Alfred Higgins: A Character Analysis

In the short story the Years of Her Life, Morley Callaghan introduces us to the character Alfred Higgins, a teenager on the edge of adulthood. Alfred Higgins seems a normal teenage boy since Callaghan describes him as “fierce with indignation” when he is caught stealing from the drugstore. Later when his mother and him are on the street walking home from the drugstore, he is described to be relieved and thankful, shown as “the excitement and relief was still pretty strong in him.”. Like any normal teenage boy, he’s relieved and happy that his mother got him out of trouble, however he feels afraid when his mother calls him “…a bad lot. God forgive you.”. This shows that is not your stereotypical teenage boy no matter how much he trys to be ( “he said in his old, blustering way.” ). To begin with Alfred is a little boy who wants and needs his mother, but in the end he realizes his mother needs him too. She needs him to have a good life and not get in trouble anymore, and Alfred’s defining moment is when he realizes that “his youth ended”.