In the beginning of the story, the narrator and his friends, Joe and Leo Dillion, play games about the Wild West. I believe they did this because it allowed them to escape from the seriousness of school and their parents. It seemed as though their community was very sheltered from the rest of Ireland. The narrator states, “when the restraining influence of the school was at a distance I began to hunger again for wild sensations.” This proves the author was no longer satisfied playing or reading about Indians and only sought to know about real adventure in Dublin. He states real adventures had to be “sought abroad.”
So the narrator and his friend Leo Dillon decided to cut class and venture out into Dublin. The young boys visited ships along the wharf, yearning to find a sailor with green eyes, one who has voyaged around the world. To their dismay, they found no sailors with green eyes among the ships. However, as they continued along their journey, they encountered an old, disturbed man by the bank in a field. The man had bottle-green eyes, rotted, yellow teeth, was shabbily dressed, and repeated his phrases. The old man continued to talk about abuse, sweethearts, and books, quickly creeping out the boys. I believe the old man was a symbol of the reality and unknown of Dublin. The old man was mean, perverted, and unsafe. Outside of the narrator’s community, Dublin was not much of an adventure and I believe the young boy was disappointed by this.