The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant

An aluminum canoe is central to the narrator’s summer vacation. In it, he fishes and travels up and downstream from his family’s resort cottage. The canoe is also his main form of transport. Taking Sheila to the dance by canoe, he uses the boat to show himself off for her: He spruces up the interior to make it a romantic spot and tries to demonstrate his skill with the oars. At the same time, the canoe comes to symbolize his failed attempt to hold onto either of his two summer passions—Sheila, who has no interest in him and instead desires Eric the college athlete, and the enormous bigmouth bass, which the narrator frees in a misguided attempt to win Sheila’s favor.

Sheila suns herself on a diving board attached to a large, floating pier, while the narrator watches her longingly from a nearby dock. While the narrator’s true passion lies in the river, his misguided obsession remains on the board, removed from the water, looking down, literally and figuratively, on the fishing he holds dear, and refusing to dive into his world. The dock thus represents a life of swimming and fishing, while the diving board symbolizes the pedestal on which he has placed Sheila, without any knowledge of her as a person.