The Bass and Sheila Mant

What areas in people’s lives are within their control? What areas in their lives are they powerless to control? How do decisions made when people are young affect their lives later on? Relate this to the narrator of “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant”

      I think people can control their actions because we are given the ability to think about the consequences. I also think people can control their thoughts because we are able to reason. Something people can’t control is some feelings like love or passion. In “The bass, the River and Sheila Mant”, the narrator was torn between Sheila, his first love and fishing, his passion. I think in situations like these people can make the wrong decisions under the pressure. The narrator of the story chooses Sheila over fishing and cuts the fishing line and later on in life, regrets it. When people are young they sometimes make wrong decisions about things because of simple reasons like the pressure from other kids or if you are trying to impress someone. The narrator made the wrong decision because of trying to impress Sheila. The narrator realized he made the wrong choice very soon because when Sheila said she was leaving in Eric’s corvette all he did was mumble a response. You can tell he made the wrong choice because before she left she told him that he was funny, charming and that’s when he remembered that he used to do everything he can to get that response. In the end the narrator says he remembers this incident as a lesson never to make the wrong choice.