Family History and Occupation

Michael Daniel
Unit D
4-26-2007
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Dr. Botelho said that we define ourselves through an understanding of our

individual histories and how they relate to the history of communities of which we are a

part. She said that this can be described as history on the micro level. On this level, the

most profound effect of an individual’s personal history is usually their family history.

This can be seen in how individuals choose their occupations. A person’s family history

affects what occupation they pursue and a person’s occupation affects how they define

themselves with respect to the community and to society at large.

In Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, Roland Weary is a soldier. All of the

characters in the World War II part of the book are soldiers, but Roland Weary threw

himself into this role more willingly than any other character. He thought of himself as a

member of the Three Musketeers, as was seen when Vonnegut wrote the following:

“His vision of the outside world was limited to what he could see through
a narrow slit between the rim of his helmet and his scarf from home… He was so
snug in there that he was able to pretend that he was safe at home, having
survived the war, and that he was telling his parents and his sister a true war
story… Weary’s version of a true war story went like this: There was a big
German attack… They were damned if they’d surrender. They shook hands all
around. They called themselves, “The Three Musketeers.” (Vonnegut, p. 52, 53)

The reason why Weary liked being a soldier was because of the personal history of his

family community. Roland described his father like this:

“[Weary] told them about his father’s collection of guns and swords and
torture instruments and leg irons and so on. Weary’s father, who was a plumber,
actually did collect such things… He wasn’t alone. He belonged to a big club
composed of people who collected things like that.” (Vonnegut, p. 45)

The fact that Weary’s father collected weapons and was a member of a

community that collected weapons, suggests that Weary’s father expected him to be

knowledgeable about weapons and warfare. His father gave Weary a definition of

manliness that he was expected to fit. When Weary had problems fitting this definition of
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manliness he turned to fantasy. As a part of his fantasy, Weary defined himself as a good

soldier, even in the face of a different reality. Weary was not actually a good soldier.

Two other soldiers ditched him when he slowed them down. “[the two other soldiers]

told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to. The scouts

weren’t going to wait for them anymore.” (Vonnegut, p. 62) This shows that the

influence a person’s family has on their identity and choice of career is so strong that it

can challenge reality in some cases.

Some individuals go against their families’ expectations when they choose a

career, but there can be grave consequences for that. For example, in Regeneration, Pat

Barker describes a soldier named Billy Prior who suffered from intermittent mutism as a

result of his experiences in World War I. His father was a dock worker and was proud to

be blue collar. Prior’s father wanted his son to work on the docks the same way he did.

Prior’s father was disappointed in his son when Prior became a military officer. Dr.

Rivers, Prior’s psychologist, asked his father,

“’I believe he volunteered, didn’t he? The first week of the war?’
‘He did, against my advice’…
‘It is natural for the young to be idealistic.’
‘Ideals had nowt to do with it. He was desperate to get out of his job.’…
He seemed to have no feeling for his son at all, except contempt.
‘You must be proud of his being an officer?’
‘Must I? I’m not proud. He should’ve stuck with his own.’”
(Barker, p. 56-57)

Prior’s mother also visited Dr. Rivers. She was the one who encouraged Prior to

be ambitious in spite of his father. When Dr. Rivers spoke with his mother he said, “You

must be very proud of him.” Prior’s mother responded, “I am” (58). Prior himself

attributed his ambition to his mother. She told him, “you know nothing about the

common people. You’ve had nothing to do with them,” (58) to which he responded,
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“Whose fault is that?” (58) The implication here is that Prior had no knowledge the

common people because his mother pushed him to be more ambitious. Prior’s ambitions

did not stop with being an officer. After the war Prior intended to become a politician

(135). Being an officer was probably a step towards that ultimate goal.

Prior is an illustration of how family history affects our career choices. Because

of his mother’s insistence that he pursue an ambitious career path, he became an officer.

This shows that an individual’s family history does effect the career choice they make.

At the same time, Prior’s story illustrates that there can be bad consequences for going

against the expectations of your family when it comes to career choices. Prior’s father

had nothing but contempt for him because of his ambition. Prior was in an awkward

situation because at the most, he could have only pleased one of them. Notice that he still

chose to please one of them, though.

In The Painted Drum, Louise Erdich describes how one’s occupation fits into the

community. Faye Travers and her mother have a small family business that liquidates

estates after people die. It was shown that Faye works in estate liquidation when she

said, “I am called upon to handle the estate of John Jewett Tatro just after his Presbyterian

funeral… I drive to the Tatro house to make the appraisal of its contents.” (Erdrich, 27)

She described the history and workings of her estate company when she said “Mother

started the business and we have run it jointly now for nearly two decades.” (28)

Faye says that the point to being Native American is, “to have a tribe and belong

to specific people.” (53) ‘To belong to specific people’ means to live and work within a

community. That community is the tribe. Faye and her mother might comprise a small

tribe of only two people, but they still function as a tribe because they live in the same
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house and they work closely. The Ojibwe concept of tribe is very strong in this novel.

Faye does not simply do what her mother did. She takes it one step further by working

with her mother in a situation where she and her mother are the only two owners of the

company. She also lives with her mother. This means that her family community lives

and works closely, much like an Ojibwe tribe does.

Within a large Ojibwe tribe, Faye and her mother would have had a special status

because of their occupation. Faye says,

“Were I a traditional Ojibwe, I would have a special place in the

community because of my line of work. According to a number of written
sources from my collection, the objects left behind by a dead person were
regarded with fearful emotion… Posessions are thought to attract the spirit back
to their loved ones, and so only persons unrelated to the dead are considered safe
to handle them.” (Erdrich, 33)

This is another example of how choice of occupation can place somebody within a

community.

In my personal life I chose a career because of my family. My father was a

Colonel in the Air Force, but that wasn’t really his occupation. If you asked him what he

did he would tell you that he was a telecommunications engineer. He designed the

telecommunications on Air Force One for Jimmy Carter and commanded the

telecommunications for the Airborne Command Post out of Lakenheath.

My father was always a bit of a technician. The difference between a technician

and an engineer is that engineers design and build things while technicians fix things. At

work my father was mainly an engineer and a manager but at home he was a technician.

Being an engineer and being a technician are similar but each activity requires a different

mindset. For example, an engineer may look at a circuit diagram and say that it will

work. A technician can look at the same diagram and say, “that won’t work.” They are
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both correct. The engineer is saying that according to physics this circuit will run

properly. The technician looks at the circuit, factors in how people will use and abuse it,

and draws his conclusion based on his knowledge of physics plus the human factor. An

engineer might design a slim jim to get keys out of a locked car but a technician will

scrounge materials and use a coat hanger to do the same thing. Many times they achieve

the same end result but they take different paths to get there.

My father taught me to be a technician. We were always tinkering around in the

basement with electronic projects and computers. When I graduated high school in 1997

the tech boom was in full swing. People with a background like mine were in high

demand. Instead of going to college I became a technician at an internet service provider

called Mindspring. After two years the company had sold out, moved offices and laid us

off. That was the beginning of the tech bust. I stayed in the industry by taking work

installing computer networks under government contracts and doing tech support for

companies like Rite Aid and Cingular. As I moved from job to job I kept running into the

same people, many of whom I had worked with at Mindspring. We formed a community

of technicians. We helped each other out on the job when we had to adapt quickly to new

technologies and new ways of doing things. We hired each other when we could and we

gave each other job leads. It was almost like a professional guild without the titles or

sense of formality. I became a member or a community of technicians because of my

father’s influence.

Occupation is important because it places a person in a community. Many times

parents will try to convince their children to choose a certain career path because they

want them to be a part of the same community that they are a part of. My father was
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disappointed that I did not join the military but he understood that the world is a different

place than it used to be when he was drafted to Korea. He also understood that I was still

a part of the same community he was from because there is a strong sense of community

among technicians. This community can be seen at any HAM radio meet you go to.

In light of this, everyone who is deciding on what career path they should choose

needs to make their decision carefully. One’s choice of career places us in society. It can

also place one into a community that they might not like. One’s family might try to push

them in a certain direction because they want their children to be happy but in the end it

is up to each of us to actually be happy in the career we choose. One should take into

account the effects of having a bad relationship with their family but if one lets their

family dictate what career they choose without considering their own desires then one

could easily make a bad career choice.

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Works Cited:
1. Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughter-House-Five. New York: The Dial Press, 1969.

2. Barker, Pat Regeneration. New York: Plume, 1993.

3. Erdrich, Louise The Painted Drum. New York: Harper, 2006.