The Bass The River And Sheila Mant

Acting On Impulse The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant by W. D. Wetherell, and Lamb to the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl display a theme of acting on impulse. This relates to our lives in many ways, In our everyday lives many things trigger us to act on impulse; when our parents chose to fight with us, we tend to ‘snap’ back, not thinking about how our actions could affect us in the long run. These stories share the theme of ‘acting on impulse’, even though they have different characters, settings, and events. In “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” the main character acts on impulse, because he loves fishing, and when he caught the bass he was overwhelmed with happiness, but he knows that Sheila dislikes fishing, and doesn’t think much
about it, so he set the fish free not thinking of the consequences that could potentially happen later on. “… I pulled a penknife from my pocket and cut the line in half. With a sick, nauseous feeling in my stomach, I saw the rod unbend.” His reason for cutting the line was because he didn’t want Sheila’s feelings towards him to change, and didn’t want to be unappealing in her eyes. The theme applies to this situation because he cut the line, letting the fish go, because he didn’t want to upset Sheila. Later, he begins to regret the choice he made, because it isn’t what he had truly wanted. he acted on impulse in the story when he gave up what was important to him, to please someone at the time that didn’t like who he truly was, not knowing the guilt he would feel later for giving something that important away. In the story “Lamb To The Slaughter” the author writes about how Mary acts when her husband, tells her that he is leaving her. Mary, shocked by her husbands news quickly did the first thing that she thought of in that moment and ends up killing her husband, later on stating that it was an ‘automatic response’. Mary believes that in killing her husband it was the right thing to do, in order to protect her family that was on the way from him ‘hurting’ them. Her actions were based on impulse reaction, and later would cause consequences for her that she didn’t think about when she killed him. In both of these stories, they take two different paths, and are extremely different, but they both display the theme, acting on impulse. “The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant” teaches a thorough lesson to the readers, about doing what you want and trying not to please others; he stays very calm when he has to decide if he wants to keep Sheila, or the fish; this story is more of a reality, because we all know cutting a fishing line is more likely, than murdering your husband, like in “Lamb To The Slaughter”. During this story its more of an entertaining piece, than a teaching piece. Mary does not stay calm when her husband delivers the shocking news, and doesn’t teach a good lesson on how to handle your emotions. Although the two stories show the characters acting on impulse, the situations the characters are put in are in no way similar. Acting on impulse, is a theme in our everyday lives. There isn’t a day where we don’t make decisions based on an impulse reaction. Sometimes these decisions help us whether it be for our safety, or simply for our own ego boost, but sometimes these decisions can end up affecting people around us and hurting us in the down the road for some bad decision. In conclusion, we all have gone through what these characters have gone through maybe not the same situations, but the same mindset