What a good reason for a 21 year old man to not have a job during the Gilded Age?

[Xitra_Blud]

What is a good reason for a 21 year old man, living in Connecticut, who is not injured or ill to not have a job in the late 19th century? His mother was stricken with polio and his step father is abusive. So far I said that it's because he's always busy (he's a vampire hunter) but the people in my writer's critique don't think he's a likable character because he doesn't have a job. What's a really good reason for him not to have a job that would still make him a likeable character.

 

[Ireth]

I may be missing the point here, but why does his employment, or lack of it, affect his likability?

 

[Xitra_Blud]

They said it was because it shows that he is narcissistic and that he cares only for himself because he's rather go out vampire hunting instead of getting a job and taking care of his sick abused mother. I guess I should've added more info. He is a narcissist but he is young and dumb. He is a vampire hunter more for the fun of it than anything else, but he still loves his mother and tries his best to take care of her. I want to show that he wants to be able to help his mother without having him give up his passion. If he gives up vampire hunting, that would take down the entire story, but I don't want him to be seen as a narcissist. Also, I want him to be likeable.

 

[Butterfly]

Late 19th Century... Right around about the era of mechanisation. Lost his job to a new machine?

 

[Penpilot]

Generally speaking, I don't think being jobless affects liability. You say that he loves his mother. Have you shown to the reader the things he does to care for his mother? Have you shown the push pull of the choices between caring for his mother and hunting vampires? Imaging if he decided to stay home one night to care for his mother and he finds out the next day there was someone killed by a vampire in the area where he was going to hunt.

As for not having a job, maybe his family is rich. His father doesn't want him to have a job so he can keep your main character under his thumb, dependant on him.

 

[Quillstine]

Narcissistic because he does not have a job...well this makes me question my friends (Both of them!).
To stick to the question of the thread though, your asking for a good reason, that others in the characters life would accept, that he does not have a job? Not having a job in order to be a vampire hunter seems like a good reason otherwise! (*sigh* when will the government see that vampire hunting is a worthy profession!).
What butterfly suggested is a great one. Or maybe something like, he has had jobs but his passion is vampire hunting so invariably he gets fired because he pays no attention to his work. Acts lethargic, clumsy, no interest. Maybe no one in the town likes him so nobody hires him.
It might also help, if he is coming across a little narcissistic, to give a little more reason he is so passionate about vampire hunting. I know you said it is a hobby, but maybe putting in strong motivation for it to be so, would soften his desire to follow that dream and not work/support his mother.

 

[ThinkerX]

'Gilded Age'...class distinctions were much more important back then. 'Gentlemen' did not work, rather they had an 'income' from investments. Taking a job was seen as a step down; only the 'lower orders' did such things. At least that was the ideal. Reality differed.

Perhaps MC subscribes to an attidtude somewhat like the above.

 

[Devor]

An injury could do it. Maybe when the story opens he's finishing his recovery from a broken thumb.

 

[Xitra_Blud]

'Gilded Age'...class distinctions were much more important back then. 'Gentlemen' did not work, rather they had an 'income' from investments. Taking a job was seen as a step down; only the 'lower orders' did such things. At least that was the ideal. Reality differed.

Perhaps MC subscribes to an attidtude somewhat like the above.

Thanks, but I already have him as lower class. His family is pretty poor, that's why they keep the stepdad around.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

Maybe he's secretly rich, but hiding his fortune from his stepdad, whom he doesn't trust.

Maybe he has a wealthy benefactor; he saved a rich man's son from a vampire and the man now pays for meager accommodations for him and his family. The man offered to pay more, but the MC doesn't want to flaunt it.

Maybe he collects vampire protection fees from local businesses.

Maybe he's just lazy.

Maybe he stays home to take care of his mother and protect her from his abusive stepfather.

Maybe no one will hire him because of his race.

Maybe he quit his job because he found out his boss was a vampire sympathizer.

Maybe he thinks he's too good for the only type of jobs that are available.

Maybe he only has a seasonal job.

Maybe he had a successful turnip store, but then a turnip famine set in.

Maybe he had a business, but the vampires burned it down and he lost everything because of a loophole in his insurance policy... now, he hunts down those who stole his livelihood - vampire insurance salesmen!

 

[wordwalker]

vampire insurance salesmen!

Who work for the Department of Redundancy Department?

 

[ThinkerX]

Ok...*POOR* unemployed guy during the guilded age. With that specified, a glaringly obvious reason leaps to mind:

'union agitator/organizer'

The barons of the guilded age were absolute death on attempts to organize. If your MC was known to be involved in such, he'd definitely be unemployed, barring lying about his name or some such. And secret meetings with unhappy workers might turn up info about the monsters he's hunting. Givehim a relative killed or crippled in an industrial accident, maybe a close call or three himself.

 

[Reaver]

Somebody's gotta say this...

...vampire insurance salesmen!

I can see their TV ad slogan:

"You're in good hands with ALLSTAKE."

OR


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"Like a good slayer, STAKE HARM is there."

OR


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"So easy a werewolf could do it."