Joyce and Video Games: Encountering Game Bosses in Joyce’s “An Encounter”

초록

In general, action-adventure video games consist of three elements: game players, main and side quests, which are introduced in game intros, and game bosses. While game players continue their journey, they need to complete game quests as many as they can to level up their power and skills. Along with the quests, they encounter many game bosses and often fail to defeat them. Joyce’s “An Encounter” has these elements: the unnamed narrator and Mahony (game players), the boys’ journey to the Pigeon House (the quest), and game bosses (Father Butler and the old man). Thus, viewing the first part as the game intro and the second part as the main gameplay, this paper argues that the two parts are connected with each other in terms of the boys’ encounter with game bosses: Father Butler in the game intro threatens Leo Dillon, and the old man in the main gameplay intimidates the narrator by continually mentioning whipping children. In addition, the narrator at the end of the story suddenly expresses regret for despising Mahony. Without giving any information about this change, the narrator forces the reader to simply accept that something has happened to the narrator. However, if we view the narrator’s confession through the lens of a video game, the narrator’s abrupt confession can be understood as his realization that Mahony has been the narrator’s helpful companion. Confronting this threatening situation, the boy realizes how desperately he needs Mahony’s assistance and how great Mahony has been a help to him.

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