The theme of childhood is typically presented as one of youthful happiness and freedom. James Joyce takes a different approach, however, as he exposes the vulnerability that comes naturally from childhood but is often not expressed in literature. He does this through the use of language, free indirect discourse, and through the content he chooses to include, in stories like "The Sisters" and "An Encounter." These two stories show the vulnerability of childhood, without presenting the child as naive, which is especially true in "An Encounter." Each story takes place in different time periods, as "The Sisters" shows how a trusted, authoritative adult figure is able to take advantage of a child for a longer period of time than the stranger presented in "An Encounter." These narratives provide two useful insights into children's different levels of vulnerability. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Joyce presents the vulnerability of childhood by placing children in her stories with perhaps inappropriate adult figures, which can clearly be seen in "The Sisters" and "An Encounter." The inappropriate relationship between the priest and the boy in "The Sisters" is hinted at more subtly than in "An Encounter," as the boy's uncle says, "I wouldn't want my sons to have too much to say to a man." so." Here, references to a possible inappropriate relationship with the priest continue later in the story, as the boy dreams of priests, "a gray and heavy face", which gives the priest a monstrous and grotesque appearance. A juxtaposition between this image and the conventional image of a priest conveys the message of his inappropriate relationship with the child and therefore of the child's vulnerability. The boy says, referring to the priest's mouth as he confesses something to him: "I wondered why he smiled all the time and why the lips were so wet with drool." The priest confessing to the boy functions as an effective metaphor for the inappropriate nature of the priest, as he does not properly assume his role of pastoral care but instead confesses his sins to the boy. This could be perceived as have sexual connotations, as he may be confessing perceived sinful sexual acts to the boy. The fact that the priest smiled during the confession shows that he took some pleasure in the act, which further supports the previous theory. The phrase “why were the lips so wet with spit,” while explicit in its imagery, goes a step further to suggest an inappropriate relationship between the boy and the priest. This relationship is not something that can be called proven, however, as Joyce merely suggests and implies, without ever explicitly offering the information necessary to call the relationship entirely real. The inappropriate interaction between adult and child is relatively briefer and more isolated in "An Encounter", showing the full extent of a child's vulnerability. The child presented in the short story is older than the child in "The Sisters", demonstrated by his ability to recognize the potential danger of the situation, as a strange man approaches him and his friend and begins making inappropriate comments to them. The man asks if the boy has any, “honey,” then is left suspended in stunned disbelief when the boy says he doesn’t have any. This can be interpreted as flirting, as if the man is saying that the guy is too attractive not to have girlfriends. The inappropriate affection for young men becomes clear a little later in the story, as the boy says: "There was nothing he liked so much as looking at a beautiful girl, her.