An Encounter

The stories in Dubliners more or less capture the human experience. Those found at the beginning of the collection deal with younger characters. James Joyce was not a writer who would ever confuse youth for childishness, however. He takes the responsibility of recording the thoughts and adventures of his young narrator in “An Encounter” very seriously, employing a unique take on loss of innocence and coming of age. Chief among the narrator’s desires is Wanderlust, a yearning to travel and explore the world. The games that he plays with his classmates are filled with far-flung characters and settings: “The adventures related in the literature of the Wild West were remote from my nature but, at least, they opened doors of escape” (10). Ultimately, however, the characters are sheltered within a smaller world of their own and exploration leads to more conflict than they perhaps expected.

“An Encounter” introduces the reader of Dubliners to Joyce’s Dublin in an intimate way. The story begins by focusing on a group of boys and their camaraderie and youthfulness, bonded beyond the bounds of society: “differences of culture and constitution were waived” (10). The name of the narrator is never revealed in “An Encounter,” but the reader gets a clear picture of his standing with his classmates, his hopes and interests, and how he manages himself in a stressful situation. The small details of what, for another writer, might be considered a small life are given a broad stage and a sense of importance. Most notably, the narrator and his friends are naive to the greater conflicts of the world because of their age and limited experiences. This changes when the narrator and Mahony skip school and venture beyond the limits of where they’d gone before. This occurs both in terms of location and in terms of exposure to the world at large. Leaving behind their friend who decides not to join them as they test the bounds of their capabilities and maturity, the two encounter a group of girls and an odd man who in many ways represents the danger and uneasiness that comes with adulthood and the awareness of societal issues such as Social Stratification and Religious Division.

The group of girls is viewed through the lens of their playful camaraderie, though the narrator also refers to them as “ragged,” noting their social status as a defining characteristic, not understanding the weight and complexity that being impoverished actually amounts to. Rather, they simply comment on what they see as “other.” When other boys come to the girls’ defense, the strangers call them a name, assuming they are Protestants. This mistaken identity feeds into the narrator’s newfound sense of freedom and anonymity. However, after a day of adventure, their bravery and curiosity is challenged by the presence of the odd man in the field.

The ambiguity surrounding the encounter with the man at the end of the story reflects the element of ambiguity in life— no one ever has all the details or hears the full story. The context that the narrator has in the confusing situation before him is limited, in the reader experiences it with that limited understanding. What is clear is that the narrator feels an uneasy sense of danger from the man and is thankful for Mahony’s intervention. It's possible that the narrator might never tell another soul about his encounter. He and Mahony might never speak of it again, whether because it was too uncomfortable or too forgettable in the grand scheme of their lives. At the very end of the narrative, the narrator is thankful for Mahony coming when called and finds his familiar presence, that of a similar social status and education, much needed in what is otherwise an anxiety-inducing event. This is despite the fact that he didn’t like him much of the time prior to experiencing the alternative—the people outside of his social bubble and comfort zone.  

Just as each scene in “An Encounter” helps to paint a clearer picture of the narrator’s world, each story in Dubliners connects together in the same way. Joyce never meant for any of them to exist on their own. “An Encounter” isn’t particularly difficult to make sense of, either on its own or in the context of the collection as a whole. Still, each read offers new insights. New details jump out; new connections are made. Dubliners tackles a wide range of subjects that Joyce, a Dublin native, felt the need to hold court on, and “An Encounter” seems to perform this same role in miniature. Reading “An Encounter,” it’s easy to see how Joyce made the leap to later and longer works like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922). It’s almost easier to consider Dubliners, A Portrait…, and Ulysses all one connected work, and indeed there is an overlap in characters and locations between them. Joyce isn’t so much telling a story as he is filling in gaps in a world that he’s reconstructing.