Mordecai Richler. Duddy Kravitz Apprenticeship - Essay Example

of the of the Duddy Kravitz Apprenticeship The ‘Apprentice of Duddy Kravitz’ is a story of a boy named Duddy who has grown up in a poor environment but has always been influenced by rich and successful people. Success in Duddy’s eyes is having a lot of wealth, no matter how it is acquired. In the whole novel we see Duddy as an ambitious but greedy person who holds no value for love and friendship and considers wealth as his ultimate goal. The major theme that runs in the story is the power of negative ambition, greed and materialism which overpowers pure emotions like love, decency and affection.

From the start of the story we see that the family of Duddy plays an important role in taking Duddy’s ambition to a dangerous level. His grandfather advises him that "A man without land is nobody.” His father repeatedly tells him story of a young man who progressed from rags and riches by cheating people on his way. And then he sees his uncle who is extremely rich and successful and it burns a desire in Duddy’s heart to become wealthy. Duddy, in his greed and ambition fails to value relationships and we see him as a man who cheats on her girlfriend even though she loves him truly.

Duddy also mistreats his long-time friend, Virgil and even cheats him out of his money when he is confined to his bed due to paralysis. In the entire novel, we only see Irwin who really antagonizes Duddy and thrusts him to his limits but in the later part of the story, Irwin’s influence on Duddy can be easily seen. (Richler). Irwin Shubert is a fellow waiter at the place where Duddy works. He has been portrayed by the author as a jealous person without any conscience and who yearns to annoy Duddy, Even though Irwin is Duddy’s enemy, Duddy learns a lot of negative things from him.

He along with his girlfriend Linda tricks Duddy into losing his entire summer savings. After knowing Linda’s part in Irwin’s plot, he says to her, "I thought you went out with me because you liked me. Boy, was I ever a sucker." It is clearly visible that this episode left Duddy with a reason to distrust. He started getting cautious of people around him and only used them for his business purposes without any respect for their feelings. Even though Duddy appears to be a heartless man, Irwin is much worse than him who likes to hurt people for the fun of it.

It is clear that Irwin is cunning and knows how to manipulate people. Later in the story we see Duddy following in the footsteps of Irwin where he uses his girlfriend to buy lands in her name. He even takes advantage of his friend, who is on his sickbed suffering from paralysis. It is easy to make out that Duddy’s earlier interaction with Irwin has dragged him towards a wrong path. Irwin was cunning, manipulative and did not care about anyone’s pains and feelings, and later in the book we see all these traits present in Duddy as well.

‘Duddy Kravitz apprenticeship’ depicts the effect of greed and ambition on a person and leaves the reader with a lot to think about what happens when negative ambition overtakes positive emotion. Works Cited Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz . McClelland & Stewart, 2001. Print.