Arm Wrestling With My Father Analysis

Brad Manning’s “Arm Wrestling with My Father” and Sarah Vowell’s “Shooting Dad” are two readings that are similar in topic but are presented in different ways. Manning describes his relationship with his father was a physical relationship. Vowell describes her relationship with her father as more political. In both Brad Manning’s and Sarah Vowell’s essays, they both had struggled to connect with their fathers at an early age and both come to a realization that their fathers aren’t immortal.

To begin with, Manning and Vowell experience the same struggles when they were younger referring their fathers. Manning presents that he enjoyed his father’s physical attributes when he was young. This is shown when Manning says “That was the way I felt for number of years during my teens, after I had lost my enjoyment of arm wrestling and before I had given up that same intense desire to beat my father” (138). Manning describes how it was fun for him to compete with his father

at first. He looked up to his father. He saw his father as a symbol of strength, and wanted to grow up to become just like him. It wasn’t until later on that he found that the lack of communication poison their relationship as father and son. Vowell’s experience at an early age was more conflicted with her father from the very beginning. She had grown up

in a conservative (republican) household as a liberal (democrat). She found it hard to communicate with her father because of the divide. Manning felt as if his academic, artistic events he was involved with wasn’t as appreciated as the more physical ones by his father’s expectations. Manning didn’t understand why his father constantly criticized him with his lacrosse competitions. It was one major way that they communicated. The negativity discouraged Manning as a teenager. Vowell was an outcast in the family. Everyone in the family was interested in the same, conservative, interests except for her. She was more intersected liberal arts. When the Vowell family moved into a more populated town from a rural farm ranch, she liked the move while the rest of the family had growing pains. Vowel states, “All he ever cared about were guns. All I ever cared about was art.” (147). Communication was hard between the two for their interests were opposites. Vowell fortifies this statement by saying, “… and we were incapable of having a conversation that didn’t end in an argument” (147). Vowell wanted to present that she struggled to fit in within her family, especially her father. Manning struggles of communicating with his father was reinforced with support of even more physical complications. He even plainly states in the text, “Our communication was physical” (139) Manning longed for a written or spoken communication. He describes that to have a communicating with him was to “get down on the floor and grapple, arm against arm, was like having a conversation” (139). Manning knew that his father was stronger than him as an adolescent and became to dislike the non-verbal, physical communication that his father was delivering. Vowell knew from very little that she had to work for her attention from her father. Vowel and her sister had gone out with their father to shoot firearms for the first time. Her sister liked it while Vowell had not. It seemed as if Vowell was jealous of the natural connection that her sister had with their father. Her hatred of the gun she shot confused her on why the

relationship was based upon shooting guns.

Vowel found herself again disbanded from the family as they bonded through conservative activities without her. Lastly, as Manning was growing into a teenager, he became oblivious to care if he was to become his father after not being able to communicate with him to this point in his life. Manning states in the text, “I am becoming less my father and more myself” (139). He no longer feels as if he need to physically compete with his father. His mental strength was enough for his own approval and not his father’s. Vowell wraps up her communication woes by explaining that her and her father had argued about everything politically until she moved away. Blaming everything that happened on her father’s conservative views, and her father firing back on what would happen if her views were put into action. (This would be during the cold war) Manning and Vowell though their years of living under the same roof of their fathers were tough to communicate between each

other.

Furthermore, Manning and Vowell also shared the realization that their father wouldn’t be there forever. Both authors came to a turning point in their lives where they knew they had to cherish the moments they had with their father’s instead of avoiding them. Manning describes that he had come home from college one day and found himself about to arm wrestle his father again. This time it was different. Manning was older and so was his father. Manning had the mindset he was going to lose as he always had, but that wasn’t the case this time. Manning discovered during the match that he was overtaking his father in strength. He didn’t want this to happen because Manning always knew his father as the muscular boulder from his childhood. Manning supports this by stating, “I discovered that I was feeling sorry for my father. I wanted to win but did not want to see him lose” (140). Vowell started the realization process when she found out that her father was building an antique cannon. She wanted to connect more with her

father more but didn’t know how until she found out about this cannon. The cannon had history behind it so it became an art to her. She was curious on if this was her chance to finally connect with her far right thinking father. This is supported when Vowell states, “It’s (the cannon) a map of all his obsessions – firearms, certainly, but also American history and family history, subjects he’s never bothered separating from each other” (150). Manning knew that after he defeated his father in arm wrestling that he realized that his father wasn’t going to be there forever and to hold onto every moment that he had with him. Manning describes that he knew his father as the protector and caregiver for him throughout his life. It would be difficult for him to see the roles to start to change where Manning is going to look out for him now and for the future. Vowell spends a day in Montana with her father as he shoots the cannon. She records the encounter with her “Boom Mic” while her father fires off the cannon. She had found an art in this style of shooting. She begins to realize that her and her father are more alike than she first thought. Manning, after coming to the realization that his father won’t be there eternally, becomes desperate to connect with his father. As Manning was about to leave for college again, he had to say goodbye to his father at the airport. Manning and his father embrace in a heartfelt hug that was worth a thousand words. Silently, the father-son had finally connected the way Manning always wanted. Vowell too had found common ground to relate upon. The irony that it was guns itself show that the relationship prevailed in an impossible situation. She learns that escaping her comfort zone will help shape their relationship and she starts to really enjoy what her and her father have. Both authors want to hold onto to their connection with their fathers as long as possible.

Manning and Vowell shared similar experiences when it came to their relationship with their fathers. I n both Brad Manning’s and Sarah Vowell’s essays, they both had struggled to

connect with their fathers at an early age and both come to a realization that their fathers aren’t immortal. These two authors found strength and common ground with their fathers and don’t want to see them go.