Analysis of "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" Essay

“The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant,” by Wetherell the unnamed narrator decides to ask the gorgeous Sheila out on a date only to find that she dislikes fishing which is the narrator's favorite

Love,it can make you do things you never thought you would do and it attaches strings that sometimes can’t ever be broken.Both “The Bass the River and Sheila Mant”and “Annabel Lee” discuss love and how much of a strong pull it can have on you and your life choices.

The boy knows all about largemouth bass, even their scientific name. He also has all the name brand equipment for fishing such as Pflueger and Rapala. The name brand equipment is important because it must mean he is extremely committed to fishing. The last reason he might choose the bass is because he is extremely dedicated to fishing. As the text states, “I say automatically, because I never went anywhere that summer without a fishing rod” (Wetherell 2). The boy was constantly fishing or practicing his casts. Fishing was not something he had to think about, it was just instinct to grab his rod anytime he went somewhere. Fishing for bass is tremendously automatic for the boy. Secondly, the other decision the boy might make is to pick Sheila. He might select Sheila because he creeps on her constantly. As explained in the story, “I had learned all her moods. If she lay flat on the diving board…Sitting up, arms tucked around her long, suntanned legs, she was approachable” (Wetherell 1). The boy was regularly creeping on Sheila and learning all her poses. He would try to spy on her parties. He might pick

I am reading “The Bass, the river, and Sheila Mant” by W. D. Wetherell. The story is about a thirteen year old boy that has a big crush on this seventeen year old girl named Sheila Mant, and he is trying to get enough guts to ask her out. In this journal I will be questioning

There are many people that are mean, selfish, and kill for money. In “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant”, Sheila Mant is one of the mean and selfish people. In this story, Sheila exhibits laziness, not caring about anybody but herself, and using people. All of these characteristics are exhibited through indirect characterization. That shows, better than direct characterization, what type of person Sheila Mant is.

I am reading “ The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell. This story is about a boy who has a crush on a girl named Sheila Mant. He has asked her out on a date, and it doesn’t have the best start to it. In this journal I will be questioning and characterizing.

The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant by W. D. Wetherell is about a 14 year old boy(the narrator) that is trying to get this girl, named Sheila Mant, to like him. After observing and trying to make an impression Sheila Mant, he gets her to go with him to Dixford where a band is playing, but there is a problem, Sheila Mant thinks fishing is dumb and the boy thinks he has just caught the “biggest bass he has ever hooked” (McDougal 30). He needs to make a decision, the girl or his passion, the largemouth bass. The author of The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant was W. D. Wetherell who “was raised in Garden City, New Jersey, but has made his home for a number of years. Wetherell is the author of eight books and several short stories. His avocation is fly-fishing.” (W.D. Wetherell) Some things that help the reader empathize with the narrator in The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant would be the narrator observing Sheila Mant, him trying to make an impression Sheila, and him choosing between the girl and his passion, the largemouth bass.

Antwone "Fish" Fisher is a complex individual who has been through a great deal of psychological and sociological conflicts in his short life. His mother was arrested and then abandons him, he was abused physically and emotional, and then lived on the streets. In short, nearly everything bad that can possible happen to a person has happened to young Antwone Fisher before he has reached adulthood. In his autobiographical book Finding Fish (2001), Fisher explains how the torment that he experienced in his youth shaped the man that he would become in adulthood. Although this story tells about one young man's difficulties in life and how he had to overcome obstacles in order to be a functional and positive member of society, it is really a story about the larger human condition and how every person becomes affected by their experiences.

The setting of Alistair Macleod’s short story, The Boat, complements the setting of Alden Nowlan’s poem, Warren Pryor.  Each of these writing pieces contain the element of a smaller town with a tight knit community.  In the short story The Boat, our community is a Nova Scotian community whose primary industry is fishing.  This results in most of the members of the community partaking in the fishing lifestyle.  Another influential location this writing piece takes place in is inside of the house, “which was one of about fifty that marched around the horseshoe of [his] harbour,” (Macleod 263).  Most of the homes in this town are situated close to the water as it is there where most of the men work as fishermen.  Inside the house was his father's room where “magazines and books covered the bureau,” (Macleod 265).  It was in their father’s room where the children discover their love of reading and become more dedicated to their schooling.  Both the short story and the poem contain the setting of a school, which is symbolic as it is their education that allows the characters to be free of their obligations and the way of their town.  Finally, the setting takes place on the Jenny Lynn, “she was what Nova Scotians called a Cape Island boat and was designed for the small inshore fishermen,” (Macleod 262) and it is on this boat where the father and son make their final journey out to sea.  Likewise, the poem Warren Pryor takes place in another resource based community, however, this

The young narrator in the story is overcome by a pull between Sheila Mant, the beautiful girl on vacation, and his love of fishing. While on a boat ride to his first party, the narrator tries to impress Sheila by acting like someone else. During the ride, a huge bass is pulling on the boy’s fishing line, but Sheila thinks that fishing is dumb, so the boy does not want her to know. He is in a tugging war between who he is, and who Sheila thinks he is. At the end of the story the narrator proves to have learned a lesson because he says, “There would be other Shiela Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secrets, hidden tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made that mistake again” (Wetherell 40). By him saying he never made the same mistake again, he means that he never again made the error of acting like a different person to impress someone. The narrator realizes that he neither got the girl nor the fish because he was too busy trying to look cool in Sheila’s eyes. Like Shakespeare implies, never let who you are be placed below someone else’s thought of you. If he had been himself, the young narrator may have been successful in getting either his true love, or the biggest fish of his life. When a person takes his or her mask off, they realize that being who they are will always surpass the criticism of

The narrator’s affection for a girl named Sheila Mant in Wetherell’s short story and her actions foreshadows what later happens. On the way to the concert, there was largemouth bass flipping around in the water, and Shelia made a face and said, “I think fishing is dumb. I mean, it’s boring and all. Definitely dumb” (Wetherell 33). The narrator is passionate about fishing, and he finds out the girl he has an enormous crush on did not have the similar enthusiasm for fishing as he does. He finally had the courage to ask out the girl he adores and finding this out foreshadows the situation is not

W.D. Wetherell uses characterization to develop the conflict. One example of this is, "I was on the swim team at school, and to win her attention would do endless laps between my house and the Vermont shore"(3). This relates to the thesis because it is one of the ways the narrator tried to impress Sheila. Wetherell also uses, “"Yeah, bass. They come into the shallows at night to chase frogs and moths and things. Big largemouths. Micropterus salmoides," I added, showing off."(31). in this quote the narrator is trying to show off how much he knows about fish since he's a fisher.

He doesn't want her to figure out he loves fishing, “ She hadn't seen my equipment yet. What i should've done, of course, was push the canoe in closer to shore and carefully slide the rod into some branches where i could pick it up later in the morning”(pg.3 Weatheral). He doesn't want her to see his equipment because she doesn't like fishing and is trying to do everything possible to impress her, even if that means pretending to be someone else. He made a mistake by choosing a girl over his passion, “i pulled a penknife from my pocket and cut the line in half. With a sick, nauseous feeling in my stomach, i saw the rod unbend”(pg.5 Weatheral). The main character chose a girl over his passion which is fishing, and now has that sickening feeling of guilt and regret he feels in his chest that he can not escape. He doesn't deny he made a mistake, he says he will never make the same mistakes again. The theme of this story is to always be yourself and to not act any differently around anyone else you're trying to impress, as it just hurts you in the end and creates more endless pain

Have you ever went through a situation where u had to pick a side of something u like and love. The anther of the story "The Bass The River And Sheila Mant" went through this where he had to choose to give up something he love to do for someone he like. He learn a important thing from this.

I am reading “The bass the River and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell and I am on page six. This book is about (write 3 – 4 sentences of the plot) The is this boy who is madly in love with this girl named Sheila Mant. This boy loves to bass fish. He is upset because the girl that he loves despises bass fishing. Then the biggest bass he has ever caught is in his line. Now he needs to decide between Sheila Mant and the fish. In this paper, I will be Predicting and connecting.