in the work Images in the work ，Language characteristics 。Further understand the background of story, writing emotional, writing themes and reflection of the social situation . And learn the text by using a series of rhetorical devices, such as symbolism .Develop our understanding and perception of English literature promote our learning ability, English language proficiency, and English-spe aking countries’ cultural understanding.

Key words ：Main characters ，narrative point of view，symbolism，cultural implications ，language characteristics .

Introduction

About the author

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) was a distinguishable American novelist and short-story writer。. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Malamud was educated at the City College of New York and Columbia University. Beginning in 1961 he taught at Bennington College. On March 18 ，1968 ，he died of heart attack in New York . Malamud's first novel, The Natural (1952), reworks the legend of the Holy Grail as an allegorical fantasy about a star baseball player (see Allegory). His second novel, The

Assistant (1957), is concerned with Jewish themes and reflects the sad, impoverished Brooklyn scenes of his childhood. The Fixer (1966), for which Malamud received the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is a poignant novel (based on a true story) of the suffering of a Russian Jewish workman sentenced unjustly to prison; it demonstrates how human beings can come through suffering to an affirmative view of life. The Tenants (1971), about the relationship between a Jewish man and a black man, deals with inner-city tensions. Malamud's later novels include Dubin's Lives (1979), about a writer of biographies, and God's Grace (1982). Malamud also had great genius in short stories . His major short-story collections are The Magic Barrel(1958), Idiots First (1963) ,Picture of Fidelman (1969) , Rembrandt’s Hat(1973) , and The Stories of Bernard Malamud ( 1983) .

About the story

Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel, has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggling New York Jewish Painter Arthur Fidelman, roams amid the ruins of old Europe in search of his artistic patrimony); they tell of egg handlers and shoemakers, matchmakers, and rabbis, in a voice that blends vigorous urban realism, Yiddish idiom, and a dash of artistic magic.

The Magic Barrel is a book about New York and about the immigrant experience, and it is high point in the modern American short story. Few books of any kind have managed to depict struggle and frustration and heartbreak with such delight, or such artistry.

I will focus on analyzing the characteristics of this character, narrative point of view, symbolism,cultural implications and language features.

Analysis

Main characters :

Leo is a young man , who is about to be pastor , his character is indecisive and lack of experience .

Salzman is a dedicated man matchmaker, and his has a lively personality, he put a gimmick, tantalize, resembled an old slick, but without losing the good mind.

Stela is a beautiful and young girl , she has strong feeling of hatred and love , She is a girl separate from the secular tradition-bound, and has her

own independent thinking.