The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

One’s life is a personal venture. From the day of birth, people set goals and

expectations for themselves. Life is essentially one’s self-dictionary; lessons are learned,

morals are acquired, and conformity to a standard of right is attained. In the novel The

Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler, the reader learns about Duddy’s

ventures in his life, whether he succeeds or fails during his obstacles, the reader will gain

important morals and lessons in life itself. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a

novel based on the life of Duddy Kravitz, Duddy’s character shows that he lacks

attention of others, has no remorse towards the people surrounding him, and his ventures

in achieving his goals and standards of life. Duddy Kravitz is a novel of morality because

of the manner Richler presents his main character (Duddy Kravitz), Mordecai Richler

presents a young Jewish boy, unaware of himself. The reader gains the lessons and

morals learned throughout Duddy’s life, and also attains a better sense of knowledge

itself with the many obstacles that we as society must go through.

Duddy is a young Jewish boy, who lives in Montreal with his father Max and his brother Lennie. As a young boy Duddy Kravitz reveals to the reader that he is a rebellious character, however, he is also a young boy who cannot distinguish between right from wrong as well. Lennie Duddy’s brother was the favored sibling because he had a successful career ahead of him as he was studying to become a doctor. Max Duddy’s father constantly judged Lennie and Duddy, he explains to Duddy that throughout Lennie’s years in Fletcher’s Field High School he had never gotten the strap, Max also reminds Duddy of how successful Lennie is and how proud he is of Lennie. Even Duddy’s uncle Benjy shows how concerned he was in Lennie’s future that he was paying for his school tuition and for any other payments Lennie needed (Richler page 63).

Uncle Benjy took pride in all of Lennie’s achievements. The medals, the scholarships, and ultimately his acceptance by the McGill University faculty of medicine. He paid the boys fees, gave him a weekly allowance, and was certainly prepared to set him up in practice when the time came.

This shows how much Benjy cared for Lennie as well as considering the fact that Benjy did not have any children of his own, he treated Lennie as own.