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The Bass And Sheila Mant Analysis

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People make decisions everyday and each decision they make has an effect on them whether it's good or bad. In the short story, “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” by W.D. Wetherell the narrator is a 14 year old boy who has a big crush. He has a crush on a older girl named Sheila Mant. The narrator’s crush over Sheila is almost like an obsession because he makes a lot of decisions based on Sheila, and the way he feels about her. The theme of decision making is clearly developed in the beginning, middle, and end of this story.
First, the beginning of the story started out with the narrator describing the setting of the story. It was in the summer and he was fourteen. Sheila Mant was seventeen, and her and her family had just rented a cottage …show more content…

He also brought his fishing pole along with them. His fishing pole was in the back of the canoe and was going to trail the fishing line in the water while they went to the concert. When Sheila got into the canoe the narrator… “Pried the canoe away from the dock and started paddling upstream. There was an extra paddle in the bow, but Sheila made no move to pick it up” (Wetherell 309). This shows that the decision Sheila made makes allows her true character to shine through. Next, Sheila heard a sound of a bass in the water and she mentioned that fishing is “dumb”. We can see that because of the two decisions Sheila made, of not helping row the canoe and mentioning that fishing it dumb shows that she is quite rude and not caring of the other person. During their trip to the concert, the narrator notices that the biggest bass he has ever caught just bit his line! He kept debating over the big bass, or Sheila. Right before they got to shore he saw how beautiful she was and he… “pulled a penknife from [his] pocket and cut the line in half” (Wetherell 312). This part/ quote in the story shows how Sheila has an influence on the decisions he makes, and this time he chose her and his crush over her than his passion for fishing, which makes him “him.” These parts of the story help develop the author’s theme of decision making because you can clearly see all of the decisions Sheila and the narrator make in the end of the

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