One important lesson that everyone learns at some point in their life is “Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not.” And, I believe this to be the theme of W.D. Wetherell’s short story.
“There was a summer in my life when the only creature that seemed lovelier to me than a largemouth bass was Sheila Mant” (Wetherell 39). This is the first sentence in Wetherell’s The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant. This is a story of a love that is all but out of reach and the regret and rejection of two things the narrator, a fourteen year old boy, cares for most. These two things being: the tug of bass on his fishing line and Sheila Mant. Sheila Mant is a beautiful seventeen year old with a line of suitors approaching her when given the chance. Sheila is the narrator’s infatuation.
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Reality that you shouldn’t pretend to be someone you’re not. That one must be themself. Upon the revealing of her dislike toward fishing, the narrator stated in his thoughts “...is that at that fragile moment in time I would have given anything not to appear dumb in Sheila’s severe and unforgiving eyes” (Wetherell 44). It’s at this moment that his feelings for her, betray his passion for bass. At this moment, he betrayed himself and became someone he’s not. When the narrator made this decision, when he became someone else, he regretted it immediately following their short excursion. He had cut the line and and let the bass go. This is something he anguished over, something he felt heartbroken about. And, it was all for Sheila.
Sheila who danced with him only a few times. Sheila who went home in Eric Caswell’s Corvette. Sheila who abhorred his intense enthusiasm for fishing. However, after that night, he began to see clearly. He then knew that he shouldn’t hide the things he
If you were stuck on the canoe who would you pick, the Bass or Sheila? First, he could always pick Sheila because he has been in love with her forever. He thinks that she is quite beautiful and cares for her greatly. He also adores her because of her long tan legs and enjoys watching her tan during the summer. He thinks her white dress shows off her figure more than her normal bathing suit.
In short story, The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant, author W.D. Whetherell characterizes Sheila Mant to be a lazy, self centered, and rude teenager. Fisrtly, the reader finds out that in a low stakes game of softball Sheila does not like having a lot responsibilities. The narrator confronts her and tells her to move to a different spot but gets a response from Sheila saying “‘ I don’t like the responsibility of having a base’’(9). This shows how Sheila does not like having to be responsible for her faults in the game, so it is something that a reader would notice about her character and think that she is not responsible or just lazy. The next encounter with Sheila is a big turning point in the story for the reader to learn about Sheila’s
In this story, “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” this boy is willing to give up his entire reputation and passion for being a fisherman just because the pretty faced, inconsiderate, selfless girl thinks fishing is boring and not exciting. When the boy finally gets the courage to ask Sheila out of this concert thing with his boat through the river to be alone with her, he puts out a fishing line out of habit and picks the girl up, and she does not see the rod and just starts talking on and on about herself. Meanwhile, this boy has accidentally hooked the supposed biggest bass ever, and the girl does not realize because she is just too busy talking. Eventually, the boy cut the fishing line, and when they get to the actual concert, he realizes they have nothing in common. When the girl gets a ride home from another one of her friends, the boy goes back not only to a broken heart, but also he has seemed to have lost his ego and reputation just by trying to gain this cute faced neighbor's
Like the narrator in the story, I also made a decision that I have regretted. The narrator made a decision that he regretted. He let the bass go and chose Sheila instead. The narrator cut the line with a pen light. He was nearing shore and needed to make a decision.
As people make their way through life, they often find themselves for the first time at a moment where they must make a choice. They must choose between whether to stay, or to go. It is the first independent choice between what is familiar and the possibility of something greater. It is at this precise moment in time where Sammy finds himself while working in an A & P grocery store. It is only when Sammy is unexpectedly forced to contemplate his current predicament, does he decides to make his first life altering decision.
In the story Raymond’s Run by Toni Cade Bambara, there are many author’s messages, but the one I think is the strongest is being yourself and not pretending to be something you aren’t. People may want you to be something else, but you should be yourself, not what others want you to be. One quote that supports the author’s message of being yourself is,“Now you take Cynthia Procter for instance. She’s just the opposite.
Some people might call me a fraud. Let's see if it will fit. I prefer to think of myself as a master of disguise.” He even dated a woman named Rita, not for partnership but her past experiences with an abusive and forceful drug addict ex-husband. It’s the perfect cover because she just as emotionally lacking as him.
”(Wetherell 2) The narrator confronts internal conflict when Sheila said that she thinks fishing is dumb since the narrator enjoys fishing and likes Sheila so much. From the
Joseph Greenwood Mr. Parker English Week 9 Assignment 5 12/8/15 The Choices We Make In the stories, Catch the Moon and The Bass The River and Sheila Mant written by Judith Ortiz Cofer and W.D. Wetherell, Each tell the stories of two young men. At the beginning of the story Catch The Moon, Luis has just come home from a juvenile detention facility. All this changes when a girl named Naomi comes into his junk shop looking for a hubcap.
Braydon Gaspar Mrs. Harnett English 1, Period 4 September 19, 2016 The Power of Choice in The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant In the story "The Bass, the River and Sheila Mant" by W.D. Wetherall, the narrator acts like someone he 's not to impress a girl. The narrator had been waiting the whole summer to ask out Sheila Mant. Every day he observes her moods and her actions on the lake.
While reading the story, you can tell in the narrators’ tone that she feels rejected and excluded. She is not happy and I’m sure, just like her family, she wonders “why her?” She is rejected and never accepted for who she really is. She is different. She’s not like anyone else
The play An Inspector Calls is a play based in the 20th century, written by J.B Priestley. He primarily uses the play to attack and criticise the capitalist views of that period by presenting a murder and how capitalist supporters and socialist supporters reactions comparatively. Sheila Birling is part of the Birling family featured in the play: an upper class prosperous family. She displays the transition from nationalist to socialist views Priestley so desires. Sheila's character drastically develops and transitions over the play from a reliant child into a mature, independent woman who has her own political opinions.