Is Land Worth More Than a Friendship

A man must pursue his dreams. This is certainly true for everyone of the humankind, for if there were no dreams, there would be no reason to live. Duddy Kravitz understands this perfectly, that is why he is one of the most ambitious young man of his time. From the moment he heard his grandfather say "a man without land is nobody". He is prepared to seek the land of his dream-�no matter what the cost would be.

There is no doubt that Duddy is very shrewd and clever, but his lack of moral principals attributes to his final failure. In fact, his immorality can be traced back to a very young age. During his study in parochial school, he already earns money through methods that hardly comply to virtues of any kind. Taking advantage of the fact that minors cannot be sued in Canada, Duddy defrauds stamp company's and sells stolen hockey sticks. Perhaps he cannot distinguish right form wrong; perhaps he does not care, but nonetheless it is not proper for him to engage himself to these kinds of activities.

Duddy emerges himself deeper into the sea of corruption when he establishes Dudly Kane Enterprises. With his limited knowledge of movie making and his mistaken trust in John Friar, his firm produces extremely poor bar-mitzvah films. The bar-mitzvah film for Mr. Cohen , for example is obviously a failing product. Even though he some how gets the Cohen's to buy the defective "Happy Bar-mitzvah Bernie".

As a matter a fact, Duddy is not only skillful in handling situations, but he is also very apt in manipulating people. This can be clearly seen in his relationships with Yvette and Virgil.

Duddy is never loved in his family, so originally Duddy is quite content to know that there is someone who cares about him-�Yvette. Duddy takes Yvette for granted, he knows that the land owners will not sell the land to Duddy because he is a minor. Duddy knows that the land owners will give Yvette a good price because she is a French Canadian and he is a little Jew boy, and in that case they might jack up the price.

With Virgil, Duddy takes advantage of his disabilities. By getting Virgil to sell the pinball machines to him at a very low price, but not intending to pay him back. Duddy employs Virgil as a truck driver, and Duddy says he will need a truck. Duddy tells Virgil he will get him a truck worth $1000.00 but really only worth $600.00 to pay him back for the pinball machines.

It is now when Duddy went bankrupt and had to chose weather to be a scheming little bastard, or he could be a well rounded working man. When Duddy need's to purchase that last peace of land, and forges a cheque from Virgil he had just killed all the goodness in him self.

Duddy has obviously chosen the wrong kind of man to be. He has chosen to become a crooked person, a corrupted chap, and a ruthless man. Undoubtedly, Duddy is a very keen and intuitive young man. He can calmly settle Lennie's problems with Mr. Calder. He can also tactfully and intelligently get Aunt Ida to go back to see the dying Uncle Benjy. Duddy has all the qualities needed to succeed in society-�it is only a matter of time. Unfortunately, Duddy chooses the wrong path at a young age and continues on that path to his adulthood. He ends up to be a terrible failure. Perhaps his lack of discipline form his early years is one of the most important attributes to his tragic fall in The Apprenticeship on Duddy Kravitz.