Transcript All the Years of Her Life

All the Years
of Her Life
By Morley Callaghan
Setting:
 The
setting of this story is not important: it
could be anywhere and has no impact
whatsoever on the story itself.
 However,



certain clues tells us this:
New York City (6th Ave. Elevated)
working class area (father is a printer)
1930s-1960s
‘Sixth Avenue Elevated’ train
S
Third person (limited, intimate) narration
 Point of view of Alfred – we are told what he is
thinking and feeling (intimate) but not what the
others are thinking (limited).
Characters:
 Alfred, Mr. Carr, Mrs. Higgins
Complication (critical incident):
 Alfred is caught stealing again
External conflict (the minor conflict in story)
 Man vs. Man:

Alfred vs. Mr. Carr and his mother
Internal Conflict:
 The
central conflict in the story is within – not
the fact that he is confronted by his boss
 Man


vs. Self
Mrs. Higgins struggling as a mother, trying to
do her best despite the problems of her
children
Alfred struggling to grow into adulthood and
feeling guiltly over the pain his mother suffers
Topic and theme
 Topic:


Parenting teenagers
Teenagers’ poor decisions
 Theme:



Unconditional love for our children
Growing self-awareness as an adult, new
respect for parents
Reliance on parental love and sacrifice
Climax – the big shift in tone
‘Be quiet. Don’t speak to me. You’ve
disgraced me again and again,’ she said
bitterly.
‘That’s the last time. That’s all I’m saying.’
‘Have the decency to be quiet,’ she
snapped. They kept on their way, looking
straight ahead.
….’You’re a bad lot. God forgive you…’
The trembling hand:
…at that moment his
youth seemed to be
over. … It seemed to him
that this was the first time
he had ever looked upon
his mother.
Character development
 Writers
‘paint a picture’ of characters
directly, by telling the reader what they are
like, and indirectly, by describing their actions
and letting the reader reach his or her own
conclusions.
 Well developed or ‘round’ characters are
portrayed in detail while ‘flat’ characters are
like background actors in a film.
 Dynamic characters change over the course
of the story; static ones stay the same.
Dynamic or Static Characters?
We see Mrs. Higgins
change after she
leaves the drugstore
and when she is
trembling in the
kitchen.
 Did she really
change or is Alfred
realizing that she has
suffered like this ‘all
the years of her life’?
At the end of the
story, Alfred appears
‘for the first time’ to
understand the pain
his mother has felt.
 Has Alfred really
changed – or is this
what the author
wants us to
wonder?