Sheila Mant Analysis

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

His transportation is a canoe do to the fact that he can’t drive yet so he is trying really hard to make this a night to remember for her and he is trying not to let her know that he is a bass fisher and he ends up lying about that to Shelia because he doesn’t want anything to go wrong. There is also a chance that he may pick the bass over Shelia. I think this because the Narrator has been fishing before he liked Sheila and over the years he knows very much about the fish that he tries to catch. He also spends a lot of his time fishing and he gets the fishing rods and bait that fits him the most. He wants to make sure that he has a chance to get a big fish when he can. The night he asks Shelia out to go and see a band with him is the night that he takes a canoe and puts his pole out in the water while he waits for Shelia. Once Shelia walked down the dock by where he was waiting for her he started to paddle towards their destination and he forgets about the pole and he gets

o Page 49 “…the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her..”

The realization comes later after he has accidentally hooked the biggest fish he has ever hooked. By reeling in the bass, he would be losing Sheila, but cutting it loose would make him lose the catch of his life. When the narrator finally knows a decision must be made between the bass and Sheila, he chooses Sheila believing it is a more mature thing to do. When he “pull[s] a penknife . . . and cut[s] the line,” (7) he makes a conscious decision that Sheila Mant is to be more important than his fishing. When the night is over, and Sheila goes off in a different guy’s Corvette, the narrator comes to the realization that she was not worth giving up the fish. Later in life, after being with other girls and catching other fish, what “haunts [him] still” is losing the bass, not Sheila Mant. Ultimately, the narrator’s maturity came from finding out what he actually loved the most and sticking to that.

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.

     The events of this story are simple enough; the narrator, and his younger brother, Paul, have learned from their father the art of fly fishing. The narrator’s wife and mother-in-law ask both brothers to take a never do well brother-in-law fishing, as if fishing might somehow cure the brother-in-law of fool-headedness and personal failure. But the fishing trip gets all mixed up with too much drinking and a loose woman, and ends up with the narrator in trouble with his wife and mother-in-law, for not having taken finer charge of the brother-in-law. They should have saved him from his own proclivities for drinking, and cheating on his

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.

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

fish, and there is a connection made on the part of the poet. The lip "if you

It swirled against the log spiles of the bridge. Nick looked down into the clear, brown water, colored from the pebbly bottom and watched the trout keeping themselves steady in the current with wavering fins. As he watched them they changed their position by quick angles, only to hold steady in the fast water again. (Hemingway 177)

In this story I wonder if the narrator picks the bass over Sheila. One option is that he will pick the bass. The narrator fishes a ton because he always practices, For example the story states during the

Now that I have finished the story and know that the protagonist chooses the girl over the bass, I will be evaluating the character of Sheila Mant. While reading this story, I have found Sheila to be both rude and conceited. To begin, Sheila is patently rude. One notion that supports this is how she acts during the date with the boy. During the date, she is standoffish and disinterested, reluctant to get into the boat with him and having a face that “had on its delightful fullness a very dubious expression” (Wetherell 2).

Ouch! Bishop wants us to emphasize on the first interaction in the beginning of the poem. As you can see, she creates a relationship between the fish and herself, the fisher. She writes, “my” hook in “his” mouth. (3-4) I feel her tone in lines 3-4 express her ownership to the hook.

Response paper – 7 In ‘The Fish’, poem is based on the old fish and the setting is in a rental boat, when speaker went for fishing. He or she catch a giant fish. It is still partly in the water and hanging through the hook, which is still under its mouth. It is so sad and surprised for speaker by observing that the fish is not fighting or struggling for its life. It is just hanging there without flapping.

The narrator’s family has a tradition of fishing, the mother in the story loves this tradition,