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Green Eyes
The color green is mentioned six times throughout the events of “An Ecounter.” Three of the examples are fairly straightforward with the narrator merely commenting on the color of an object in his line of sight such as leaves, flower stems, and the old man’s clothes. However, the remaining three examples are more significant. On two separate occasions, the narrator searches for green eyes. His first attempt is unsuccessful as he scans the eyes of various sailors in vain while he and Mahony admire a Norwegian vessel. In the second moment, the narrator is taken by surprise when he notices that the old man has bright, bottle-green eyes.
Joyce’s repeated references to green eyes may seem inconsequential upon first glance, but a deeper understanding of Western literature reveals that the text’s emphasis on green eyes is far from arbitrary. The narrator’s fixation on green eyes is likely an allusion to Homer’s The Odyssey because Odysseus, the text’s famous hero, is said to have green eyes. The narrator is obsessed with adventure and adventure stories and it is likely that he is looking for someone with green eyes in order to confirm that he is participating in the type of adventure that he likes to read about. However, his search is complicated by the discovery that the old man, a far cry from a hero, does have the green eyes that he was looking for. This motif highlights the contrast between fantasy and reality because the desired green eyes do not follow the conventions of adventure fiction. Furthermore, by linking an indicator of heroism to the violent and perverted old man, Joyce argues that real adventures are often dangerous and strange as opposed to momentous and heroic.
Moments of Paralysis
In most of the stories in Dubliners, a character has a desire, faces obstacles to it, then ultimately relents and suddenly stops all action. These moments of paralysis illustrate the characters’ inability to change their lives and reverse the routines that hamper their wishes. Such immobility fixes the Dubliners in cycles of experience. Throughout the collection, this stifling state appears as part of daily life in Dublin, which all Dubliners ultimately acknowledge and accept. This is certainly the case for the young narrator of “An Encounter” because his quest for adventure and heroism is marked with such moments. For example, the narrator and Mahony are yelled at for their “immobility” as they “wand[er]” through the Dublin streets and they are ultimately too tired to reach their final destination. The two boys are meandering with no real direction in sight, which ultimately causes them to cover very little ground.
The most essential moment of paralysis occurs when the narrator is unable to tear himself away from the old man despite having many opportunities to do so. The old man’s conversation becomes increasingly inappropriate and threatening, culminating in his fantasy about whipping Mahony. Most dangerous, the circular manner of his speech paralyzes the narrator. The old man’s orbit of words both mesmerizes and disturbs him, and he can do nothing but stare at the ground and listen. When the man abruptly rises to walk away and, presumably, exposes himself to the boys from a distance, the narrator remains frozen like a startled victim. In this state, it’s clear the narrator knows something is wrong, since he suggests to Mahony that they assume fake names, but he does not run away. Even when the man returns and Mahony runs away to chase a cat, the narrator stays rooted to the spot. The narrator never comments on or explains his paralysis. However, readers can conclude that Joyce included these repeated moments of paralysis to imply that the narrator will never be able to break free of the stifling routine that he is so desperate to avoid.
