Comparison Of Wetherell And Catch The Moon

“Catch the Moon” by Judith Otriz Cofer and “The bass, the River, and Sheila Mant,” by W.D. Wetherell are two short stories that share a similar theme relating to the word love. Both of these stories have a protagonist, conflict, and a theme that will make benefit the character and maybe even the readers of these selections. “Catch the Moon” is a story that is written in the third person limited point of view and it features Luis Cintrón, the protagonist. Luis is a teenager who often hangs out with the bad crowd and does unwise things which result in him being in a juvenile detention center. After being released, he had to legally work in his father’s junkyard where he had to find automobile parts. To Luis, he found this task to be a punishment …show more content…
He eventually did ask Sheila Mant on a date, but he undoubtedly had a struggle at doing so since he was madly in love with her. His love for Sheila can be showed by this quotation fro the story, “There was a summer in my life when the only creature that seemed lovelier to me than a largemouth bass was Sheila Mant” (Wetherell 245). The significance of the bass is very important because he is in love with his fishing career. One problem that arises is the fact that Sheila does not like fishers. As their date arrives, the main character finds a way to hide his fishing pole because they are going to their date in a boat. He hides the fishing rod under his boat and they set off for their date to a concert. During their boat ride, the main character notices that he sees a bass bigger than he has ever seen before caught to the fishing pole under the boat. A description of this bass is as follows, “One, that it was a bass. Two, that it was a big bass. Three, that it was the biggest bass I had ever hooked. Four, that Sheila Mant must not know” (Wetherell 247). Now, we have the two areas conflict arising. The internal conflict is that he has to conceal the appearance of the big bass and impress Sheila Mant at the same time. The external conflict is the …show more content…
The main character then tries to conceal the appearance of the fish the rest of the journey to the concert and it is a difficult thing to do because the bass is making a lot of noise that Sheila Mant keeps questioning. The narrator tries a multitude of things to release the bass from the fishing rod, but his attempts were no match for the grip the rod had on the fish. As they approached their destination, the narrator was sure that the bass would have been let loose throughout the journey. To his amazement, he saw the big bass still attached and he decides to choose between his date and the bass since he couldn’t leave the bass there for the duration of the concert. In the end, he cuts the fishing line to let the bass free and the main character to go on his date. Towards the end of the short story, he expresses how he regrets making that decision. He says, “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secret, hidden tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again” (Wetherell 250). The conflicts presented in the story was solved by him cutting the fishing line. This solved the internal and external conflict because he could stop worrying about the fish and start caring for his date and his struggle was over with dealing with huge bass. With all this in mind, the theme is said to be,