The Magic Barrel Lies and Deceit Quotes

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Quote #4

[…] he weighed her words and found her surprisingly sound—score another for Salzman, whom he uneasily sensed to be somewhere around, hiding perhaps high in a tree along the street, flashing the lady signals with a pocket mirror; or perhaps a cloven-hoofed Pan, piping nuptial ditties as he danced his invisible way before them, strewing wild buds on the walk and purple grapes in their path, symbolizing fruit of a union, though there was of course still none. (96)

Leo is suspicious of Salzman from the very start of his date with the teacher, and is overwhelmed by the ever-present pressure in the air from this match. So imagines Salzman as a pagan god known for illusion and deceit.

Quote #5

He was not displeased with her honesty, recognizing that she meant to set the relationship aright, and understanding that it took a certain amount of experience in life, and courage, to want to do it quite that way. One had to have some sort of past to make that kind of beginning. (102)

This quote plays into the theme of lying because it shows Leo's hopeful attitude towards "setting things aright." In Leo's view, you need the "past" of failure or immoral behavior (like lying, for example) in order to start anew with a "kind of beginning."

Quote #6

He stared at her. Then it came to him that she was talking not about Leo Finkle, but of a total stranger, some mystical figure, perhaps even passionate prophet that Salzman had dreamed up for her—no relation to the living or dead. Leo trembled with rage and weakness. The trickster had obviously sold her a bill of goods, just as he had him, who'd expected to become acquainted with a young lady of twenty-nine, only to behold, the moment he laid eyes upon her strained and anxious face, a woman past thirty-five and aging rapidly. Only his self control had kept him this long in her presence. (110)

Leo is a good person—he seems to understand that the girl is not to blame for Salzman's deceit—but Leo is not a fool.