Essay Example on Exploring Mordecai Richler’s Themes in His Satirical Novel

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The novel written by Mordecai Richler The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a story of a rascal someone who uses his smarts to survive in a corrupt society Through this Richler uses Duddy Kravitz s point of view to portray and satirize the inevitable themes throughout the novel As the audience progress throughout the story the three major themes that spark and change Duddy Kravitz s perspective in life are the greed of wanting more at the expense of others the materialistic need to buy land by making it his number one priority and the anti Semitism that revolves around Duddy s life which changes him mentally The definition of greed can be understood by the intense and selfish desire for something especially in wealth Duddy Kravitz s greed for more and more could be fairly called his greatest problem This is because the actions he takes to accumulate more money disconnects him further away from his relationships An example of this is when Yvette finally leaves him because he stole all of Virgil s savings Greed practically runs his life blinding him and making him become delusional to reality Because of this Duddy cannot appreciate what he already has and puts everything on the line via money connections and relationships only to gain more cash

What changes Duddy the most is his sense of morality He does not care about the feelings of others even if it will hurt them in the long run This is shown when Duddy asked Virgil to drive the truck since he has no one else to hire knowing that Virgil is not allowed to drive and soon after Virgil is crippled for life Duddy will do anything to gain more money even if it is at the expense of others Duddy will keep on going and will not stop his longing for wealth until he is completely satisfied Duddy s ambition and purpose throughout the novel is to have land His number one priority is to gain money so he can have land A man without land is nothing is what Simcha says and because of this Duddy takes his words literally What the quote really means is to always strive for freedom As the story progress Duddy shows that his number one priority is to gain money and have lots of land His materialistic need to gather as many items as he can makes him become delusional to the reality set in front of him He becomes so engulfed to the idea that he needs everything to become satisfied creates him to become a ruthless consumer Duddy is starting to become a man with no self consciousness and will do whatever it takes even at the expense of others to gain the land he always dreams of Lastly Duddy believes that the more land he owns the more powerful and influential he can be because of Simcha s quote His problem is that he takes things too literally which is one of his biggest flaws Because of Simcha s quote Richler makes Duddy a materialistic person content only until he has lots of land Throughout Duddy Kravitz s life he faces discrimination from anti Semitist and this is one of the biggest themes in 



The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz As he adapts to the discrimination of anti Semites he changes not to be a better person but to become bolder and ruthless as he achieves his goals Duddy is born not just from being a Jew but also add on to him growing on the relatively poor side of Montreal in St Urbain Street Living poor and as a Jew Duddy had to learn his lessons on the streets facing life in a different perspective than Sy 3 many others in his age Duddy learns how to earn success on his own but at the cost of making religion not even relevant As Duddy grows older he keeps his guard up and becomes an opportunist afraid to be tricked by anti Semites This changes Duddy mentally and the way he looks at others In a world where Duddy has no guidance he develops his own values and ideas that can either be moral or immoral The themes presented throughout Mordecai Richler s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz novel all change and effect Duddy Kravitz s personality and mindset Greed engulfs Duddy to become a morbid person disconnecting him from reality and all of his relationships The materialistic need for everything such as land and matter has made Duddy lost in what truly matters His number one priority is to gain land and accumulate everything he can gain He is willing to achieve the land at the expense of others Lastly the anti Semitism that revolve around Duddy s life changes his mental state and what he values He learns to adapt by becoming ruthless to prove he can become someone great Duddy achieves all of his goals at the end of the novel but at the cost of his moral self and everyone he loves


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