The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz

After graduating high school, Duddy finds a job as a waiter at Laurentian Mountains. He leaves his family back home and goes to work to prove that he is capable of making money. He accepts a challenging waiter job to show his uncle that he is as skillful as his brother, Lennie. Most of the employees at Laurentian Mountains are college students, “...first and second year McGill boys” (64), other than Duddy. Most of the college boys come from “more prosperous families and Duddy found it difficult”(64).

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.

“To be educated in Baltimore mean packing two pencil and working quietly. Educated children walked in a single file on the right side of the hallway”( Coates, p 25).

Lizabeth struggles with her emotions when she says, “I was still child enough to scamper along with the group over rickety fences and through bushes that tore our already raggedy clothes, back to where Miss Lottie lived” (261). Lizabeth is caught in a sort of limbo, acting childish, yet feeling as though she ought not to be. Consequently, she feels as though she possibly should be acting more mature. “Our already raggedy clothes” demonstrates how her clothes are dirty and ripped like a child’s clothes would be. Furthermore, the children are rushing to Miss Lottie’s to taunt her, an immature act in itself. Additionally, Lizabeth also shows how she wants the best of both childhood as well as adulthood when she says, “Y'all children get the stones, I’ll show you how to use ‘em” (263). Although she appears mature by displaying courage when she says, “I’ll show you how to use ‘em,” the fact that she is showing them how to tease a neighbor completely contradicts that. Acting just as immature as the children she’s talking to, Lizabeth is hardly a grown adult to be taken seriously. Through the emotions and phony bravado, Lizabeth’s acts and words paint a clear picture of her

LaVaughn, on the other hand, is a fourteen year old whose priority is to get good grades in school and to go to college. She wants to go to college in order to move out of her unsafe neighborhood. LaVaughn states, “that’s why the word COLLEGE is in our house... it’s what will get me out of here” (Pg 11). Going to college is very important in her household since she will be the first in her family and in her building to extend her education further. LaVaughn demonstrates her maturity and responsibility when she offers to babysit two sloppy, drippy kids in order to raise money for college. At her babysitting job, LaVaughn grows fond of Jeremy and Jilly although the job isn’t doing her much good because she is “too tired to study and keep her grades up”, according to Myrtle and Annie. She is very diligent, determined, and caring. LaVaughn is looking after Jolly and guiding her on the right path, even though she is way younger.

Although thanks to Andy’s family, things for the Duvitches changed for the better. Andy’s parents always showed care towards the Duvitches when they saw them no matter where they were. Their mother always remembered the rose she received from them. “But mother, remembering the old plotted rose tree, always had a friendly word and a smile for the young Duvitches when she saw them and a bone for Kasimar when he found the courage to venture across the road.”, “Father was the only man on Syringa Street who tipped his hat to sixteen-year-old Maria Duvitch”. Andy and Tom did a horrible thing to the Duvitches. “Without considering further, I dropped the cake of soap into the tub of fish”. This caused them to be invited over for dinner. “I’ve just seen Mr. Duvitch and he remarked that since Andy and Tom caught the fish,

Duddy ends up forging Virgil’s signature on a check in order to access Virgil’s bank account and steal his money. Although this money help’s Duddy purchase the remainder of his land, in the process he becomes a despised and wretched tyrant. Not only does this result in the annihilation of Duddy’s friendship with Virgil, but also results in the loss of Yvette’s respect for Duddy. It becomes quite obvious that Duddy did not value his friendships as much as he did his wealth, as if he did, he would’ve earned money the proper way, as a waiter, and wouldn’t have resorted to such ruthless acts in order to attain complacency.

The first relationship Duddy had with a girl would be with Linda Rubin. Duddy believes that Linda truly has feelings for him; however he eventually discovers that she is really the girlfriend of Irwin Shubert, and was only being used by Irwin to cheat him at his roulette game. After Duddy realizes that he has been conned by Irwin, he eventually decides to run off. Once he begins to enjoy the attention that he receives as a result of people worrying about his absence, he returns back to the hotel and meets Yvette Durelle. At first, Duddy and Yvette shared a stable relationship with one another, and enjoyed each other’s company. However, after Yvette took Duddy down to a somewhat desolate beach, Duddy becomes obsessed with the beach as he believes that this is the land that he will own. At this point, Duddy begins to centralize his goals solely on owning the land, and begins using Yvette as a tool to attain it. Because Yvette is of legal age and has a French-Canadian background, the farmers wouldn’t be reluctant to or refuse to sell her the land as they would be with a young Jew. In addition to Yvette being used as a device for acquiring land, she is also used as a device of Duddy’s sexual pleasure. Duddy treats her as an object, and nearly forces her into having sex with him whenever he feels the need to. He also tells her that if he were to get her pregnant, he would simply get his brother, Lennie, to perform an

This jealousy surprisingly brings out the more selfless and responsible side in Duddy. Lennie is an intelligent boy who makes it into medical school and is highly regarded in the family. Although Lennie is more intelligent, he still falls into trouble and Duddy must save him. The problem is, Lennie performs an illegitimate abortion and the abortion goes wrong, so a doctor is called in and finds out. Once this happens Lennie flees town and no one knows where he is or how to find him, so Duddy takes on the challenge.

He uses her as a medium through which he can buy the land that he lusts for; because he is a minor and he cannot legally own land. " The farmers would be wary of a young Jew, they might jack up prices or even refuse to sell, but another French-Canadian would not be suspect. " Duddy also treats her as a sexual toy. He makes love with Yvette whenever he wants it, but he does not take Yvette’s feelings into consideration: "Yvette wanted to wait, but Duddy insisted, and they made love on the carpet."

Longing for her husband’s forgiveness, Missy May promises to obey and fulfill his every desire henceforth. After silent days and nights, Missy May decides to rid Joe of her presence, believing that to be his wish. Reluctantly, she stays to prove her determination and love for her husband. The conception of their first child really sparks the match in Joe’s head that Missy May never meant to do him wrong; after many months of neglect, Joe traveled down to Orlando for errands and took a detour to his favorite candy store. With Otis Slemmons’ gilded coin, Joe spent “all dat in kisses.” While there, he though of his “lil boy chile [at] home now. Tain't a week old yet, but he kin suck a sugar tit and maybe eat one them [molasses] kisses hisself" (p. 11).

Duddy’s morality when it comes to earning money is shifted because of the example his uncle plays in his life with his business. Uncle Benjy tried to keep Duddy out of as much trouble as possible, he also admits his lack of attention to Duddy at the end of the novel; “I wish I’d made more time for you. God help me but I wish I’d seen what your zeyda saw” (Page 245) saying that Duddy is indeed worth something and that the thing that his grandfather saw in him was absolutely

This made Duddy angry as he doesn’t like people disagreeing with his doings, and so he wave his fist at Hersh and says that. Throughout the novel you are able to see that Duddy is a boy, which needs ‘face’ all the time. He likes to impress the boys, so that they look up to him. He’ll do anything for attention and enjoys very much being the centre of attention all the time.

To Nanny, a woman who was dominated by slavery, there is no companionship for women to experience, only hardship. Janie is reminded of Nanny’s ideals after the death of her second husband Joe when a man from Eatonville voices, “Uh woman by herself is a pitiful thing… Dey needs aid and assistance. God never meant ‘em tuh try tuh stand by theirselves” (Hurston 90). Despite Janie’s constant questioning about Logan Killicks, Nanny realizes love does not beget marriage. Tracy Bealer states, “Nanny 's experiences with institutionalized racism and pervasive misogyny teach her that for black women, erotic love is infused with shame, physical pain, and unsatisfying labor” (315). Inevitably, Nanny begins to teach Janie what her place in the world is, under man. Janie is a young girl, and after kissing Johnnie Taylor she can only think about love. So Nanny tells her love does not exist in marriage and to forget about searching for her dreams. Janie would carry this belief into her first marriage, allowing Nanny’s fear of death and her own fear of loneliness to guide her into adulthood. Janie holds onto these fears long after her grandmother’s death.

Duddy can be considered an underdog that is trying to achieve something that may just be handed to others that are on a different playing field then him. In the novel he is just trying to even out the playing field for himself. Though this does not account for everything Duddy has done, it does give reasoning and justifiability to some of his actions. Duddy shows his concept of fairness when talking to Calder, as Calder explains why he thinks Duddy’s brother should be expelled. Duddy says to Calder, “Maybe he did.