The found poem above was taken from pages 3 to 4 of the short story “Bass, The River, and Shelia Mant” by WD Wetherell. This story indicates an internal conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist, the narrator and himself. He struggles to choose between his passions or a girl’s approval.
In the exposition of the short story, the narrator asks his neighbor Sheila Mant on a date. He is overjoyed when she says yes. As the story goes on, the narrator struggles to please Sheila. He attempts to explain his love of fishing; however, Sheila is uninterested. In the rising action of the story, the narrator hooks a bass. According to the passage, it was the ‘biggest bass’ the narrator has ever caught. While ‘every instinct has told [the narrator] to pick up the rod and strike back at the bass,’ he reluctantly focuses back on pleasing Sheila, who believes fishing is ‘dumb.’ Thus the falling action of the story is when he choses Sheila over the bass. He would not have chosen the bass over Sheila, since he has put exorbitant effort trying to please Sheila: ‘polishing the canoe all day’ (line 2 of page 2), ‘arranging cushions’ (line 7 of page 2), and preparing a ‘speech’ (line 52 of page 1). The resolution in the story is concluded he never made the mistake of abandoning his passions for the affections of another person, especially one as fickle as Shelia Mant.
About the Artwork…
The artwork is relevant to the short story, “Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant.” The story mentions how Sheila has ‘long red hair’. The artwork demonstrates a girl with red hair sitting on a canoe. Seemingly, the girl in the artwork is Sheila Mant. The point of view of the this artwork is taken from the narrator. My artwork supports the poem because it displays the protagonist’s perspective of Sheila Mant. I named the title ‘Bass VS. Bat’, because the protagonist defines the bass as a ‘bat’ to Sheila Mant when she asks “what was that”.
Please enjoy!
