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What is the importance of character development in literature
Summary of the apprentice of duddy kravitz
Summary of the apprentice of duddy kravitz
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The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler is the tale of a young greedy boy who feels that money is his path to happiness and pride. Duddy simply stomps all over his friends and his family as well (to a certain extent). Richler feels unreserved sympathy towards Duddy because, in essence, Duddy is Richler written down and diversified. Duddy is a character based on Mordecai’s own personality.
Duddy Kravitz is a crook, a blackmailer and a cheat. However, Duddy Kravitz is Richler’ s crook and Duddy will never be abandoned. In The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, everyone but the Richler himself shuns Duddy. The entire concept of the novel was for Duddy to learn an important lesson, what makes someone significant. The following is an instance where Richler does force pity on the reader through his writing:
“We betrayed you I suppose.”
“Yes you did.”
He had spoken with such quiet and certainty that she began to doubt herself.
“You’ll come crawling,” he said.
“ I want you to know something. I’d sue you. I’d even get Irwin Shubert to take the case. But Virgil won’t let me. He doesn’t even want to hear about it any more.”
“You hate me,” Duddy dais. “Is that possible?”
“I think you’re rotten. I wish you were dead.”
“You don’t understand, Yvette. Why can’t I make you understand? Listen, Yvette, I—“
But she turned away from him.
The paragraph above does show how the readers’ emotions are in turmoil because of the sort of double standard created when the story is t...
"I think you're rotten," says Yvette at the end of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, "I wish you were dead" (Richler 318). This sentiment is echoed throughout a substantial amount of the criticism of Mordecai Richler's tale. At best, we question whether Duddy has learned anything during his apprenticeship; at worst, we accuse him of taking a tremendous step backwards, of becoming an utterly contemptible human being. When Duddy steals money from his friend and admirer, Virgil, to pay for the final parcel of land around Lac St. Pierre, it may seem that he has sunk to a low from which he may never recover; but careful consideration of the events leading up to the theft, the turn of events after it, and finally, Duddy's emotional reaction to both Yvette's anger and Simcha's disappointment indicates that Duddy is not the monster that he is frequently made out to be.
Duddy was not born into money, his father, Max, was a taxi driver, and pulled in a low income. Max’s brother, Benjy had money and always played favourites with Duddy’s brother, Lennie by giving him money and opportunities. Duddy always had to struggle for his money, and in one his many struggles he borrows his father’s taxi cab, which is his only source of income, but does not return it for three days. He was delivering pin ball machines that he had sold. When he returns he finds his father is furious at him just taking off with the cab without permission. “They found Max at Eddy’s, and he was furious, ‘who do you think you are?,’ he said ‘that you can run off with my car for three days? Just like that.’” (Richler, 213). Duddy has a way of burning bridges with the people that he most needs, he only thinks of himself, and has no consideration for the feelings of others, even those who does not want to hurt the most. Duddy’s grandfather, also known as the Zeyda, is Duddy’s mentor and the only person Duddy really looks up to, and the one he does not want to hurt, but ends up hurting him the worst. “‘Yvette came to see me.’…. ’she told me what you did,’ Simcha said, ‘And I don’t want a farm here.’ …. ‘I can see what you have planned for me, Duddel. You’ll be good to me. You’d give me everything I wanted.
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
Sipiora states that, "Characters often perceive (or fail to perceive) the context and implications of the circumstances and relationships they are in. Some characters act in good faith, whereas others do not. As we examine literary personae, it is especially important to judge them in terms of how they react to others" (77)
Often, when a story is told, it follows the events of the protagonist. It is told in a way that justifies the reasons and emotions behind the protagonist actions and reactions. While listening to the story being cited, one tends to forget about the other side of the story, about the antagonist motivations, about all the reasons that justify the antagonist actions.
The narrator has a knack for bringing up traumatic times in his life, but passing it off in an indifferent tone. He believes that
...it up to each reader to draw their own conclusions and search their own feelings. At the false climax, the reader was surprised to learn that the quite, well-liked, polite, little convent girl was colored. Now the reader had to evaluate how the forces within their society might have driven such an innocent to commit suicide.
...stand what they mean as far as the social and cultural implications; but it not difficult to understand the strength of the two female protagonists and the double standards of men.
is the understanding of this "rich" character. In this study I will try to analyze some of his traits (invisibility-lack of indentity , blindness) and his journey from idealism to a grim realism about the racism that confronts him in the story.
...te when it comes to emotions and each of the female characters are the product of male influences and much of their rage is intermixed with occasional feelings of love due to their lack of self-recognition.
Owens and Sawhill use pathos to evoke the feelings of their readers. This method establishes
Woolf’s pathos to begin the story paints a picture in readers minds of what the
First things first, we talked about reading the novel and how it can be interrupted differently by men and women. Grayson mention “how women are stricter” and Bri replied “men are held to higher standards than women because of these laws against women are reasonable since they are lower than men, “I never saw it that way. I thought that women were property in their culture since they treat them that way, but the reason they treat them that way because the law allows them to do so. When I thought about it I never thought men knew why they acted like
By stating how other people behave or interact, the author offers a great chance for readers to interpret fairly for themselves what the reason for any conflict may be, or the nature of any essential contrast between the narrator and other adults in the story. In the story, there are many self-righteous opinions from people, which seem to be ironic to the readers; For example, her mother’s aggressive attitude of showing off her daughter, her piano teacher’s self-praise claiming him as “Beethoven.” All of the narrations including conversation clearly depict a different characteristic between the narrator and other people. For instance, a conversation occurs between the narrator and her mother when the mother criticizing a girl who seems similar to the author on TV which reveals dissimilar understanding for both of them to each other’s behavior. At first, the daughter speaks out for the girl by questioning her mother by saying “why picking on her […] She’s pretty good. Maybe she’s not the best, but she’s trying hard.” The daughter actually is defending for herself and reflecting that she feels uncomfortable with her mother’s disregard of her hard work. She wants to get her mother’s compliments instead of her criticisms. However, her mother response of, “just like you,” and, “not the best. Because you not trying.” Here, her mother doesn’t really answer her question, instead wants her put more effort on trying, neglecting how much she has tried before. However, in her mother’s perspective, she has never tried hard enough. By narratively stating the conversations she has encountered, readers perceive a strong implication of the reason for a future conflict between her and her mother.
In conclusion, it is hard to grasp the true meaning of the story unless the story is read a second time because of the author's style of writing.