Essay On Encounter

Encounter is a tale that introduces a supernatural element into a prison setting. The story is told in first person narrative, and is anecdotal in nature. The concept of a supernatural force scouring the prison for souls is an unusual one. The narrator’s unreliable nature and the lack of a proper description causes me to be sceptical about the validity of the tale.
Very early on in the story, it becomes clear that the narrator may be unreliable, or at least may be prone to exaggerating. He never mentions why he was imprisoned and, rather, any negative reference to himself is glossed over. He speaks of his “excellent behaviour and hard work” (Encounter, line 8) and how through these he managed to get promoted to a more luxurious wing of the prison. Again, he only speaks positively of himself when discussing this. He then goes on to say how disgusted he was when he found he still had to share his living space with a commode (Encounter, line 10). This seems strange as, arguably, a man who has been placed in prison does not deserve absolute luxury, and shouldn’t be complaining about a commode being in his room. These are the first warning signs that the narrator is not to be trusted completely in his portrayal of the story.
Later on, the narrator starts to speak of waking up and being aware of a presence in his soul. He doesn’t describe the actual presence, or whether he could hear or see anything. He reports that: “I could sense that not only my life but also my very soul were in great jeopardy” (Encounter, line 28). Again, the wording in this sentence feels exaggerated, especially as it is not supported by any sensory information about what he believed to be in his cell.
Once the narrator has prayed and, seemingly, warded off the evil, he feels calm and comfortable once again. However, this is only for a short time, until he hears one of the other inmates screaming about there being something in his cell. When the prison wardens open the inmate’s door and remove him from his cell, we are told of how they proceed to beat him up, presumably for creating a disturbance in the prison.
At the conclusion of the story, the narrator tells us that he “never saw that man again” (Encounter, line 67). The implication seems to be that either the man was sent to a less luxurious ward, due to his ‘bad’ behaviour, or that the guards took him away and beat him to death.
As a story, Encounter is interesting and lively, and of an appropriate length. However, the subject matter reads more like an exaggeration of an anecdote by a self-important narrator, rather than as a thoughtful tale of enlightenment, or similar. His lack of description about the focus of his story adds to my opinion of his being an unreliable story-teller.