Sean O Faolain The Trout

This is a paper about the book Finding Fish: A Memoir, which was written by Antwone Fisher. By necessity given the nature of the book, the main character will be examined at length. Through careful examination of the main character a deeper understanding of the book can be reached. After the examination, a number of theoretical perspectives will be applied to the main character, as well as an explanation of how these perspectives can be used to evaluate Antwone in order to understand him better. The perspectives that will be used will be the strengths, systems, conflict, humanistic, and psychodynamic perspectives. Following the connection of the perspectives to Antwone, an explanation of why social workers use theories and

“The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” by W. D. Wetherell, is an initiation story in which the symbols of fishing and Sheila Mant illustrate how the character of the narrator transforms from youth and innocence to sophistication and maturity. At age fourteen, it is typical for a boy such as the narrator to be beginning this transformation. Being innocent and naïve in a sense, the fourteen year old narrator gets an enormous crush on a seventeen year old girl named Sheila Mant and comes to believe she is what he loves most in life. For him, Sheila is a symbol of the maturity and sophistication he will eventually become a

The fairy tale helps the child to understand a balance between the good and the evil; it gives him a hope for a good future.” Fairy tales assure the

journalist. These two very different brothers are brought together through the years by a mutual love of fly fishing instilled in them by their unyielding father. As Norman watches his brother's seemingly charmed life dissolve under the influences of gambling and alcohol, the art of fly fishing becomes a touching metaphor for the love their father was unable to express in any other way.

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.

I have read “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell. The story is about a 14 year old boy who has to pick between a girl and fishing. In this journal, I will be questioning the narrators regretful decision and connecting to my regretful choice.

Rather than name this young boy and immediately create barriers between the character and the reader, Crabtree purposefully leaves the boy as an ambiguous figure to represent any person. “The pond was a book of life with the boy as the learner,” the author states (Crabtree 72). While the pond, in this instance, represents all that is encompassed in life, the boy is seen as the object that is being taught. The young boy constantly goes to the pond alone, just as life is lived alone. He experiences many things on his solemn adventures to the pond. The journey made daily to the pond portrays everyday life as a choice, the boy chooses to enjoy and experience all that nature has to offer while others, such as his parents, choose to stay back and view life from a distance rather than experience it to the full.

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.

Understanding human behaviors is a complicated job because it requires many studies on various people in a long period of time. Sarah Orne Jewett introduces an image of a nine-year-old girl, Sylvia, innocence mind with a mature decision into her story, “A White Heron.” Sylvia does not want to betray the love for nature from an offer of an attractive hunter. She discovers what is most important to her after overcoming many internal thoughts about what she will do with the money from the hunter’s offer, or fulfills her passion with a natural world. The story is contained both situational and dramatic irony, which provides a different point of view of Sylvia in the society. Not everyone is motivated by money. The setting and keeping of economic power is central to Sylvia’s existence and activities.

Having experienced death and separation of family members, and have gone through the trials and tribulations of a past filled with decisions now regretted. The fishing culture and heritage have led both father and son to places where they feel incomplete. For the father this place is his room of books. For the son this place is the all-night restaurant. This extract goes to show what a powerful influence ones childhood has on the rest of their life, and how it can create fears such as that of

This scene is Nick’s first inspiration for how he should go about recovering. The trouts’ literal state in the water mirrors Nick’s emotional state and recovery process. There are rapid waters all around the fish, which compares to the rough emotional condition that Nick is facing. Nick notices how the trout change positions and push again the swirling current in order to stay steadily on the right track. Nick can use this to understand that he must change his own

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

There is nothing more precious and heartwarming than the innocence of a child. The majority of parents in society want to shield children from the bad in life which is appreciated. Within human nature exists desires of inappropriate behavior; envy, deceit, selfishness, revenge, violence, assault and murder. The most well-known fairy tales depict virtue and the evil in life. Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give a better direction to his life. (Bettelheim).