Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Cunning though he is, Duddy Kravitz fails to learn the tricks of his trade and, consequently, fails to become a whole person. In Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Duddy’s peers succumb to his antics, thereby becoming deficient as Duddy’s teachers. Duddy’s amoral business associates are masters of ruthlessness and deceit, and his family members are enfeebled by the society they live in. Trained at the hands of these cripples, Duddy Kravitz is unable to complete his apprenticeship.

Duddy Kravitz’s apprenticeship takes place where "the boys grew up dirty and sad, spiky also, like grass beside the railroad tracks." (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, 46) At the Fletcher’s Cadets Parade, the boys whom Duddy learns from in his early years tell crude jokes and defect to buy rye. Duddy is also the president of room forty-one at Fletcher’s Field High School. He learns from his peers that the vulnerability of others can be used to his own advantage. From singing songs with lewd lyrics to tormenting his class masters and the rabbinical college students, Duddy elicits positive reaction from his peers. No one dares to accuse Duddy of lying, though his classmates see the outrageousness in his tales of Bradley’s exploits in Arizona. His peers humour him and stroke his ego. They applaud his pranks, but Duddy is a coward – he does not take responsibility for his wrongs. Whether it is writing hurtful comments on the board or phoning MacPherson’s wife Jenny – thus causing her death – Duddy learns that he can use his peers to relieve his conscience, "We’re all in this together, you understand?" (40) As the leader of the "Warriors," Duddy learns that his weak peers ...

... middle of paper ...

...and is nobody," and not explaining fully to the boy what he means, Simcha fires the boy’s imagination and lust for land.

Surrounded by emotional and psychological cripples, Duddy mistakens his goals in his apprenticeship and does not complete what he should do in order to become a complete person. Duddy’s peers, business associates, and family members all have distorted views of how to approach life, therefore they are unsuitable to preside as Duddy’s masters in Duddy’s apprenticeship in the field of life.

Works Cited

Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Ed. Malcolm Ross. Toronto: McClelland, 1969.

Works Consulted

Wainwright, J.A. "Neither Jekyll nor Hyde: In Defence of Duddy Kravitz." Canadian Literature 89 (1981): 56-73.

McGregor, Grant. "Duddy Kravitz: From Apprentice to Legend." Journal of Canadian Fiction 30 (1980): 132-40.