Leo Finkle’s Self Discovery Have you ever been in a situation where you learned some new things about yourself? Were they good or bad? How did these new findings affect your life? In “The Magic Barrel”, Leo Finkle, a rabbinical student searches for a matchmaker named Salzman. Leo denies many women by learning about them through Salzman and even goes on a date with one and still doesn’t find any of the women interesting. Salzman gives Leo a stack of pictures to look through to see if he has any interest in them based off of their looks. One of the women in the pictures catches his eye and he falls in love with her. We learn that this picture was not meant to be in the stack and Salzman admits the young woman is his daughter, Stella. The awakening of passion and love, the definition of identity and the search for love are all involved in Leo’s experience with Salzman. The author demonstrates that people tend to learn a lot about themselves, for instance the ability to love, through life’s trials and tribulations such as dating. Leo approaches his desired feelings of passion and desire with resistance and confusion. At the beginning of the story, Leo contemplates getting a matchmaker unsure how it will turn out. Leo Finkle…had been advised by an acquaintance that he might find it easier to win himself a congregation if he were married. Since he had no present prospects of marriage, after two tormented days of turning it over in his mind, he called in Pinye Salzman (627).
Leo was hesitant to start dating because he didn’t know anyone personally he could go on a date with to start a potential relationship, therefore he doesn’t know how to date. This is why he thought of contacting the matchmaker, because he felt he had been so busy working on his career that he had not had time in his life to even attempt to have a relationship. The author also suggests that