I am currently reading “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W. D. Wetherell, and have reached page 5. So far this book has introduced us to a 14 year old boy who loves to fish and is infatuated by a 17 year old girl named Sheila Mant. One day, he finally musters up the courage to ask her to go to a concert with him. During their outing, he comes upon a decision; what passion should he choose? His love of fishing or Sheila Mant?
First, I will outline why he might choose Sheila Mant over his passion for fishing. One reason is because he loves her. He loves her aura of sophistication and beauty. As he states, “to me she appeared unutterably suave, the epitome of sophistication.” He has also put a significant time investment into impressing her. Whenever he sees her watching, he will start showing off. He performs many different dives and swimming techniques to show off his skill and prowess. He has also pondered over Sheila Mant’s many moods in an attempt to try and understand her. On the day he planned to take her out on his canoe, he spent all day polishing and cleaning it. In my opinion however, this was still less than enough reason to abandon his passion for fishing.
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One reason is because fishing is his passion. He has spent a significant time improving his fishing skills. As he says in his story, “When I wasn’t swimming laps to impress Sheila, I was back in our driveway practicing casts...” He has also been fishing all summer and goes nowhere without his fishing rod. We see this when he unconsciously attaches his fishing rod to his canoe before going to pick up Sheila Mant. Another reason is that he and Sheila Mant are not compatible. She doesn't like fishing and thinks it is “dumb”. Sheila Mant was also shallower than he expected. While they were talking, she spoke only of topics like beauty, parties, and where she wants to go to college. “Somewhere I can
The narrator in “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” showed reflectiveness in the short story by saying that there will be more Sheila Mants and more fish in his life. At the end of the short story the narrator shows how he reflected on the summer and his time with Sheila. “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secret, hidden tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again.” (Wetherell 4).
His passion for Sheila Mant also shone through, especially when he thinks, ”... the only creature that seemed lovelier to me than a largemouth bass was Sheila Mant.” (36). Knowing his strong passion for fishing, for him to say that
After he was focused on the largest fish he ever hooked onto and how to lose it in the rivers geological forms, he realized he was paying no attention to what Sheila was saying. She was talking about UVM or Bennington, someplace that allowed her to ski, and he mumbled back to her because he wanted to lose the fish in the river. Now as much as he loves fishing, there are many reasons given for him to pick Sheila Mant. The boy knows her moods according to how she lays on the dock in the sun. Some may mean to not disturb her and others may mean she is observant of her surroundings.
Throughout the story, the narrator is trying his best to hide his fishing equipment so Sheila wouldn’t find out that the narrator actually enjoyed fishing. His attempted to hide his identity on being a fisherman will later on reflects his realization on how useless it was to impress a woman, who has a strong hatred toward fishing. Therefore, fishing is really important to the narrator but Sheila, who thought it was dumb, made it seems as if the narrator and fishing are useless and not something to care so much about. To enumerate, after giving up his bass; the narrator rarely saw Sheila at the beach and only got to dance with her once or twice. But one thing he remembered the most was when Sheila told him she was going home in Eric Caswell’s Corvette.
In the short story,The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant, author W.D Weatheral uses the literary device of metaphor to develop the story's theme of not changing oneself to get someone to like you. In the story, after he doesn't end up with sheila,the narrator claims that other people like Sheila would come in his life,”other fish,”(W.D Weatheral pg. 6). The narrator in this quote learns that if sheila didn't like him for who he is, then he shouldn’t have got with her. He understood that other people, fish as he refers. like Sheila would come into is like, perhaps one of them would like hi m for who he is.
These two narrators are similar, but also different in many ways in “The Bass, The River, & Sheila Mant” and the story “Lessons of Love”. In the two stories the narrators are not really noticed by the person they are crushing on. In the first story the narrator tries more to get their loves attention. While in the second story they just follow their love around. In the “The Bass, The River, & Sheila Mant”, the narrator is a boy.
fishing’s dumb… it’s boring and all. Definitely dumb” (The Bass). This even further proves Sheila’s narcissism because, if she
He chose Sheila because she was the love of his life. He points out all the wonderful perks about her. Eventually he ends up cutting his line with the bass attached. They get to the dance and they dance a couple times, soon enough Sheila left with a different guy. The boy was heartbroken, and he regretted choosing the girl over the bass of a lifetime.
In the book The River Why the main character, Gus, loves to go fishing. His mother and father love to fish too. They both read and lived by a certain book called The Compleat Angler. It too is also about fly fishing. The author of the book is Izaak Walton.
Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella The Old Man and the Sea explores an old man (Santiago) and his struggles to reel in an eighteen-foot marlin. Throughout the story, however, the old man is revealed to have gained a connection to the marlin, to the point where he considers it his “brother.” The old man appears to feel compassion toward the marlin, but is still not reluctant to reel it in in the end. Also seen a multitude of times throughout the story are a series of statements used to personify the fish, the sea, his hands, and other inhumane objects. The explanation for this is never explained in detail, but readers speculate that the reasoning for this is to make the old man feel a bit less lonely.
Can someone's personality change? Phillips personality obviously changed throughout the text. In The Cay, Phillips character is revealed as he is thrown into humbling conflict and obstacles. After a plethora of events and experiences Phillip is changed from one person to a completely new one.
‘You’ll not fish without eating while I’m alive.’” Manolin cares about
Although the old man suffers in pain and exhaustion due to the great size of the fish, the overwhelming sun, and his injured hands, he does not quit but keeps persisting. He does not let go of the fish. He maintained his strong desire to conquer the
The Old Man and the Sea The Old Man and the Sea shows how an old unlucky fishermen becomes a legend fishermen in the small town he lives in. “Santiago is an old Cuban fishermen who has had some bad luck for the past eighty four days” (Marie 2). But that does not stop Santiago from going out fishing everyday to try to catch the next massive marlin even though everyone else in town has no faith in him.
Children and adolescents are not the only groups that love fishing, but it is an activity that cuts across all ages. Young and old, men and women like to fish to channel