1. “The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant”By
W. D. Wetherell

2. SETTING Summer New England Town River
Provides the backdrop for the story to take place

3. CONFLICT Physical: the narrator struggles with the bass
Internal: the narrator struggles between his desire to catch the biggest bass in his life and his desire to impress Sheila

4. CHARACTERS
Narrator: 14 yrs. old at the story’s beginning, loved fishing for largemouth bass, has a crush on Sheila Mant, spends his time trying to get up enough courage to ask Sheila for a date
Sheila Mant: 17 yrs. old, family is renting the cottage next to his family’s, doesn’t know the narrator exists, talks constantly of older college boys, upper class

5. Characterization Methods
Narrator’s actions
Narrator’s thoughts
Speech of both characters
Physical appearance of Sheila

6. PLOT BASIC SITUATION (Exposition)
Describes the setting and narrator’s obsession with Sheila (Introduces the internal conflict)
Describes Sheila and her suitors
Asks Sheila to a dance
Takes his canoe and fishing rod
COMPLICATIONS (Rising Action)
Narrator desperately tries to conceal the rod with the big bass as Sheila chatters away, having absolutely no idea what is going on

7. PLOT (cont.) CLIMAX The narrator cuts the line FALLING ACTION
Sheila rides home with a college boy
DENOUEMENT
Older, reflective narrator says it was a hard choice and a mistake he has never repeated.

8. CONFLICT INTERNAL ELEMENTAL (External)
Narrator struggles with his courage to ask Sheila to the dance
He struggles between his desire to catch the bass and his desire for Sheila
ELEMENTAL (External)
Narrator’s physical struggle with the bass
Narrator’s verbal struggle to keep Sheila ignorant of the bass

9. First Person Narrator POINT OF VIEW
The story is told through the thoughts, feelings, and remembrances of an adult main character.

10. THEME
All the concern about hiding something to prevent someone from looking at him in a negative way
Teenagers’ conflict between being true to themselves and trying to be attractive to others

11. OTHER ELEMENTS
Dramatic Irony – when the reader is aware of something that one of the characters in the story is not
Page 39, col. A, par. 1