Dan Millman said that "Choice means saying no to one thing so you can say yes to another." All choices have consequences either good or bad. Within "The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant," by W. D. Wetherell, choices also have consequences for the narrator. The narrator, love-stricken by Sheila Mant, attempts to do anything he can to obtain her love. However, the narrator makes rash choices based on his superficial desire for Sheila which leads to negative repercussions. Through the narrator's unfavorable encounter with Shiela Mant, the narrator's internal conflict reinforces the theme of the story, that choices founded on superficial values often have undesirable consequences. As Sheila Mant's family rents a cottage near the narrator, her …show more content…
To elaborate, after the narrator asks Sheila on a date, he brings his fishing rod because he never went anywhere that summer "without a fishing rod" revealing that fishing is what he likes to do and is important to him. He adds when he wasn't trying to impress Sheila Mant, he "was fishing the river for bass" explaining that he spends a lot of time fishing and he enjoys it very much. Before Sheila Mant, fishing has been his true passion. Nonetheless, the narrator becomes torn between Sheila and fishing. During the date, as the narrator discusses fish, Sheila pronounces that she believes "fishing's dumb" which created a dilemma with the narrator because fishing is what he cherished as extremely as Sheila. His rash desire masks his true passion and provokes the narrator to hide his passion from Sheila. Furthermore, the narrator hooks the largest fish he has seen inside his fishing pole and realizes that "Sheila must not know" because he would have given anything not to "appear dumb in [her] eyes." His superficial values and hunger for Sheila cause him to hide his passion in exchange for the possibility of Sheila's love. His desire for Sheila forces him to try to seem sufficient enough Sheila's love even if it means endangering his passion. Instantly, the tug of Sheila was too great for him and he extracted a knife and "cut the line in half" forcing his passion …show more content…
As a consequence of the narrator cutting the fishing line, he feels a "sick, nauseous feeling in [his] stomach" as he understood the grave mistake he has done. He can't comprehend that he had made the absurd decision to cut the line that released the fish he wanted to hook greatly. He treasures fishing significantly but his desire for Sheila took command. Throughout the rest of the date, he retained that tainted sensation in his stomach as that lost fish stays in his thought. As a result, after a month had relinquished "the spell [Sheila] cast over [him] was gone" due to it denoting superficial love and not true passion, but what adhered to him was his true love, the lost bass that haunted him all server and "haunts [him] still." The narrator discovers that the affection for Sheila was not authentic but what is genuine is his passion for fishing. He comes to terms with his disastrous error and grasps that judgments formulated on the premise of superficial values lead to sorrow and anguish. Ultimately, the narrator learns through Sheila that the judgment he made because of his shallow desire provokes pain and
The relationships that Ian builds, shapes his understanding of himself and affects the decisions he makes and one of the most important relationships that Ian builds that helps him realize what he loves, is his best friend, Pete. Pete has been Ian’s best friend since their father’s took them fishing together, the event of fishing constantly occurs throughout the novel. Ian realizes that he loves fishing through Pete and is one of his most beloved things to do in Struan, even before he decided what he wanted to do with his life. “In fact, it made no difference to Ian where or why or how they fished. He was in love with fishing, never mind that all he ever caught was snags and sunfish...You could think, during those long stretches-or better still, you could not think. Though l...
Wetherell, W.D. "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGrawHill, 2003. 191-196.
James Duncan’s book entitled, The River Why, focuses around the main character, Gus, and how he changes throughout the book. In this book Gus is discovering what life really is and that the whole world does not revolve around fishing. After moving out of his erratic house he spends all of his time fishing at his remote cabin, but this leaves him unhappy and a little insane. He embarks on a search for him self and for his own beliefs. Duncan changes Gus throughout the book, making Gus realize that there are more important things to life than fishing, and these things can lead to a happy fulfilled life, which in turn will help Gus enjoy life and fishing more. Duncan introduces a character, Eddy, who significantly changes Gus’s views on what he needs in his life and she gives Gus a sense of motivation or inspiration. Eddy changes Gus by their first encounter with each other, when Eddy instills in Gus a need to fulfill his life and when they meet up again, completing his need. Fishing is Gus’s first passion but he loses it after he puts all of himself into it, and when Eddy comes into his picture Gus feels a need to have more in his life, like love. Through finding love he re-finds his passion for fishing and learns more about himself. When Eddy and Gus finally get together, he sees this “equilibrium” between his old passion, fishing, and his new one, Eddy. Duncan’s use of Eddy gives Gus a new found sense of purpose and to have a more fulfilled life is a critical step in Gus’s development as a character. This is why Eddy is the most important character to this book, because she gives Gus inspiration to find himself.
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” At some point in life one is faced with a decision which will define the future, but only time will tell whether or not the choice was right or wrong. The Boat by Alistair MacLeod demonstrates that an individual should make their own decisions in life, be open to new experiences and changes, and that there is no way to obtain something, without sacrificing something else.
Religion and tradition are two ways that families come together. However in Norman Maclean’s novella, A River Runs Through It, the Maclean family’s devotion to their Presbyterian religion and their tradition of fly-fishing is what undeniably brought the family together. Under the father’s strict Presbyterian values, his sons, Norman and Paul used fly-fishing as the link that brought them closer together and helped them bond with their father on a different level. The family’s hobby of fly-fishing was started just for fun. It was a sport that was taken up every Sunday after church to take their minds off of the worries in life. After a while, going fly-fishing every Sunday turned into a tradition and soon a learning experience for the father and his two sons. The sport brought the men of the family together and it was an activity that gave them structure in their lives. It was used as a guideline as to how to handle different situations and how to let go of the worries of life for a day and just relax. It is clear to say that fishing has a big meaning to the member of the Maclean family, but fishing held a meaning to each person in that family.
I am reading the “The Bass, the River, and the Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell. The story is about a 14 year old boy who is in love with this girl but is also in love with a fish and has to choose between the two. In this journal I will be questioning and ______________.
I read the short story “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell. “There was a summer in my life when the only creature that seemed lovelier to me than a largemouth bass was Sheila Mant.(Wetherell1)” In this story a 14 year old boy is stuck between his love of fishing and the girl of his dreams. However, by accidentally leaving his fishing rod in his polished canoe, he picks up the beautiful Sheila Mant after asking her to go to a dance with him. “I think fishing’s dumb,” she said making a face. “I mean, it’s boring and all. Definitely dumb.(Wetherall3)” Not wanting to be “dumb” in front Sheila, the boy has to decide if he would rather catch the biggest bass of his lifetime, or date the girl he is obsessed over. He has to decide
I am reading “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell and I are on page 6. This book is about a boy who is madly in love with a girl named Shiela Mant. For the past couple of summers he has been stalking her and one day he finally got the guts to ask her out. Unfortunately the date didn't go so well. In this paper I will be questioning and connecting.
While reading the story I’m thinking, will he pick the bass or Sheila? Some of the reasons I think he will pick the bass because, fishing bass is his passion, he’s been doing it his whole life. When he was cleaning up the boat, he automatically put the fishing rod in the canoe when he was cleaning it up. The next reason I think he will pick the fish is, he’s on a date and he hasn’t even said a word to her. It’s either been silence or he’s been trying to focus on reeling in this big bass that he has hooked. Lastly, he hasn’t even thought of her this whole time unless she has spoken.
“Why? Why? The girl gasped, as they lunged down the old deer trail. Behind them they could hear shots, and glass breaking as the men came to the bogged car” (Hood 414). It is at this precise moment Hood’s writing shows the granddaughter’s depletion of her naïve nature, becoming aware of the brutality of the world around her and that it will influence her future. Continuing, Hood doesn’t stop with the men destroying the car; Hood elucidated the plight of the two women; describing how the man shot a fish and continued shooting the fish until it sank, outlining the malicious nature of the pair and their disregard for life and how the granddaughter was the fish had it not been for the grandmother’s past influencing how she lived her life. In that moment, the granddaughter becomes aware of the burden she will bear and how it has influenced her life.
It starts when Rainbow Fish, the most beautiful fish in the ocean is asked to share his shimmering scales, but he angrily denies them and turns all the fish reject him. All the other fish want nothing to do with him, nor do they want to befriend him. (As the story states) “From then on, no one would have anything to do with the Rainbow Fish. They turned away when he swam by” (Pfister 5). The author’s intention is to reveal to the audience how the other fish were not friends with Rainbow Fish due to his egocentric behavior. Rainbow fish was self-centered and believed to be better than all the other fish. He valued beauty, something that was of little value over his happiness. He then suffered consequences of those beliefs by being lonely.
The first element to analyze when looking at “The Fish” is figurative language. The reader is drawn to this element because of its heavy emphasis throughout the poem. Elizabeth Bishop profusely uses similes with the intention of heightening the sensation of fishing. She writes:
Coming home from the grueling experience of being a soldier in World War I, he felt ecstatic when he saw a trout swimming in the stream. The perils of war took a devastating toll on Nick, as he suffered from a physical wound while in action. The camping trip here is like an oasis, which will let Nick to recover from all the distress. “Nick looked down into the pool from the bridge. It was a hot day. A kingfisher flew up from the stream. It was a long time since Nick had looked into a stream and seen trout. They were very satisfactory...Nick’s heart tightened as the trout moved. He felt all the old feeling.” (178) The healing process begins here with Nick re-acclimating himself with one of his favorite hobbies: fishing. “He started down to the stream, holding his rod...Nick felt awkward and professionally happy with all the equipment hanging from him...His mouth dry, his heart down...Holding the rod far out toward the uprooted tree and sloshing backward in the current, Nick worked the trout, plunging, the rod bending alive, out of the danger of the weeds into the open river. Holding the rod, pumping alive against the current, Nick brought the trout in...” (190,193,195) Nick finally reels in a trout after the big one got away, getting to the feeling of relaxation and washing away the horrors of war. By pitching his tent out in the forest and being able to function by himself so smoothly, Nick shows how he represents the trait of stoicism. He did not complain or stop living, coming back with the trauma of war. Going camping, he is able to relieve himself through using all the nature around him, showcasing his
Hemingway often depicts nature as a pastoral paradise within the novel, and the fishing trip serves as his epitome of such, entirely free from the corruptions of city life and women. Doing away with modern modes of transportation, they walk many miles gladly to reach the Irati River. While fishing, Jake and Bill are able to communicate freely with each other, unbound by the social confines of American and European society. The men also enjoy the camaraderie of English Veteran, Harris. This is quite different from the competitive relationships that can develop between men in the presence of women. Bill is able to express his fondness for Jake openly without it “mean[ing] [he] was a faggot,” (VIII), and Jake has no qualms over his fish being smaller than Bill’s, in what could be interpreted as an admission of lesser sexual virility.
The story began, familiarizing the setting and laying the groundwork for the book by introducing the plot and characters, and amplifying the dramatic tone for forthcoming happenings. The story is told from the point of view of a fourteen-year-old-girl whose name “was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie” ( Sebold 1). Susie was murdered by her neighbor, George Harvey. He plays an innocent widower and has the boldness to approach and express condolences for Susie to her mother and in response to this Susie says, “The man has no shame” (Sebold 8). He doesn’t care and shows no remorse for what he did. He in fact was so self-assured that he has gotten away with the crime he has committed; he had the “audacity” to apologize to Mrs. Salmon. Mr. Harvey is a character who unfortunately, seems to have many “mommy issues” and to the shock of many, Susie is not his first prey, but just one of numerous victims.