The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

“‘Why not, eh? You think I have to be a moron just because my old man is a taxi driver. My brother’s studying to be a doctor. I read lots of book.’”

Duddy does not read lots of books at this point in his life; in fact, he doesn’t even read the books assigned to him in school, so he just barely graduates high school. But in the presence of those he wishes to impress—in this case, Jane, the wife of the music teacher—Duddy tries to establish a new identity and storyline for himself. Clutching a John Dos Passos novel, Duddy hopes to be seen as a deep thinker, not a troublemaker by this woman he finds attractive.

“Duddy smiled; he laughed. ‘Jeez,’ he said proudly. ‘That’s something. Jeez.’ Max slapped his face so hard that Duddy lost his balance and fell against the counter.” 

Duddy is not upset or ashamed when he finds out that his cab driver father augments his income by acting as a pimp. Instead, Duddy is amused and intrigued. Max is furious, however, because he seems determined to still play the role of upright patriarch to Duddy and Lennie even if Duddy doesn’t respect him.

“Simcha’s hard thin dark figure was a familiar one in the neighborhood. Among the other immigrants he was trusted, he was regarded as a man of singular honesty and some wisdom but he was not loved.” 

Duddy’s grandfather possesses qualities that Duddy utterly lacks as an adult. Simcha has ethics and a clear sense of right and wrong. Though he is stoic and often cold with others, he is widely respected within and beyond the Jewish community. Duddy is the opposite of his grandfather in that Duddy uses his charm and personality to manipulate others and he is without the moral compass that earns Simcha respect.

“‘A man without land is nobody. Remember that, Duddel.’” 

Simcha’s comment to 7-year-old Duddy stays with him for the rest of his life. It becomes, in essence, how Duddy defines success. Simcha is not shy about pronouncing his son Max a failure due to his professional path as taxi drive. But young Duddy is surprised when his grandfather calls himself a failure as well for not acquiring land. Duddy eventually goes on to redress this issue, buying land so that Simcha can reside on it and take pride in him, but Simcha learns about the ways in which Duddy earned his money and withholds the praise that Duddy craves.

“Duddy Kravitz’s other parochial school activities were decidedly more commercial.” 

By the time he is a teenager, Duddy outgrows his habit of passing his school hours by aggravating teachers and harassing peers. Money becomes a point of fixation for Duddy. He spends what should be time devoted to school devising one scheme after another to earn him a few bucks. 

“A short, fat man in enormous blue shorts with a golf ball pattern, he might fry himself a couple of eggs and read the socialist magazines that he subscribed to that came from England and the United States. These bored him. Foolishness, romance about what the workers were and advertisements for family planning and summer camps where Negro sang solemn progressive songs.”

Duddy’s uncle Benjy is a man in search of things to believe in. Though he would like to believe in the validity of his own marriage, he can’t shake the feeling that his wife is cheating on him. He wants to believe in noble progressive ideals, but his experiences as a factory owner make that difficult. He wants to believe in his commitment and love toward his extended family, but he resents his brother, Max, for having the sons he cannot have, and he loathes his nephew, Duddy, whom he finds to be conniving and shiftless.

“Uncle Benjy felt differently about Duddy but it did not come out until he came to work for him...The thin, crafty face, the quick black eyes and the restlessness…he was prepared to give Duddy a chance, however but Duddy went and loused it up.”

Uncle Benjy is the first relative that Duddy severely disappoints with his lack of ethics. While working for his uncle, Duddy attempts to do as little as possible for his pay. He uses work hours to try to have a fling with some of the women who do the sewing at his uncle’s dress factory. Duddy is caught in the act with one of the youngest female employees, and this transgression forever seals his uncle’s opinion of him.

“Duddy was the four-hundred-and-tenth boy to be handed his diploma. He had graduated third class with failures in history and Algebra 11. He accepted his diploma with a thin smile, turned sharply from Mr. MacPherson’s empty seat on the platform and walked away on squeaky black shoes. Max Kravitz clapped loudly, ‘Atta boy, Duddy! Atta boy.’ Uncle Benjy turned to his father and the old man looked at the floor.” 

Duddy’s adult future hardly begins on a promising note. He barely graduates from high school, and even as he is accepting his diploma, he has to face the specter of MacPherson’s empty chair, a reminder of that teacher and the many others that he harassed till their careers felt bereft of meaning. Though his father, Max, is proud of him, his grandfather and uncle, having very limited hopes for Duddy at all, see Duddy’s academic performance—or lack thereof—as shameful.

“Duddy found the land he wanted quite by accident.” 

After years of mocking others, Duddy becomes the brunt of other boys’ bullying while working at a hotel resort over the summer. Duddy comes to see that he will never make inroads with this crowd, that the more educated and affluent young men will always look down on him. He decides he is better off trying to network beyond the scope of the hotel and attempts to make new contacts. He ends up meeting Cuckoo, a comic and street performer, who becomes a useful sounding board for Duddy’s business ventures.

“Shunned by the college boy waiters, Duddy began to investigate Ste. Agathe on his own when he had time off.” 

After years of mocking others, Duddy becomes the brunt of other boys’ bullying while working at a hotel resort over the summer. Duddy comes to see that he will never make inroads with this crowd, that the more educated and affluent young men will always look down on him. He decides he is better off trying to network beyond the scope of the hotel and attempts to make new contacts. He ends up meeting Cuckoo, a comic and street performer, who becomes a useful sounding board for Duddy’s business ventures.

“‘There’s nothing that little fiend wouldn’t do for a dollar,’ Irwin told Linda. ‘And that’s how I’m going to teach him a lesson. I’ve got it all figured out.’” 

Irwin is correct about Duddy being willing to do anything for a buck, and he does set a successful trap for Duddy, luring him into a gambling session he can’t win and taking all his money. However, the experience doesn’t teach Duddy the lesson that Irwin imagines it will. Rather, it makes Duddy all the more determined to get the better of Irwin and anyone else who has written him off as low class.

“‘Aw, Yvette. Those are a dime a dozen.’ But Linda was something else. Soft, curvy and nifty enough for one of those fashion magazines, she seemed just about the most assured girl Duddy had ever met. She had been to Mexico and New York and sometimes she used words that made Duddy blush.” 

Part of Duddy’s plan for self-improvement and upward mobility involves women. Though his friend Cuckoo encourages him to think of Yvette in more serious terms because he sees how sincerely Yvette cares for Duddy, Duddy has his eye on Linda, the daughter of the wealthy hotel owner. 

“‘Peter’s a painter,’ Linda said to Duddy. ‘Inside or outside?’ ‘That’s good,’ Peter said. ‘That’s very good.’ He slapped his knee again and again. Duddy looked puzzled.” 

Duddy is humiliated multiple times during his date with Linda. First, she leaves with another man and comes back with her hair mussed and her clothes disheveled. Later, she invites some of her college friends to join her and Duddy at their table, and Duddy embarrasses himself in conversation by not understanding what her artist friends are talking about. Duddy’s idea of a painter is a manual laborer, not an intellectual.

“It’s not always going to be like this. If you want to bet on something, bet on me. I’m going to be somebody and that’s for sure.” 

After being set up and humiliated in the rigged roulette game, Duddy has an argument with Irwin and Linda in which he lambasts them for their cruel treatment of him, swindling him out of his savings. During his argument with the pair, Duddy reminds himself of his own potential. From now on, he will be gambling on himself. He is a sure bet, he reminds himself. No matter what others think, he is destined for greatness, he believes.

"He would have to buy up the surrounding fields with infinite care. Guile was required. Otherwise the prices would surely skyrocket overnight. Yvette lit a cigarette for him and Duddy decided where he would put the camp play field. The land there is as flat as a pool table, he thought. It’s natural. His heart began to pound again and he laughed, happier than he had ever laughed before.”

With Yvette’s inspiration and encouragement, Duddy is able to craft a clear vision of what he wants to do with the land he is devoted to buying. He realizes acquiring it all will be complex and that he will have to be crafty. But the dream makes him happier than he’s ever been and gives him a fixed sense of purpose.

“He was taller, more broad and he had no more need to encourage a beard. The boyish craftiness in his eyes had been displaced by tough adult resolution…Like his grandfather he now gave the appearance of a man who kept plenty in reserve.” 

After his summer away waiting tables, Duddy comes home a changed person. He is no longer a boy but a man, and it shows in his demeanor. He is less rebellious and more determined. His sense of purpose and confidence shine through.

“He had to make a killing. A real killing. But these things don’t just fall into a guy’s lap, he thought, and meanwhile it would be wise to bring in as much money as he could whatever way possible. You’ve got to start operating, he told himself. It’s getting late.” 

Even though Duddy is still just a teenager, he is full of ambition and desperate to acquire enough money to start buying up parcels of his desired lakefront land. He gives himself motivational speeches along the way to keep going and to take whatever work or opportunities come his way. 

“Duddy was exhausted. I’ll sleep in tomorrow morning, he thought. I need the rest. But he woke with a scream at 3 AM from a dream that was to become a recurring nightmare. Bulldozers, someone else’s surveyors, carpenters and plumbers roared and hammered and shouted over the land round Lac St. Pierre. Irwin had an enormous plan in his hands. He smiled thinly.” 

Duddy’s dream will not allow him to rest. Even when he is physically exhausted, his emotional commitment to buying the lakeside land and outdoing Irwin propels him forward. The thought of losing the property, especially to someone like Irwin who has humiliated and devalued him, haunts Duddy in his sleep.

“‘An intimate of the Boy Wonder? Hah! He doesn’t know you from a hole in the ground.’” 

Duddy pins a lot of his professional hopes on his father’s alleged connection to Jerry Dingleman, better known as the Boy Wonder in Duddy’s neighborhood. Max tells his son that he met Dingleman in his cab and the two became close friends. When Duddy is looking for a networking opportunity, Max sends him off to see Dingleman, assuring Duddy that all he needs to do is mention his father’s name. When Duddy approaches the Boy Wonder, though, not only does he not know Max, but the only job he is willing to offer Duddy is that of a busboy. Duddy leaves, furious with Dingleman and with his father.

“Jeez, Duddy thought. What the hell’s going on here? He was scared but it was too late…Duddy closed his eyes and tried to think about his land. He’d saved fifty of the first hundred Dingleman had given him and so that made six hundred altogether for two day’s work.” 

In his interactions with Dingleman, Duddy first proves he is willing to do anything to achieve his dream. He realizes he is likely being manipulated and put into serious danger by carrying Dingleman’s suitcase across the border. To calm himself, he thinks of the land he plans on buying and reminds himself of the financial compensation he’s getting. The scene prefigures other moments in which Duddy is willing to do anything at all to get money to buy his land, including steal from Virgil, a devoted friend.

“Nobody spoke. Duddy began to bite his fingernails and Yvette pulled his hand away and held it. ‘A most edifying experience,’ Rabbi Goldstone said. ‘A work of art.’ Everybody began to speak at once.”(

The film of Mr. Cohen’s son’s bar mitzvah that Friar crafts is not at all what Duddy expects. Rather than just recording the events and attendees, Friar adds philosophical voice-overs and splices in historical scenes. Watching it, Duddy is unsure what the Cohens and others will say, but to his enormous relief (and business success), everyone is in awe of the product.

“Duddy looked closely at Yvette. ‘We need a couch in here,’ he said hoarsely. ‘We oughta have a couch. I also want you to get me subscriptions to Fortune, Time, Life and—there’s another one but I forget. We also ought to get some stills to hang on the walls. The bigger the better.’

Once he has a few successes under his belt, Duddy begins dressing the part of successful businessman. He gets an office and sets Yvette to work decorating it in such a way that it communicates his professionalism to others. Though he is still improvising, Duddy is determined to shape himself into an impressive entrepreneur. 

“Moses, he recalled from the Bible Comics, died without ever reaching the Promised Land but I’ve got my future to think of…If God pulls me through this, I’ll give up screwing for two weeks. Smoked meats too.”(

Duddy is given to delusions of grandeur, and when stuck in a snowstorm, attempting to deliver products, it seems to Duddy that his struggles are rather akin to Moses’. He, too, is trying to reach a Promised Land, the tract of land by the lake. He strikes a bargain with God to behave better if he makes it through the snowstorm but quickly reverses the vow when he arrives home safe and sound.