Duddy Offers Virgil A Job example essay topic

Meredith Snyder"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 Kravitz is raised in a poor part of Montreal; people without hope are common, and, often, it is necessary to stoop below one's standards, just to make a living.

Max Kravitz, for example, who has a respectable job as a taxi driver, also works as a pimp, to make ends meet. Duddy Kravitz grows up idolizing Jerry Dingleman, the "Boy Wonder" who, according to Max's stories, is someone who has been able to fight his way out of the St. Urbain St. squalor, and become a success. The oral legends Max tells of his accomplishments, of his humble beginnings, and his slow rise to greatness recall heroic epics like The Odyssey, told in ancient Greece to educate and inspire the youth of a warrior culture. "When the Boy Wonder loses his temper", Max tells Duddy, "he could eat bread and it would come out toasted. That's the size of it" (62).

This is an obvious hyperbole; in every way, Max's legends make the Boy Wonder larger than life. The force of Max's storytelling teaches Duddy that the Boy Wonder is someone to be emulated. In "Duddy Kravitz, from Apprentice to Legend", Grant McGregor describes Duddy's life as "apprenticeship to a perverted myth" (McGregor 133), and in many ways this is true. Although he presents an image of success, and Max Kravitz's tales make him out to be the ultimate accomplished businessman, Jerry Dingleman is a corrupt, cruel person. For his entire life, Duddy has been told that he will never succeed, but he is resilient. With the Boy Wonder as his example, Duddy intends to prove everyone wrong.

"He liked to think, in fact, that point for point he was a lot like the Boy Wonder before he had made his name" (62). The audience is made aware, fairly early on, that the Boy Wonder is a crook, but this information eludes Duddy until far into the story, when Duddy has already achieved some measure of success by his own means, part of it by the trickery he mastered during his high school years, but now that he has matured quite a bit, also by sheer hard work. Duddy fights a continual uphill battle for success; he wants to be someone of whom his father is proud, like his brother Lennie, or the Boy Wonder himself. To Irwin Shubert and the other waiters at Rubin's Hotel Lac des Sables in Ste. Aga the des Monts, "There [was] nothing that little fiend wouldn't do for a dollar" (77), but Duddy was interested in success even more than money, not for the sheer material joy of it, but because of his need to feel the love and admiration of his father, who has always seen his son as "a dope like me" (23). Although he relates himself to Duddy, he feels far greater affection for the successful people in his life than for his younger son, in whom he can see the personification of his own character flaws.

Max Kravitz offers little support to his younger son, so Duddy must build a place for himself in life on his own. The impression of Duddy as an incurable prankster, the leader of a raggle-taggle gang of marauding boys with no heart, is countered in his interactions with his brother, Lennie, when we are exposed to Duddy's weakness: this very desire for his family's love and attention. In Part I, Chapter 3, Duddy greets his brother at the end of the day, only to be met with, "how many times have I asked you not to barge in here when I'm studying?" (21). His attempts at conversation are repeatedly rebuffed. His need for his family's approval arises again later on: "Duddy was tempted to ask his father if Minnie had liked him, but he couldn't bring himself to risk it" (129). He needs to know his mother loved him, but he is afraid of losing face in his father's eyes.

This driving force behind Duddy's ambition does inspire great sympathy. A significant part of readers' contempt for Duddy Kravitz arises because we tend to hold him to a much higher standard than the other characters. J.A. Wainwright, in "Neither Jekyll nor Hyde: In Defence of Duddy Kravitz", talks at length about the relationship between Duddy and Irwin Shubert and how we are inclined to align ourselves in the clash: "our sympathies lie with Duddy because his crudities are preferable to Irwin's nastiness and snobbery" (Wainwright 60). Duddy may be a prankster, but he isn't nasty. Even his pranks at FFH S tended to be either retaliatory, or with the idea of a good joke in mind. When Duddy turns on Mr. MacPherson, it is in response to the comment the teacher made about his father: "You said my father wasn't fit to bring me up. I've got witnesses.

That's an insult to my family, Sir" (14). Mr. MacPherson has attacked one of the things Duddy values most: his family. This is in no way to suggest that the death of his wife was appropriate punishment; Duddy did not intend to be anything more than a bit of a nuisance. The boys of room forty-one got vengeance against all of their foes with similarly petty pranks. Mr. MacPherson, with his invalid wife and his crumbling ideals, was simply an easy target. In his essay, Wainwright says, "Simcha is the man whom Duddy will supposedly betray (at the end of the novel) along with Virgil and Yvette", then continues with the question, "How much, we might well ask, does Simcha betray Duddy?" (Wainwright 59).

The reader is so tied up anticipating Duddy's success that the weakness of the platitude upon which rest all his ambitions is forgotten. This is the wisest piece of advice anyone has ever given Duddy; it carries enough weight with him that it takes quite some time for him to realise how hollow it really is. One of Duddy's earlier memories is of Simcha complaining about his family:' Your grandfather was a failure in this country,' he said. ' Why?' 'Your uncle Benjy with all his money is nothing too. Of your father, I won't even speak. ' The old man squashed a mosquito against his cheek with a surprisingly quick hand.

' A man without land is nobody. Remember that, Dud del. ' (49) This exchange has a profound effect on Duddy. He is deeply devoted to his grandfather and, from this moment onwards, sets out to be the success of the family, the one who has something to show for his efforts in Canada: a piece of land of his very own, both to develop and profit from, and as a symbol of his success. He does not realise that this is simply his grandfather's way of expressing his hurt pride, now that people are saying negative things about his family, when Benjy and his wife do not produce a child. The Boy Wonder points out to Duddy that Simcha never really wanted land anyway, and Duddy is offended.

He realises that Dingleman is right, that he has been pursuing an empty dream. Duddy, for his part, is no weaker for passionately pursuing land and a name for himself than Simcha is for making such a statement rather than swallowing his pride and accepting the shortcomings of his family. The accusations concerning Duddy's insensitivity towards Virgil do not begin with his forging the cheque at the end of the novel. Duddy offers Virgil a job; the catch is that rather than paying Virgil the $1000 he owes him, Duddy is going to supply him with a truck, and pay him $60 a week. Yvette grows angry at Duddy: "I've seen you do lots of dishonest things, Duddy, but never in my life did I expect you to cheat a boy like Virgil" (216).

There is a tendency, in this situation, to side with Yvette because Duddy has craftily avoided having to make good on an empty promise that he had made, back in New York. It is apparent that Duddy never expected to see Virgil again; he is referred to in their first encounter just as "a young man who had been in the pinball machine business" (143), and he is obviously confused when Virgil arrives at his door: " 'How did you ever find me?' he asked" (205). Suddenly, he is saddled with a responsibility that he did not expect and, rather than telling Virgil that he is no longer interested in the deal, he decides to set him up with a job. This is beneficial to Duddy, but it is beneficial to Virgil in a bigger way. Virgil is thrilled at the offer of a job: "Virgil's eyes filled with excitement.

'When could you know definitely?' he asked, his fists clenched" (215). Earlier on, he had explained to Duddy that, as an epileptic, he had been unable to find a job: "Who would take a chance on me as a waiter?" (208) he asks, and later says, "That's why I started out in the pinball machine business in the Bronx, you know. Nobody would hire me so I had to go into business for myself" (209). Duddy has taken a chance that no one else has been willing to take, and is treating Virgil like a regular human being.

This, to Virgil, means the world, and, for this reason, his loyalty to Duddy remains solid throughout the rest of the novel. He has given Virgil friendship, respect, and a way to earn his own living. Virgil would have loaned Duddy the money he needed to buy the final piece of land at the end of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, but Yvette does not let him. Virgil's loyalty to Duddy is unwavering, even when Yvette is growing tired of his strange, selfish ways. Virgil cries when Duddy is asking him for the money and Yvette tells him not to give it to him, because his loyalties are torn between Yvette and Duddy.

Yvette loves Duddy, but the two of them fight. Still, Yvette knows that Virgil's ability to help Duddy now exceeds hers. She is jealous, and she would prefer for Duddy to fall short of his goal than to have achieved it in the end with the help of someone else:' Does Duddy need more money?' Virgil asked. ' Don't you say a word,' Yvette said. ' But-'You heard me, Virgil. ' (301) Duddy wouldn't have stolen the money if he hadn't been so close to his goal, and so utterly desperate to achieve it.

Virgil, certainly, is willing to help him achieve it in every possible way. As Duddy tries to find out whether Virgil can help him, Virgil screams, "I can't", and "I promised Yvette. I can't" (306). Yvette knows how important it is to Duddy to get this last piece of land, how close he is to losing it and his dream completely. Now even the Boy Wonder finds Duddy's project worthy of note. Everything Duddy has worked for is teetering on a knife's edge.

The Boy Wonder will shatter it in a second, if Duddy does not come up with the money by the very first deadline. When Yvette prevents Virgil from lending Duddy the money, she helps drive him to an extreme of dishonesty to which he would not normally stoop. He feels guilty for what he is doing, but now feels that he has no other choice: But the signed cheque frightened him. He concealed it in his back pocket. I'll wait an hour, he thought, well, three-quarters anyway, and if they show up before then I'll tear up the cheque. If not-Well, they shouldn't leave me alone for that long.

Not in my desperate condition. Duddy waited an hour and a half... (308) These paragraphs make it apparent that Duddy desperately wanted Virgil and Yvette to return. It is not characteristic of Duddy to wait: when he wants something, he must have it right away. He is still hoping for a better way to reach his goal, a way that does not involve the betrayal of his dearest friends. When Virgil has his terrible fit, the guilt is too much for Duddy.

He is faced with the consequences of having done something that he did not want to do and he does not have the emotional capacity to handle it: "Duddy ran, he ran, he ran" (309). The most complex relationship in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is the one between Duddy and Yvette. Yvette is easily the character who expresses the most genuine affection for Duddy, and, thus, the character he has the hardest time dealing with. Duddy does not know how to show affection, and he does not know how to interact with women: "Duddy was pleased, but he felt jumpy too". When Duddy has his first date with Linda Rubin, we are told: "He didn't know much about broads, though naturally there had been lots of rumours and reports" (78). The only contact that Duddy had with women, prior to his relationship with Yvette, was the chats with Mrs. Cox at Mr. Cox's musical nights.

Duddy's mother died when he was too young to have a clear recollection of her. That Duddy cares deeply for Yvette is apparent in his jealousy when he imagines Virgil has a romantic interest in her. When the two decide to go to a movie together, Duddy consoles himself by heading off to look at his land. That even this couldn't comfort him is evidence of how deeply he feels for Yvette, even if he does not know how to show it. When Duddy asks Yvette to transfer the deed for the land into his father's name, it is not because he no longer wants to continue a relationship with Yvette, but because the land has all been acquired now; he no longer needs to hide from the French Canadian, nationalistic farmers that he, the buyer of the properties, is an English Jew. To Duddy, this is not a betrayal of Yvette; it had never crossed his mind that this might mean something more to her.

Duddy breaks Yvette's heart, not because he is malicious or even because he is selfish, but because he does not now how to show her how much he cares. Yvette has always helped Duddy, and would likely continue to do so, if he could tell her he loved her, or even offer marriage, as she sometimes wishes he would. Duddy Kravitz is a tough, streetwise boy who is incredibly obstinate. His business techniques are questionable at times, but he has had no strong role models to show him how to achieve success with integrity; he fights to achieve his goal by any means possible. Duddy sinks even below his own standards when he steals money from his close and very loyal friend Virgil; his reluctance to do it and his intensely emotional reaction to Virgil's ensuing epileptic seizure show that he considers this wrong and does not want to do it. Critics are harsh with Duddy, whose brightness and enthusiasm allow all readers to hold to a high standard, but there is hope for him at the end of the novel: Duddy is young.

No human being is perfect and Duddy is a human character, with real emotions, strengths and weaknesses. Duddy is alive in the pages of Richler's novel, far more human than monster, with a collection of good and bad characteristics like all human beings.

Bibliography

Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. London: Andre Deutsch, 1959.
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.