Lindsey M. Burns
Ms. Helen MacDonnel
English IB 1, Higher Level
10 October 2013
Duddy as an Anti-Hero In his novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler portrays the character of Duddy as an anti-hero. Richler develops Duddy in this way through close relationships with other characters and family members. Various negative traits of Duddy were shown in his business career as well. Mordecai Richler developed the character of Duddy as an anti-hero to highlight complexity in individual people.
Throughout the entire novel, Duddy idolizes businessmen he meets and develops various personality traits through these relationships. After graduating from high school, he has a summer job waiting tables at Rubin’s hotel outside of Montreal where he became focused on making money. He was willing to do anything for an extra tip, and according to the owner, Duddy was “the quickest boy in the dining room” (Richler 105). He had determination to become friends with the wealthy businessmen staying at Rubin’s and observed them closely. Duddy “marked the advertising section of the Sunday addition of the New York Times for novelties, bargains and possible gains.” (Richler 82). This was a skill he “picked up from Mr. Cohen, whose family was staying at Rubin’s for the entire summer.” (Richler 82). Duddy almost became too observant of the men; he spent the majority of his time thinking about how to earn the most money, which contributed to his excessive greed. Although the businessmen were wealthy, most were not great roles models. Duddy watched their actions a little too carefully and believed he should mimic everything they did.
Duddy watched all the businessmen who came to the hotel. He made sure they got to know him too, and that they made no mistake about his being a waiter. That was temporary. He watched the way they avoided their wives and the sun and sat around playing poker and talking about the market and the boom in real estate. Most of them ate too much and took pills. (Richler 82).
Mordecai Richler uses sense imagery to paint a picture in the readers mind to understand what Duddy is focused on. The businessmen who are avoiding the sunny areas illustrates the symbolic relationship between darkness and their personalities. Duddy also picked up the lack of respect towards women from watching the men. He brought these insignificant and unbeneficial things into his business. He treated his girlfriend horribly, and he showed little interest into the quality of his products and more about his image. The relationship between businessmen and Duddy highlights excessive greed and dishonesty. Duddy was willing to give up every positive thing in his world to make a few dollars, and he failed to realize at the end of the novel he had yet to prosper from the young misbehaved boy he had once been. He lost all the meaningful relationships he had made in his life time from his awful business motivation. He did achieve one thing he set out to do, obtaining land, but he did not earn the land honestly. Duddy’s complexity was shown in his relationship with his uncle, Benjy. Uncle Benjy is Jewish, and was motivated to have the image of a wealthy English man. He owns a successful dress-making factory that Duddy worked at when he was thirteen. Benjy is very wealthy, but his factory is not a pleasant workplace, and he is not a great man to work for. Duddy realized at this job how poorly his uncle treated him. Years after the job, Benjy asked Duddy why he hated him so much, to which Duddy replied “’I worked for you once. Remember?’” (Richler 285). His sarcastic response shows that Benjy was not a great family member and certainly did not care about his employee’s working environment. Benjy was not kind to Duddy; he favored his brother Lennie. Benjy believed Lennie would be the successful brother and therefore he did not want to waste time on his other nephew who was very irritating and unmotivated. All of Lennie’s schooling expenses were paid by Benjy. The large spending habits on Lennie shows that Benjy may have wished he had a son of his own to father, and that he felt like he needed to fill an empty space in his life. Duddy becomes very dishonest throughout his career, a trait that was not received by his uncle. Although Benjy may not be the most thoughtful man, he is brutally honest. When he is ill with cancer, Duddy confronts him about how he only treated Lennie well. Benjy’s response is “’Let’s not pretend. Everybody has his favorites.’” (Richler 285). Duddy is motivated to prove his uncle wrong by being a success and making lots of money in his own business. Duddy asked Benjy “’you think I should be running after something else besides money? Good. Tell me what.’” (Richler 287). This dialog displays how Duddy did not think anything compared to having money. He also was extremely unsympathetic towards his uncle’s sudden illness, and shows no remorse or forgivingness towards his uncle. Benjy only had one opportunity to see Duddy before he passed away. He left a letter of advice for Duddy that explains how much he had learned about him. The most valuable advice was:
There’s more to you than mere money-lust, Duddy, but I’m afraid for you. You’re two people, that’s why. The scheming little bastard I saw so easily and the fine, intelligent boy underneath that your grandfather, bless him, saw. But you’re coming of age soon and you’ll have to choose. A boy can be two, three, four potential people, but a man is only one. He murders the others. (Richler 331-2).
This portion of Benjy’s letter explains how much Benjy regretted not spending time with Duddy. Benjy took the time to think about Duddy as a person and how much he wanted him to succeed. Duddy is two different people; underneath his greedy business sense, was the poor Jewish boy who wanted to support his brother through medical school. Duddy chose to be the cold business man and disappointed those close to him. Mordecai Richler develops Duddy’s anti-heroic characteristics through his relationship with Virgil. Virgil highlights the most negative qualities in Duddy. The two met while Duddy was in New York, where Virgil explained to him that he had ten pin-ball machines that became illegal and that he had no idea what to do with them. Duddy told Virgil “’if you can get those machines across the border, I don’t care how and I don’t care when, I’ll give you a hundred bucks apiece for them.’” (Richler 163). Duddy’s poor business mind is highlighted in this quotation, as he did not have the money to buy the machines. Virgil brought all ten machines across the border for Duddy. Duddy figures he can mark up the price of the machines and make a decent profit. “It took three days of lies, threats, pandering, cajoling, insult and the ultimate appeal to avarice to sell the pinball machines, but he [Duddy] did sell them.” (Richler 245). Duddy had become mischievous and was willing to lie for profit. He told his customers Virgil was an expert in installing machines and he was brought down from New York to do so. Virgil confronted Duddy in front of a client saying “’That’s a falsehood’” (Richler 245). Virgil is the polar opposite of Duddy; he was more concerned about being an honest person than to lie about his products. He’d rather make an honest living than to have the guilt of knowing he cheated many men for a few dollars. Duddy suggested that Virgil work for him because he needed a man to help transport equipment, and that he could get his hands on a truck for the job. Duddy knew very well Virgil should not drive because of his epilepsy. His lack of concern could have been a result of never getting any care or attention growing up, and he resented the fact Virgil was so kind to everyone and all Duddy’s friends were fond of him. Virgil ended up being in a car accident due to a seizure while driving. Duddy’s first thought of the accident was: “Just when everything seemed to be going right, Duddy thought. Son-of-a-bitch.” (Richler 289). Duddy was more concerned about the condition of the equipment in the truck than that of Virgil. Duddy attempted to deny he had any impact of Virgil’s accident; who was now paralyzed from the waist down. Virgil moved to Ste. Agathe with Duddy’s former girlfriend Yvette, who planned to take care of him. Surprisingly enough, Duddy went into a depression when Yvette and Virgil left. The two people that had supported him through everything were both gone. Duddy wanted to buy a lot of land so much that he forged a cheque in Virgil’s name in order to get the money for it. After Virgil found out, his seizures began to worsen, and Yvette told Duddy “’I think you’re rotten. I wish you were dead.’” (Richler 376). This represents how Yvette’s feelings for Duddy after everything he had put her and Virgil through. Richler presents Duddy finally buying the land he had worked for, but in the process he lost the people who were close to him and he ended up being alone. Duddy had been so focused on being a rich man and so he would be respected by other rich men, but he ended up having nobody to celebrate his gaining of land with. Mordecai Richler creates the character of Duddy as an anti-hero to focus on how complex a single person is. Throughout the novel, he displays Duddy in numerous relationships in his personal and professional life. Richler succeeds in shaping the protagonist as an anti-hero, and leaves the reader pondering over the idea of an oppressively unhappy ending.
Word count: 1646

Works Cited
Richler, Mordecai. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Toronto: Penguin, 1995. Print.