Analysis Of Sheila Mant

Throughout the short story “Sheila Mant” the boy is trying to decide whether he will choose the bass or Sheila. There are several reasons why I predict that the boy will choose the bass in the second half of this short story. The first evidence that leads me to believe this is that the boy is very intuitive and educated with fishing and bass. In the novel, the boy spent an entire summer fishing and learning all of the fishes names. This showed he was dedicated to fishing and found it as one of his passions not just a hobby. The boy stated, “Yeah, bass. They come into the shallows at night to chase frogs and moths and things. Big largemouths”(Wetherell 2). The boy’s knowledge of bass is truly remarkable, just by how the narrator could

The boy knew exactly what to do when he hooked the bass, knew how old it was, and knew what areas of the water he should be in if he wanted to keep the bass on the line. The next excerpt I used from the novel to aid my prediction was how the boy had practiced fishing his entire life. In the short story when the boy is cleaning the canoe for his date, he automatically mounted one of his reels along with his rod and stuck them to the boat. From this, the reader can infer the boy has most likely been fishing his whole life, if just by habit every time he gets into a boat he immediately starts fishing. The ultimate reason for why I believe the boy will choose the bass is because the boy fought so hard to keep it on the line. When the boy first felt the bass on his line, he could have easily just let the line go, but instead he decided to push it between his legs and hold on to it even though he knew Sheila didn’t like fishing. In the story, the boy thought “ Sheila had begun talking, and it was a few minutes before I was able to catch up with her train of thought” (Wetherell 3). During the boat ride the boy almost paid no attention to what Sheila was saying because he was so distracted on figuring out what he was going to