An Encounter

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An Encounter is a short story by James Joyce. It is second in a collection of Joyce's short stories called Dubliners.

[edit] The story

The story involves a boy, the narrator, and his friend, Mahony, taking a day off from school and going to the shore, to seek adventure in their otherwise dull lives. As the narrator says, "The mimic warfare of the evening became at last as wearisome to me as the routine of school in the morning because I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad."

The episode revolves around, not only their trip, but the people that they see. There are enormous social events that the boys witness, and the narrator in an act of maturity, seems to at least be able to notice the situations. For example, the boys are mistaken for Protestants by some local children. The narrator also notices that many of the children are "ragged" and extremely poor. Near the end, the boys are approached by an older man who gives them an odd feeling. Previously, it seems to the reader that the man had been 'sizing them up' and then began to talk of mundane subjects, such as Sir Walter Scott and young sweethearts. At one point, the man excuses himself and it is implied that he masturbates before returning to the boys. He then begins a drawn-out monologue on the subject of whipping and other such corporal punishment. Deeply unsettled, the narrator looks to his friend Mahony for comfort though he admits to harboring negative feelings about him.

There is no proof that the man does in fact ejaculate, but it is highly likely. This is a perfect example for Joyce's use of Gnomon throughout the book. ("...absence is the highest form of presence...") The whole ordeal proved to be beneficial to Joyce, because at first glimpse, an editor refused to publish the book because of the old man's actions; but after Joyce pointed out that it's never in fact mentioned, the book was back on track to being published.

All in all the tale tells of society itself, between the Catholic and Protestant violence, Irish poverty, lecherous old men, foreigners and the schooling of boys at the time period. The boys encounter all this in this short story, giving us a broad view of Dublin itself.

James Joyce's Dubliners
The Sisters | An Encounter | Araby | Eveline | After the Race | Two Gallants | The Boarding House | A Little Cloud | Counterparts | Clay | A Painful Case | Ivy Day in the Committee Room | A Mother | Grace | The Dead