A Study Guide for W. D. Wetherell's "The Bass, the River & Sheila Mant"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for W. D. Wetherell's "The Bass, the River & Sheila Mant," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jul 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535835275

Book preview

The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant

W. D. Wetherell

1985

Introduction

Though W. D. Wetherell's The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant did not receive a lot of media attention when it was first published, this coming-of-age short story has become a perennial favorite in literature courses. The fourteen-year-old male narrator portrays a classic character, one that is as relevant today as it was a quarter-century ago, when the story first appeared. The story relates the experiences of a teenage narrator who, like all youth, struggles to forge a unique personal identity.

The main scene of the story places the nameless protagonist in his favorite setting—a canoe on a placid river—where he faces one of the most challenging decisions in his young life. The biggest fish he has ever hooked is desperately trying to get away and will do so if the narrator does not take decisive action. Inside the boat, sitting nonchalantly in the moonlight, is the biggest date the narrator has ever landed. If he makes a move to haul in the fish, the chances are great that he will lose the girl. The author thus sets these two great prizes at odds with one another and presents the narrator with a complex dilemma: Since he cannot have both the fish and the girl, which one will he choose? It is the narrator's critical choice that teaches him a lesson that he will carry with him into the future, forming an indelible memory that helps to mold the young boy's adulthood.

The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant was published in 1985 in Wetherell's prize-winning collection of short stories The Man Who Loved Levittown. The collection won the 1985 Drue Heinz Literature Prize awarded by the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Author Biography

Wetherell was born on October 5, 1948, in Minida, New York, a small town on Long Island. In 1973 he earned a bachelor's degree from Hofstra University, in Hempstead, New York.

His first novel, Souvenirs, was published in 1981, but it was his 1985 collection of short stories The Man Who Loved Levittown (1985) that brought him media attention. The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant was included in this award-winning collection.

Wetherell's 1990 novel Chekhov's Sister has proven to be one of his most critically acclaimed fictional works. The story speculates about what the famed Russian author's sister (the book references details of the life of Anton Chekhov) might have done to preserve her brother's legacy.

Over the years, Wetherell has produced several more novels, including The Wisest Man in America (1995)