All the Years of Her Life

Mr. Sam Carr is presented through Alfred’s point of view, so readers must piece his character together using context clues. For example, Mr. Carr usually does not look up from his nightly duties at the register as he “brusquely” says “Good night” to the departing Alfred (17). This may indicate that Mr. Carr is a busy and perhaps preoccupied small business owner—one Alfred might feel he could safely shoplift from without attracting notice.

However, Mr. Carr is a wiser and more attentive man than Alfred might have initially assumed. Mr. Carr’s dialogue with Alfred reveals that he values trust between himself and his employees—“I liked you and would have trusted you, and now look what I got to do” (17). This is likely why Mr. Carr “worries” and hesitates to “call a cop in point-blank” (17). His dialogue with Alfred also reveals in Mr. Carr a quiet, tolerant patience not unlike Mrs. Higgins’s. Even when Alfred indignantly refutes Mr. Carr’s accusations, their exchange does not erupt into an argument; instead, Mr. Carr calmly nods at the frightened young man and says nothing. Mr. Carr’s calm approach is effective, as Alfred quickly empties his pockets.

Like Alfred, Mr. Carr also expects Mrs. Higgins to come emotionally rushing into the store, angry and defensive. When Mrs. Higgins subverts this expectation, Mr. Carr is impressed by her and “embarrassed” at having expected so little of this dignified and composed woman. The quality of Mr. Carr’s character further emerges here, as he meets Mrs. Higgins where she is: in a place of “vast tolerance” for Alfred’s behavior. The temperature of the scene is thus quickly lowered and, while Mr. Carr does fire Alfred from his job at the drugstore, he calmly agrees not to file charges with the police.

Like Mr. Carr, Mrs. Higgins is a complex character whose depth is often obscured by Alfred’s point of view. For example, Alfred’s initial, fearful expectation of her arrival at the drugstore sets readers up to assume that Mrs. Higgins may have an angry and disapproving relationship with her son, likely due to all the trouble he has been in with employers. In the absence of further details about Mrs. Higgins’s temperament or prior actions, readers are suspended with Alfred in worried expectation.

This setup makes Mrs. Higgins’s smilingly calm and dignified entrance in the scene all the more noteworthy. Mrs. Higgins calmly listens to Mr. Carr explain her son’s offense, and even when Alfred admits he’s been shoplifting simply because he has been “spending his money” “[g]oing around with the guys,” she remains steady and unflappable (17). Alfred’s mother responds to Mr. Carr by asking him to hear her out before making a decision; she then reasons it would be better for Alfred to accompany her home rather than face the police, as her words are more likely than punishment to have an effect on him. Mrs. Higgins’s calm resolve commands the scene, and an admiring Mr. Carr acquiesces to her reasoning.

When she and her son depart for home, Mrs. Higgins’s actual emotional state begins to reveal itself. While she does not become perceivably angry with her son, she does “bitterly” say, “Don’t speak to me. You’ve disgraced me again and again” (18). When they reach home, she expresses her disapproval by telling Alfred, “You’re a bad lot” (19), and then sends him to bed as if he were a child. Her words suggest that she has run out of things to say to Alfred about his behavior and has simply grown weary of it.

Readers next see Mrs. Higgins when she is in the kitchen, her son Alfred watching her from the shadows. In this scene, Mrs. Higgins’s character, weakened by weariness, cuts a contrast with her presence at the drugstore. Although the tea does seem to give her some relief, the strain she is under is clear in her trembling. Tea and time alone seem all the relief Mrs. Higgins can get, but the exhaustion brought on by The Selflessness of Maternal Love is finally evident to her youngest son, who now understands his youth must end.