Compare And Contrast The Bass The River And Sheila Mant

Short stories written over 20 years ago have managed to continue to relate to current news articles due to their significant themes. In this case, the short story is “The Bass, the River and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell, in which a young boy falls for an older girl who has no interest in him or his passion to catch a bass fish. While in the current news article “Laura Dekker: a heroine for our times” by Emine Soner, tells the story of a young girl, Laura, who wants to sail around the world. Although many in her country, the Netherlands, disagree with her planned voyage. Despite their apparent differences, the stories share a common theme. That is, knowing what one values most in life, and not letting other people’s opinions get in one’s way of doing it.

The narrator’s desire in the short story is to catch a bass. This is shown when he describes his encounter with the bass, “…all my attention was taken up now with the fish” (46). Since all of his thoughts are regarding the fish, it is clear that he is eager to catch it. In Laura’s case, her desire is to sail around the world. This is evident when the author states, “At eight, she decided her dream was to sail around the world…”. Nevertheless, both pieces of literature share characters that had to deal with people who didn't support or agree with what they wanted to achieve. This is demonstrated in the short story when the narrator’s crush, Sheila Mant, says, ‘“I think fishing’s dumb”’(44). This is contradictory to the narrator’s wants considering he is very passionate about fishing. In the article, the concept of an opposing view is displayed when it is stated that, “…Dekker was placed under state guardianship by a Dutch court… saying it was unsafe and would damage her development”. This makes it clear that people were antagonistic toward Laura’s wishes. Altogether, the two pieces have evident