Compare And Contrast The Bass The River And Sheila Mant

Is sacrificing passion for a special someone the best thing in the long run? In the story “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” written by W.D. Wetherell the young and naive narrator chooses a girl over his life long love of fishing. Wetherell uses internal conflicts with the narrator to increase the conflict and suspense. Due to Sheila Mant’s shallow personality and impulsive opinion the narrator lets the biggest fish he has ever caught go because he is afraid of what she will think of him. The narrator’s feelings for Sheila Mant go away and it makes him regret his decision of letting the fish go. In the story “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant the narrator made a long term decision on temporary feelings and emotions.
Wetherall uses internal

conflict with the narrator to show you how important it was to make a decision whether to cut the line or tell Sheila about the fish. The narrator told himself once he knew it was a bass, “that Sheila Mant must not know”. Not only does this intensify the climax, the readers also can get a deeper meaning from the stylistic element the author uses. The narrator debates with himself on whether or not he should cut the line and as soon as he did he felt an immediate “sick, nauseous feeling in his stomach”. After the narrator feels the sick feeling the audience can recognize his regret. Not only does this help the falling action it foreshadows the authors deeper meaning of the story.
Not only does the narrator cut the line, he hides his passion from Sheila. The narrator does this because he is trying to impress Sheila and doesn't want to dissatisfy her by telling her that fishing is his passion. The narrator was a young naive fourteen year old, who thought he was in love with Sheila, did not want Sheila to think he was dumb for liking fishing. The narrator also called this moment with Sheila “fragile” when she mentioned that fishing was dumb. Not only did the narrator cut the line, he hid his personality just to impress Sheila.
Lastly the narrator's feelings for Sheila fade away and he tells the readers “there will be other Sheila Mants”. Obviously he realizes now that a crush on someone sometimes does not last forever. Therefore he should not have gave up the “biggest fish of his life” for a girl he had a mealeasy crush on. The decision of the cutting the fishing line and letting the fish go haunts him everyday. At the time of the crush on Sheila Mant the narrator had thought he had made a good decision. Although he did not think how the decision would affect him later on or that his feelings for Sheila would fade.
The narrator choose to make a long term decision on temporary feelings. The author uses a stylistic element such as internal conflict to help readers interpret the deeper meaning of the story. Not only does the narrator decide to choose Sheila over his hobby he hides his personality and passions because he wants to impress Sheila. To top that off,the narrator’s feelings for Sheila fade away and he realizes that there will be more girls. All these actions that the narrator takes help prove the authors deeper meaning of the story. So sacrificing passion for love a good idea?