Family obligations are an easy way for someone to justify not living their best life. In Will Weaver’s, “The Undeclared Major,” this fact is not true for Walter Hansen, who is a twenty year old undeclared college student. He is traveling back to his family’s farm for his twenty-first birthday, and he has decided to finally tell his family what he is going to major in in school. This short story deals with the stress of an unknown future, where there are so many options ahead. However, Weaver has Walter show how one can be ready to move ahead with their life, even if it is pushing back on what family and friends expect of you. Walter shows his confidence in the fact that he is making the best decision for himself, but that doesn’t stop him from feeling like he is letting everyone down. Due to the generation before them, Walter and the kids of his generation have to work through feelings of inadequacies because they feel as if they are letting their parents down. Walter shows healthy caution and courageousness in the face of these feelings. This story digs into the stress and weight of family obligations, and how one can feel if they don’t follow them.
Walter’s self-esteem is deeply linked to what his family and town think of him, so much so that he is more willing to avoid them, than risking disappointing them with what he has to say. Before he arrived home, he didn’t look at himself in the best light, “In his gloomy periods Walter Hansen saw himself as one large contradiction. (169)” This relates to how he feels about what he wants versus what his town and family want. His future isn’t set in stone yet, and he is faced with many difficult questions from everyone around him. His feelings and questions on the matters are very mixed, as he doesn’t know how people will take him. This uneasiness is shown in the way that the road he is traveling looks, as on his right, the is “a robin dug for worms on the sunny south embankment, (171)” and on his other side, “the dirty remnant of a snowbank leaked water downhill. (171)” One side shows how he hopes people will take the news, and it will all go over well, and on the other side, he sees the way that his decision might cause a hole in his family.
Walter Hansen isn’t a confident character in every aspect, but in regards to his major, he knows that he made the best decision for himself. He knows that he does not want to spend his life working on the farm. The story starts with saying that he is an undeclared major, but he soon tells that that isn’t true as “Walter Hansen had declared a major some time ago; he just hadn’t felt up to telling anyone what it was. (169)” This shows that even though he knows what he wants, he isn’t ready for others to know yet. This relates back to how he sees himself is directly related to what his family and town think of him. He knows that if he tells the town that they will have many questions about it, “Which Walter planned to avoid. On Main Street he would have to speak to people. They would ask him things. (172)” He knew that if he told them that he was an English Major, that they would think that he was leaving his family behind. He also has the same trouble with telling his father, which is why he wanted to avoid him as well, “First Walter wanted to go home, talk to his mother, (172)” but unfortunately, his father stopped him first. Kids should be excited to tell their parents what they have decided to do with their future, but this isn’t the case anymore. They have been made to feel as if they are not enough by their own parents. Walter represents these kids and how it feels to not follow family obligations. In Walter’s case, his father had a vision for him, and he wasn’t following it. Although, his father does come around to seeing that Walter is serious about his future, even if it doesn’t include the farm.
Planning a future that his family isn’t sure about, he knows that he just needs to push through. When he told his father, he had expected that he would probably tell him no, but instead his father just had questions. First was the question of what he was going to do with an English degree, which is a question many people in general have, and Walter answers in an honest way. He tells him that there are lots of options out there;
“Be,” Walter said. He fell silent. “Well, I don’t know, I could be a … writer. A teacher maybe, though I don’t think I want to teach. At least not for a while. I could be…” Then Walter’s mind went blank. As blank and empty as the fields around him…
“I would just be myself, I guess,” Walter said.
His father stared a moment at Walter. “Yourself, only smarter,” he added.
“Yessir,” Walter said quickly, “that’s it.” (174)
This moment is so important to Walter, as his father is doing what he had hoped that he would, which is accepting him. His father saying “‘Yourself, only smarter,’(174)” is what every child diverging from their parents’ path wants to hear. He might not have gotten the full approval of the family, but he got his father, which is what meant the most to him. In this scene, there is a tone of sarcasm coming from his father, but Walter doesn’t hear it. He wants to believe that his father is supporting him one hundred percent, but that is not the case. This is shown again when his father asks him questions about making a living;
“You think you can make a living at it?”
“Somehow,” Walter said.
His father shrugged. “Then I can’t see any trouble with it myself,” he said.
(174)
His father is just giving him approval because he does have faith that Walter can do it. Walter hears the approval, but underneath it is the tone of disapproval with the shrug and the “then I can’t see any trouble with it myself. (174)” This action made by his father is like he is undercutting what Walter wants to do. Walter himself knows that he made the best choice, but knowing that his father also thinks so makes it more real to him. Even if his father doesn’t approve, Walter is taking his words at face value like many kids do because they crave their parents’ approval. He is able to relax now, which is evident in the rest of the short story as he starts to help his father with the farm chores, “After two rounds, Walter began to relax… As he thought about these and other things, the tractor and its planter drifted a foot to the right, then a foot to the left, centered itself, then drifted again. (173)” This passage also symbolizes that the path his future is going to take isn’t going to be easy, and it might shift as time goes on. Interestingly, this passage comes after Walter is relaxed, and he is ready to face his future head on, and he only looks back once.
Walter knows that life isn’t as easy as picking a major, and poof, a path will be there all laid out. He knows that he has to work for it. He feels that he has been destined to do one thing, but he feels himself being pulled in another direction. He relates this feeling to the snow that he sees by the side of the road, “Beneath a black crust and mud and leaves, the snow was freshly white and sparkling– but destined, of course to join the muddy pond water below. (171)” The fresh snow is his future with English, but he is worried that he will be forced to go back and work on the farm instead. However, Walter pushes through the uncertainty because he is confident that he made the right move towards his own happiness. This ties into the fact that now he thinks that his father, who was the main person he sought approval from, is okay with the path he chose for his future. He is able to relax into a person who can be out with who they are, and it’s shown in the end when he is driving the tractor for his father, “But Walter drove on, downfield, smiling slightly to himself, puzzling over why it was he so seldom came home. (175)” This shows quite a lot of growth from Walter because in the beginning he was so anxious about going home. Now he is more inclined to return the next time, now that he knows who he is. In the beginning of the story, he saw himself as “as one large contradiction, (169)” but now he knows who he is, “Of being twenty-one and the limitless destiny, the endless prospects before him, Walter Hansen, English Major. (175)” He has come out of his shell after his talk with his father, and he is ready to go back to school and show them who he is.
“The Undeclared Major” by Will Weaver shows that family obligations aren’t always the “end all, be all,” and that everyone has an opportunity to find who they are. This short story highlights how Walter, when faced with his fears of telling his father, was rewarded with his father being supportive. He was confident that he knew that was best for him, and he didn’t let the fear of rejection stop him. His whole personality changed after he got approval from his father, and he now sees himself as a whole person. The weight and stress of family obligations were dragging him down, but he showed that anyone can pull themselves up to make their own decisions.
Works CitedWeaver, Will. “The Undeclared Major.” A Graveyard Made of Wheat: Stories, Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1989, pp. 169–175.
