The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant

The story frequently juxtaposes emotional intensity and humor. The narrator describes his youthful crush on Sheila in terms that evoke the romantic poets: “my longing was like a madness” (Paragraph 3). But when he finally approaches Sheila, we get a mocking, deflating image: He’s “as bashful and frightened as a unicorn” (Paragraph 4).

Just as his date with Sheila begins, the narrator’s ever-present fishing tackle snags a giant largemouth bass; the ensuing farcical antics humorously divide Sheila and the narrator, even as they ride together in the canoe. When she wonders about the noise of the reel, he lies that it’s bats; as the narrator struggles in the stern with the big fish, in the bow, Sheila faces forward, droning on about her life, oblivious to the slapstick battle just behind her. Back and forth the story swings between her idle chitchat and his furtive struggle with the powerful animal.

Longing and comic predicament finally collide: “I could see the lithe, easy shape of her figure. I could see the way her hair curled down off her shoulders […] Behind me, I could feel the strain of the bass” (Paragraph 53). The narrator makes a snap decision to free the fish, ending the comedy as the story concludes on the wistful