James Joyce’s An Encounter (1914) is frequently interpreted as a basic story of two boys who skip the school to have an adventure. But, this paper argues, Joyce is, beneath the surface, offering a mocking critique of Ireland’s colonial condition. This story is really about the ways in which colonialism and capitalism shape even the minds of young children and how the dream of escape only leads to fear and shame. The narrator, a young boy, is not the kid looking for excitement. He is the spokesman for those Irish people who are ashamed of their own culture and admire foreign cultures. His attempts to rival the adventures. He reads American cowboy stories and British adventure tales only underscore the limitations of his small Dublin life. Through the trip to Dublin, the meeting with the strange old man, and the final fear of the narrator, the story demonstrates the inability of people to do something or change because of colonialism.
- Quote paper
- Nirmal Gurung (Author), 2026, The Empire's Shadow: A Neo-Marxist Reading of Joyce's "An Encounter"", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1749696
