Comparing All The Years Of Her Life And A Handful Of Dates

Children are told growing up to never judge a book by its cover. The same concept can be applied to society as people are not always what they seem. In the short stories, All the Years of Her Life by Morley Callaghan and A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Saleh, the protagonists evolve throughout the story because of the actions of secondary characters. Although, the way each character develops is dependent on the circumstances of their story. To begin, family members are catalysts for the evolution of the protagonists. In All the Years of Her Life, Alfred Higgins realizes that he must change his ways and become mature because of the effect his actions have on his mother. The reader is told that “ever since Alfred left school he had been getting
In All the Years of Her Life, Alfred decides to modify his personality for the benefit of his mother. Standing by the kitchen, “he watched his mother, he never spoke, but at that moment his youth seemed to be over” (Callaghan 5). Alfred decides to change towards a positive manner to make his mother’s life happier and easier. His sole purpose of changing revolves around the wellbeing of his mother. On the other hand, in A Handful of Dates, the boy is forced to change the way he thinks because he is faced with the harsh reality of who his grandfather truly is. In the story, “for some unknown reason, [he] experienced a sharp sensation of pain in [his] chest” (Saleh 128). The boy’s physical pain represents his emotions as it is not something he wants to feel, but is his body’s reaction. The young boy cannot help but feel hatred towards his grandfather after seeing how he treats Masood; it is his involuntary emotional response. Hence, Alfred’s evolution is positive and a result of the effect his actions are having on his mother, whereas the unnamed boy’s evolution is negative and a result of the effect his grandfather’s actions have on