Joyce continues here the themes of paralysis and spiritual death begun in “The Sisters.” This story’s main character wants more than to play cowboys and Indians with his schoolmates; he wants “real adventures.” But he knows that “real adventures . . . do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.” Thus, he skips school one day and sets out for the Pigeon House across Dublin with his friend Mahony.
Significantly, however, the two truants never reach their destination. Instead, they are waylaid by a pervert with green eyes—Ireland’s nickname is the Emerald Isle—who becomes sexually excited when the boys discuss girlfriends, though it appears he is more aroused by the boys themselves than by the young girls they mention. At this point the stranger walks away to masturbate, a kind of paralysis because it is sex that does not result in procreation. After his return, the man becomes aroused again while talking about whips and whipping.
Although neither of the boys has been overtly harmed by the incident, their journey in search of adventure has ended unexpectedly, to say the least, in an encounter (their first, probably) with adult sexuality and the kind of spiritual death represented in “The Sisters” by Father Flynn. Note that both old men show yellow teeth when they smile; the colors yellow and brown are symbolic of decay and paralysis throughout Joyce’s work. Ireland itself has foiled their attempt at discovery and development.
