Short Fiction Study

         The short story All the years of her life by Morley Callaghan is about a young man named Alfred who works at a pharmacy and gets caught stealing. The store owner calls his mother and says he will be telling the police. When his mother arrives she does the opposite of what he expects, he expects her to come in screaming at him or crying and begging with the owner of the store but instead she comes in very level headed. She even smiled at her son who had been in this predicament before many times. At the end of the story he sees his mom in the kitchen and she looks old, he realizes he cant keep doing this to her. He changes his thought about his mother, he sees now that he must grow up and stop the way he is acting. He realizes that she is stronger than he thought but she cant keep it up forever.
         In All fall down and All the years of her life Sunny and Alfred both realize they must change how they act for the better of the people around them and themselves. The son realizes her must change his ways for his mother because she cant keep going on the way she is. She is ready to stop and slow down and not have to worry about her middle child getting into trouble. In the end of the novel Sunny realizes she must change and make herself better for her children.
         The story All the years of her life by Morley Callaghan shows different sides of change. One side of change is good and one isn't good. The way Alfred first sees his mom is much different than in the end. In the beginning he saw her as a mother who would beg and embarrass herself as much as possible just to keep her son out of trouble. In the end he changes the way he sees her and begins to see her as an old lady who cant continue to get out of bed late at night and save her son from getting in trouble. This is the bad change he starts to see his mom as incapable. The good change is that he now realizes that he must step up and start acting like a grown up. He has to start taking care of his mother now instead of her constantly watching over him.