While the narrator is waiting for his friends to join him so they can start their journey to the Pigeon House, he has a moment alone on a bridge. Joyce uses imagery in this moment to describe the scene around the narrator as well as capture the boy’s inner experience, as seen in the following passage:
It was a mild sunny morning in the first week of June. I sat up on the coping of the bridge admiring my frail canvas shoes which I had diligently pipeclayed overnight […] All the branches of the tall trees which lined the mall were gay with little light green leaves and the sunlight slanted through them on to the water. The granite stone of the bridge was beginning to be warm and I began to pat it with my hands in time to an air in my head. I was very happy.
The imagery that Joyce uses here engages different senses at once. Alongside the narrator, readers can feel the “mild sunny morning” and the granite “beginning to be warm,” see the narrator’s newly pipelayed (or whitened) shoes and the sunlight slanting through the “little light green leaves” onto the water, and hear the “air” (or song) in the narrator’s head that is inspiring him to rhythmically tap the bridge.
This imagery helps readers to experience this scene more fully, which is important because, in the narrator’s mind at least, today is a turning point in his life. He is finally leaving behind his mundane life, taking a risk, and searching for adventure. As the narrator says, he is “very happy,” and the imagery of the scene itself communicates that well, with the warm sun and the “gay” little leaves. It is only because of the optimism the narrator has here, at the start of his journey, that readers are able to understand the depth of disappointment he feels at the end of the story when his adventure does not go as he hoped.
Near the end of the story, as the narrator escapes from the strange old man and searches for his friend Mahony, Joyce uses imagery to capture the boy’s disappointment and fear:
I went up the slope calmly but my heart was beating quickly with fear that he would seize me by the ankles. When I reached the top of the slope I turned round and, without looking at him, called loudly across the field:
—Murphy!
My voice had an accent of forced bravery in it and I was ashamed of my paltry stratagem. I had to call the name again before Mahony saw me and hallooed in answer. How my heart beat as he came running across the field to me!
The imagery here helps readers to feel the narrator’s inner experience, such as how his “heart was beating quickly with fear that [the old man] would seize [him] by the ankles” and how his “heart beat as [Mahony] came running across the field to [him].” Alongside this sensory experience, readers can also hear the “accent of forced bravery” in the narrator’s shout to his friend and the way that Mahony “hallooed” in answer. (The narrator refers to Mahony as “Murphy” here as that is a code name they came up with at the start of their interaction with the strange old man.)
While the narrator is acting “calm” in this moment, it’s Mahony who is actually calm and, more than that, plays the role of hero by coming to the narrator’s aid. It’s notable that Mahony shouts “halloo,” as this is the type of call that hunters make to their dogs. In using this particular language, Joyce hints at the way that the narrator has become dependent on Mahony in this moment—he is in need of care and Mahony comes to provide it. Overall, the imagery here helps readers to understand how the narrator ends the story in a state of fear and disappointment rather than pride and empowerment, which is what he was looking for when taking off on this adventure.
