By: Jessica Renfrow
The character Don Anselmo, from “The Gentlemen of Rio en Medio,” is a lot alike the character Mrs. Higgins, from “All the Years of Her Life.” But first let’s look at their differences.
Don Anselmo is the male leader of his very traditional village. He takes his time because he has a lot of it. Don is an old, poor yet dignified character. He agrees to sell his farm, though a surveyor discovers he has twice the land he thought he had, for the original price. When the buyers complain of children in the orchard, Don Anselmo explains that the trees in the orchard were planted for his nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. So, the trees belong to them. The buyers proceed to buy the trees individually from the descendants of Don Anselmo.
Mrs. Higgins is much different from her on, Alfred. When Mrs. Higgins is first introduced to the story, she is confident, calm, and intelligent. She smoothly talks her son out of trouble after he steals. On the way home you can infer Mrs. Higgins is mad at Alfred. Later, that night as Alfred’s mother pours her tea with a broken face, Alfred is able to see all the distress his mischief over the years has caused her.
However, the main difference is their development over the story. Dos Anselmo doesn’t change throughout the story, he stays the same character the whole time. Mrs. Higgins on the other hand is first introduced as a calm, confident woman. But as the story progresses we begin to see the beaten-down, exhausted mother she really is.
Mrs. Higgins is like Don Anselmo in the way that they both go through trouble for their family. When Don planted all those trees for his descendants and then defended them and their trees to his lawyer. When Mrs. Higgins collected herself and talked Sam Carr (the store manajer) out of calling the cops on Alfred.
Another similarity is their pride. Mrs. Higgins covers up her real feelings and hides her broken face, so that she can still have pride in