As Little Chandler walks to meet Gallaher for their scheduled dinner, the narrator describes the houses Little Chandler passes on his way, personifying them in the process:
As he crossed Grattan Bridge he looked down the river towards the lower quays and pitied the poor stunted houses. They seemed to him a band of tramps, huddled together along the riverbanks, their old coats covered with dust and soot, stupefied by the panorama of sunset and waiting for the first chill of night bid them arise, shake themselves and begone.
Here, the narrator personifies the “poor stunted houses” as “a band of tramps” (or unhoused people) “huddled together” in dirty clothing as they look out “stupefied” at the sunset. This language makes it clear that Little Chandler is looking down on the houses (and people) of Dublin, viewing his city with both pity and contempt.
That Little Chandler is positioning himself as superior to the low-income people of Dublin in this moment—when he is on his way to a fancy restaurant to meet an old friend who left Dublin to become a journalist in cosmopolitan London—tells readers something important about Little Chandler’s desires for his own life. While he may be living a simple life in Dublin, he clearly desires a glamorous life living abroad and working in a more interesting industry.
