Vocation and Behavior

Vocation defines how one perceives behavior.


Vercuel says, “I don’t see what you need me for.” Mrs. Curren then replies, “You arrived. It’s like having a child. You can’t choose the child, it just arrives” (71). Mrs. Curren states the Vericuel is like a child. In many ways this is true. Children cannot provide for themselves, they cannot be depended on and they are uncontrollable like Vericuel. By saying that Vericuel’s arrival is like having a child, she leads one to believe that she is the mother taking care of Vericuel, the child. Thus, Mrs. Curren explains her behavior of letting Vericuel stay with her through a maternal perspective. Mrs. Curren had the vocation of a mother. She uses her vocation to explain her behavior.

Freud may explain Mrs. Curren’s behavior of taking Vericuel in differently. He says:

…people protect themselves against the loss of the object by directing their love, not to single objects but to all men alike; and avoid the uncertainties and disappointments of genital love by turning away from its sexual aims and transforming the instinct into an impulse with an inhibited aim…Perhaps St. Francis of Assisi went furthest in thus exploiting love for the benefit of an inner feeling of happiness. (57)

By taking in an alcoholic, homeless man, Mrs. Curren could be regarded as one like St. Francis of Assisi who extends her love to all. There is further evidence of her extending her love to all when she takes care of Bheki’s friend Johnathon. “While he lay in the street…I did what I could for him. But, to be candid, I would rather I had spent myself on someone else” (79). When she says “I would rather have spent time with someone else”, she indicates that she dislikes John. Nevertheless, she extends her love out to him even though she dislikes him. Mrs. Curren displays love to alcoholic homeless men and even those she does not like. Yet she still extends her love out to more. Mrs. Curren recants, “I remember a cat I once nursed, an old ginger tom whose jaw was locked shut by an abscess. I took him in…fed him mil through a tube, dosed him with antibiotics. When he got back his strength, I set him free,…continued to put food out for him, ….[and] for a year food was taken…In all this time he treated me without compromise as on of the enemy” (79). Mrs Curren extends her love out to others such an extent that she would even take the time and expense to nurse an old cat back to health. One could argue that this is not a worthy cause. After all, this old cat will die soon. A less empathetic person would just have the cat put to sleep to put the cat out of its misery. However, Mrs. Curren seems to have a deep love for others no matter their shape or form. Her care for others resembles the love Freud describes as a diversion from their sexual disappointments.

Mrs. Curren not only displays the “love of St. Francis” in that she is altruistic to many. She also does so in its sexual context. Mrs Curresn writes, “Sixteen years since I have shared a bed with a man or a boy. Sixteen years alone” (108). By stating that it has been sixteen years since she shared a bed with a man or a boy, she implies that she has not had sex with a male in that time span. Because her name is Mrs. Curren, one can conjecture that she is divorced or separated from a husband. He also may have passed away. There is no evidence that this husband still keeps contact with her. Thus, Mrs. Curren lost her love object, her husband. Freud may have argued that Mrs. Curren experienced sexual frustration because she had not outlet for her feelings.

One could argue that Freud may have characterized Mrs. Curren’s taking in of Vericuel as part of this “St Francis-like love.” She may have been trying to protect herself from the loss of her husband, her love object, by extending her love out to Johnathon, the cat and Vericuel. She could feel inner happiness in place of her sexual frustration. This is very different from her interpretation of her behavior as taking care of a child. Mrs. Curren’s way of interpreting her behavior would be different from the way Freud may interpret her behavior. Thus, perspective of behavior stems from one’s occupation.