An Encounter

by

James Joyce

The Wild West

The focus on the Wild West at the beginning of “An Encounter” frames the narrator’s ambivalence towards adventure and masculinity. With its stories about battles and exploration, the Wild West contains the mystery, adventure…

read analysis of The Wild West

The Pigeon House

When the narrator decides to skip school, he plans to go see the Pigeon House. The Pigeon house was a building whose history encompasses many different uses. That fact, along with the detail that he…

read analysis of The Pigeon House

Green Eyes

The narrator looks to see whether anyone around him has green eyes to confirm whether or not he is on a “real” adventure. While much of the adventure imagery in “An Encounter” relates back to…

read analysis of Green Eyes

The Catapult (Slingshot)

One of the things that sets the traditionally-masculine, athletic Mahony apart from the timid and studious narrator is Mahony’s slingshot, or catapult. When Mahony first meets the narrator on the bridge before their journey, he…

read analysis of The Catapult (Slingshot)