The Bass The River, And Sheila Mant

One night in the short story “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” written by W.D. Wetherell, the narrator realized that doing what he loves and being who he truly is comes before any significant person in his life. The narrator was obsessed with both Sheila Mant and fishing so if he wasn’t thinking about one it would be the other. On the way down to their date, the narrator found out that Sheila Mant thought fishing was stupid and boring while he could not live without it. During the story, the narrator decided to let down a fishing line while Sheila was not paying attention and this is where he started to face a dilemma.

The story’s resounding theme is that the Boy’s crush isn’t worth losing the opportunity to catch the fish of a lifetime. Because the story is told by the Boy, we know what his struggle is between choosing the fish or to keep his date going with Sheila Mant. The story’s main conflict is that the boy doesn’t know whether to catch

For Instance, when the narrator tries to Sheila by telling her about fishing, she says that she hates fishing. This causes the boy to change his identity and not being who he truly is. After trying hard to get sheila to like him, she goes over to him and says “You´re a funny kid you know that?” (5). This is a good realization for the character because he realizes that things will not always work out, even if you try hard. The narrator gave up several things including cutting the line and changing his identity and ended up with nothing.

This makes Jake feel like less of a man and after this everything points to him be inferior. Jake resorts to alcohol during the book to put all his misery behind him. During a fishing trip they take, Hemingway mentions the water multiple times. Water is a symbol of relief and new life but during the trip his friend catches bigger fish than Jake which points back to him feeling inferior. The whole book is based on a love triangle where the main character Jake wants to be with Brett and loves her but Brett does not want Jake back.

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.

Sheila is a 17 year old high school student who does not know the boy. The Problem is that Sheila hates fishing and the boy loves fishing. I wonder if the narrator will pick the bass or Sheila? He might pick the bass , or he might pick Sheila. Why would he Pick the bass.

However, he was unlucky and has not caught a single fish for eighty-four days, and everyone thought he will fail and did not have faith in him. Even the parents of the boy Manolin wanted him to stay away from Santiago. Despite these judgments, Santiago does not give up and he still clings on to his dream of catching a big fish, so he went out further in the sea. He works hard for his goals, and finally caught a huge marlin. Santiago struggles physically and mentally with the huge marlin and his unlucky fate.

For example, the fisherman “saw the fishing boat making in the direction of home after hearing a sporadic distant gunfire” (Hall). This explains that the fisherman ignores the signal of returning home because he does not want his expectations to be a waste on Christmas day. However, not only did he fail to see the signal of the atmosphere but the sudden change of the tide which cause him to “felt the deep vacuity of disbelief” (Hall). The fisherman know immediately that his flawless day is ruined and he cannot recover from an unexpected moment. Because of that, the fisherman did not give his son and nephew an experience as promise on Christmas

Finally, we see that these colors are coming from an oil spill on the bottom of the boat, “Until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go” (lines 74-75). In this moment the fisher experiences a sense of realization and victory in her mind, an epiphany. Each of the colors represents the pieces that comprise the decision of letting the fish go. The colors serve as the stepping stones for the fisher to realize the heroic character of the fish.

This made him very closed minded, not wanting to open up to anyone. Talking to people was already an issue for him, he misunderstood things and took it as if they would want to take advantage. He no longer had a relation with nobody but his magical talking goldfish. That was his company, his friend, his family. This made Sergei make a big deal about losing his fish.

The narrator regrets his decision, due to Sheila leaving him during their date to take a ride in Eric Caswell’s Corvette. He also regrets letting go of the bass instead of Sheila, because he didn’t see how she really was on the boat, since he was too distracted be the bass. I have one regret that still haunts me to this day, just like the narrators. My regret is choosing to do drugs in the past. I could have chosen the smart path and not have done them, but I didn’t.

As the town tied him up in the boat and went to blindfold him, he saw what looked like water draining out of a bathtub like a whirlpool. It then hit him; the water was being drained out of a sinkhole. He told the townspeople as quick as he could and showed their attention to the sinkhole. The people immediately let him go and apologised. They filled the hole and stop the draining; Johnnit was the town hero and got to stay on the long side of Mt.