Block Essay

The short stories “Catch the Moon” and “ The Bass the River and Sheila Mant,” have many similarities. “Catch the Moon” is written by Judith Ortiz Cofer and is about
Luis, a juvenile delinquent. Luis fights with his anger after his mothers death and usually finds himself in trouble. In “The Bass the River and Sheila Mant,” the author,
W.D. Wetherell, the narrator finds himself having to choose between his real love and an illusion of love.

Luis struggles to find ways to deal with his mothers death, so like so many teens, starts getting into trouble with the law. He created a gang, called the Tiburons, that would go around cause trouble around the neighborhood, a couple of times they went a little too far. The act that sent Luis to juvenile hall was breaking and entering, but not to take anything of course, just to prove that he could. His father, Jorge, convinced the judge to release Luis partway through his time so he could spend six months working without pay at his dads junkyard. This caused conflict between Luis and Jorge because
Luis didn’t think he did anything wrong. With quite an attitude, Luis polishes hubcaps everyday until a girl named Naomi comes in search for a vintage VW hubcap. His father asked to be patient because Luis had a huge pile to go through before he could find one that would match. As soon as Luis saw Naomi, he had a big crush on her. So, that night he asked his father if he could borrow the car, when he was out he went to the funeral home and wept. When he finished crying he looked up to see Naomi watching him.
Right then he drove to the junkyard and searched and searched for the missing cap.
While he was looking, he realized that the reason his dad loved his business so much is

because when you work for something it makes getting the item that much better. The theme of “Catch the Moon” is that holding your emotions inside of you don’t do any good to anyone. It’s okay to let your feelings out every now and again.

In “The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant,” The fourteen year old boy realizes that
“loving” one for their looks is ridiculous. The main character is a boy who loves to fish.
The boy falls in love with a girl named Sheila Mant but she hates fishing. He decided to take Sheila out of a canoe, on a date, and ends up catching a bass. He decides to let the bass go and regrets his actions later in life. In the story the main character says “There would be other Sheila Mants in my life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was the these secrets, hiding tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made the same mistake again”. The character changes because he learns not to give up something he loves for a girl who is ungrateful. The theme of this story is that a person shouldn’t have to change who they are for another person to like them, even if they believe they are in love.

Love is obviously a huge part of each story. Luis in “Catch in Moon” finally understands, after three years, that he can still love his mom and other people and not feel guilty about it. He comes to accept that his father is really trying to help him.