The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

Despite that, Max still tells the story of the new Boy Wonder to his friends, even though he knows that what Duddy has done does not make zeyda happy. When Duddy buys all the land he wants, he loses all of the friends he had, but he doesn’t become rich either: not only he doesn’t have enough money to make use of his land, in fact, he can’t even afford bus fare. Duddy calls Dingleman a cripple, but he himself becomes one: he is a psychological cripple, while Dingleman is both, physical and psychological. Duddy was mad, that Dingleman tried to become partners with his and share the ownership of the Kravitztown, but he himself tried to blackmail Dingleman and then stole the money from Virgil to buy the last part of the land. In the end, they both tried to fool each other, while arguing about the land, and became angry when they didn’t succeed. Without realizing it, Duddy slowly became an exact copy of Jerry Dingleman. Even though in the beginning of the book I had sympathy for both, Boy Wonder and the young Kravitz, in the end of the story I didn’t feel sorry for neither of them. Being God-fearing people, of course, doesn’t stop both of them from hurting other people. Just like the Boy Wonder, he became a God-fearing person, and someday wanted to become a sponsor of the “Birth of Israel”, and the “Jewish National Fund”, while Max didn’t even contribute to the synagogue.

But there were also some good qualities, which Duddy developed from Max’s anecdotes about Dingleman. He’s lost the respect of his grandfather, he sold the furniture from his uncle’s house, and, worst of all, he’s lost a girl who really loved him. He hurts his former friend Cuckoo Kaplan and also takes full advantage of Vigil, due to his disabilities. Cohen and reducing the price, he just keeps on lying to Cohen saying that the movie is a piece of artwork. Cohen a dead horse easier than this pile of ” (Richler, 170), but instead of apologizing to Mr. For example, after the screening of his first movie, Duddy says to Mr. He starts to treat his employees with no respect they deserved just for working for Duddy, fires many secretaries for no reason and acts disrespectfully towards his clients. But after meeting his “hero”, Duddel subconsciously obtains most of the Boy Wonder’s bad qualities, like ruthlessness and dishonesty. They become his protection while Duddy kept on hurting not only his enemies but also innocent people.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler