All the Years of Her Life

Callaghan’s “All the Years of Her Life” does not so explicitly reflect the features of Modernist storytelling when compared to his novels. However, in its style, structure, narrator point of view, mode of characterization, and epiphany ending, Callaghan’s story echoes certain key modern conventions of the short story form.

Callaghan’s style in “All the Years of Her Life” is uncluttered in a manner reminiscent of journalism. This method of storytelling, which was also used by Ernest Hemingway, was important to modern realists of the 20th century, who worked to express more (e.g., about emotions, ideas, characters) by saying less. One way this is accomplished is through the sparing use of metaphor or symbolism. By using minimal figurative language and depicting characters as living ordinary lives, Callaghan’s story positions itself as raw, honest, and part of actual history (without offering direct commentary on the historical moment in which the story is set). This minimal and economic style of storytelling also lends works like “All the Years of Her Life” a certain timeless feel, offering characters and settings that (while relevant to the time when the story was written) can seem to hail from almost any relatively modern period.