by Ziggy Keane

Created on: May 27, 2009

Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is one of the finest pieces of satire in the Canadian literary canon; there are a multitude of targets for Richler's satire within this novel, but materialism, human hypocrisy, and wannabe-intellectualism are of particular interest. This paper will explore Richler's satirical jabs against these targets by providing relevant excerpts from the text. These excerpts will then be analyzed and unpacked for the purposes of achieving a greater understanding of the novel.

Materialism is the primary target of Richler's satire in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Duddy Kravitz's story is the archetypal "rags-to-riches" tale. Duddy's journey from the ghettos of St. Urbain Street to a life of snazzy offices, champagne, and a Girl Friday is followed by a fall that is as devastating as it is deserved. But long before this grim conclusion comes to its inevitable fruition, the reader is introduced to Mr. MacPherson. In his early days, MacPherson

"had daydreamed about the potential heritage of his later years, former students - now lawyers or doctors or M.P.'s - gathering in his parlor on Sunday evenings to lament the lost hockey games of twenty years ago." (Richler 3)

In contrast to this idealistic fantasy that never comes to bloom, this teacher in the twilight of his career finds himself disappointed with the realities of his life. The reader must wince as Clara Shields makes the statement "look at him, Herbert ... He's still our John. I'll bet he thinks we're dreadful. Materialists, or philistines" (16). MacPherson's parlor is not the social gathering place he envisioned, and he is regarded as a failure by his former McGill classmates, as this passage sums up perfectly:

"... he recalled how Herbert had introduced him to a group of strangers. 'I want you to shake the hand of the most brilliant student of our class at McGill. He could have been a success at anything he wanted. Instead he's devoted his life to teaching.' It was clear that they still took him for the freshly scrubbed idealist who had left McGill twenty years ago. They had no idea that he was exhausted, bitter, and drained, and that given the chance to choose again he would never become a teacher." (32)

This excerpt is one of the most depressing within the novel, as the reader is presented with a man who has failed, not only in the eyes of his peers, but in his own. The last sentence of this excerpt sums up the fact that MacPherson regrets the path

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