The writing style of “An Encounter” is closely tied to the fact that the story is told from the first-person perspective of a child who is bored with his routine Dublin life. While there are a few moments in which Joyce has the narrator use figurative language (such as imagery and metaphor) to capture his inner experience, his prose is primarily plain and unadorned, reflecting his lack of spark.
The following passage from the beginning of the narrator’s day of skipping school highlights Joyce’s intentionally lifeless writing style:
I asked him why he had brought [the slingshot] and he told me he had brought it to have some gas with the birds. Mahony used slang freely, and spoke of Father Butler as Bunsen Burner. We waited on for a quarter of an hour more but still there was no sign of Leo Dillon. Mahony, at last, jumped down and said:
– Come along. I knew Fatty’d funk it.
– And his sixpence …? I said.
– That’s forfeit, said Mahony. And so much the better for us – a bob and a tanner instead of a bob.
In this passage, the narrator’s rote use of language is juxtaposed with the zippy speaking style of his friend Mahony. While the narrator’s sentences here simply and emotionlessly describe what is happening—“I asked him why he had brought it and he told me” and “We waited on for a quarter of an hour more but still there was no sign”—Mahony’s speech is lively and full of youthful slang—“Bunsen Burner,” “I knew Fatty’d funk it,” and “That’s forfeit.”
With these juxtaposed styles, Joyce is highlighting the fact that the narrator does not have the kind of youthful vigor his friend Mahony has. His dull language matches the dull life he wishes to free himself from (and is ultimately unable to by the end of the story).
