Agate and becomes really close friends with an employee named Yvette who takes Duty out to see an unknown lake only seen by a ewe lucky people who know of its whereabouts, which is where Duty begins to strive for his goal. Duty pleaded to Yvette not to tell anyone about the lake because he doesn’t want other people to get the same idea that Duty had thought of. He said that he would give her money Just to keep it a secret. “If you promise me that I’ll give you fifty dollars” (peg. 100).
This shows how Duty will do anything to keep the land he’s encountered a secret to everyone until he owns it all, which also shows how he will use other people into getting what he wants. This is shown because he’s trying to erasure Yvette to stay quiet about the lake and is trying to bribe her with money to keep quiet. Another example as to how Duty is willing to go to any extent to achieve his goal was by helping “The Boy Wonder” smuggle heroin across the border into Canada Just to get a little extra cash. “The coffee tin was not sealed. He opened it, but what he was looking for-he did not find.
There was no coffee in the tin, but the white sweet-smelling dust inside meant nothing to him” (peg. 144). The coffee tin was emptied and was replaced with heroin to make it look like he was carrying coffee across the border. When he got past the guards, he met up with a drug dealer and gave him the package Duty was carrying. This shows how Duty will go to any extent in achieving his goal because he risked his life by getting involved in a drug deal and risked getting caught by the police when he was going through customs Just so he could get some more money to buy the land he wants.
Later on in the novel, Duty meets a man named Virgil. Duty, Making his way into the film industry asks Virgil, an unemployed man, to become Dusky traveling projectionist. Soon after Duty came to know about Virgin’s epileptic episodes, but with Duty short on Mencken and in need of a driver, he still makes Virgil drive a car when in any moment he could have an epilepsy attack. “Mr.. Gravity? I’m an epileptic” (peg. 207). Since Duty has a short on henchmen and is in need of a driver, he makes Virgil drive a car, crashes it and becomes paralyzed. Virgin’s been in an accident. The truck went into a tree outside SST Jerome” (peg. 245). This shows how selfish and resourceful Duty is because even though Duty knew about Virgin’s epileptic episodes, he made him drive only for his benefit and makes him resourceful because he had no one else o drive the car which made Duty work with what he had. Once again, this shows how Duty is willing to risk everything Just to get his land. One of the worst things that Duty did to get the land he wanted was through stealing.
Near the end of the novel, Duty ran out of ideas to get money and went into a nervous break down. Once he got out of that stage he tried to start all over but it was too hard for him to so instead he begged everyone he knew for money to try and get Just enough for him to buy his precious land. After doing so, he still ended up short, so he took one of Virgin’s cheeses from his queue book and forged a mass queue for himself using the money put in Virgin’s bank account for his incident in his car crash causing him to become paralyzed from the waist down.
Duty says: They’re forcing me into it. Pushing me, he thought, and he went into Virgin’s room. The checkbook wasn’t even hidden. Jeez, he thought. It was on top of the dresser with the passbook. Duty took a quick look at Virgin’s bank balance, whistled, noted his account number and ripped out two cheeses. He forged the signature by holding the queue and a letter Virgil had signed up to the window and tracing slowly (peg. 04) This is also another great example that shows his selfishness and how he only cares about the land he’s set his eyes upon.
Duty used the money that was put into Virgin’s account to pay for all the expenses from the damages that Duty caused. This is also another example how he only cares about the land he wants to buy because he’s willing to steal money to get it and he’s willing to use his friends in ways he shouldn’t ever do. Duty shows that he’s willing to go to any extent in pursuing his goal, which is shown by first asking Yvette to keep the lake a secret and not telling anyone about it. Duty then helped smuggle heroin across the border for a few extra dollars in his pocket.
