Analysis Of Arm Wrestling With My Father By Brad Manning

Brad Manning’s “Arm Wrestling with My Father” he indicates that the physical contact between himself and his father is a representation of their relationship. When Manning is a boy his father, and he participates in arm wrestling regularly. Of course, Manning being a child loses but all he does is giggle. Manning’s relationship with his father as a boy is playful and fun. In his teenage years, he did not laugh around his father anymore. His relationship with his father is never emotional, like a bond a mother and a son has. The relationship is strictly physical. Mannings father helps him with lacrosse but never goes to any of his orchestra concerts or helps him with homework: “But at those times I could just feel how hard he was trying to

What I learned and understood about my father through conversations with my older siblings was about the impact of the loss of my grandfather (my father’s father) at an early age, heavy responsibilities taken on at an early age (hardship of the Depression era) to help support his mother and younger siblings. This led him to a strong sense of responsibility and a deep faith. But it all made him seem emotionally unavailable. The hard times for black families dealing with racial discrimination and the horrors of Jim Crow led to strictness that he, in all likelihood, felt was necessary for the survival of his children. There simply was no place for lighthearted fun. This greater understanding led to a stronger connection with my father, and an appreciation for such things as his devotion to having taken care of his family, his integrity, compassion for those less fortunate than himself, and the commitment as a deacon and Sunday school teacher.

In “Arm Wrestling with my Father” by Brad Manning uses: symbolism, tone, and imagery throughout his story. What Manning’s Story is about is Manning and his father’s tough love bond they share. The story shows us on how Manning’s father shows his affection towards his son, and its not by expressing them verbally or giving him affection, and attention like his mother would. He would only show him that he loved him through helping him in sports and arm wrestling. Throughout the story when Manning gets older his father is at an old age where Manning can beat him.

Brad Manning, the author of “Arm Wrestling with My Father,” spoke to me through this essay. The essay depicts a subtle, but strong relationship between a man and his father. Just as my father was, his father expresses his love for his son through methods that relate to a more masculine manner. One of which, as stated in the title, is arm wrestling.

While George and I share same social aspects we also share some personal aspects with each other. Like George, I was left without a father figure in my life. George’s father and my father left around the same time in our lives, which I find particularly interesting. Our fathers left when we were between the ages of seven and ten years old. As our fathers left we were looked at as the “man of the house” in our household. This might seem like a big responsibility for young boys our age but, we established ways to make a positive result for ourselves and those affected by the situation.

“If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.” This quotation by James Arthur Baldwin helps to bring about one of the main points of his essay, “Notes of a Native Son.” Baldwin’s composition was published in 1955, and based mostly around the World War II era. This essay was written about a decade after his father’s death, and it reflected back on his relationship with his father. At points in the essay, Baldwin expressed hatred, love, contempt, and pride for his father, and Baldwin broke down this truly complex relationship in his analysis. In order to do this, he wrote the essay as if he were in the past, still with his father,

Family relations are complex, but none may be as difficult to navigate as the bond that exists between a father and his son. Even though the son becomes angry and displeased with his father, he is always able to come back to him, revealing the cyclic nature and the impacts of

Although single parenthood is on the rise in homes today, children still often have a father role in their life. It does not matter who the part is filled by: a father, uncle, older brother, grandfather, etc...; in almost all cases, those relationships between the father (figure) and child have lasting impacts on the youth the rest of their lives. In “I Wanted to Share My Father’s World,” Jimmy Carter tells the audience no matter the situation with a father, hold onto every moment.

Alternative comparison that emphasizes the father’s physical massiveness strengthens Manning’s admiration and gratitude toward his father. Manning uses an alternative

In their recent work, Brad Manning and Sarah Vowell have written about more than one way to have a close, but different relationship with their fathers. There is has always been a belief that to get along with someone you would have normal conversations, enjoy each other’s company, or share a common interest. In the story they love their father as any other child would, but their ways of communication are not the same and are different from a common father-child relationship. Both authors use rhetorical devices as a framework for differentiating their relationships with their fathers by characterizing them.

Both “Arm Wrestling with My Father” and “Shooting Dad” written by Brad Manning and Sarah Vowell, respectively, portrays a damaged and rough relationship that a son and/or daughter holds with his father. Although they both find themselves struggling, they are dealing with different things, Manning is dealing with a physical bounding, while Vowell finds herself handling a more emotional and communicative type of bonding. Eventually, both characters find themselves in a mature relationship over time. The characters had similarities and also differences with their respective father. Throughout the stories, both authors dig into the relationship between child and father and how it can be shaped and changed over time.

The love this father has for his son is unique and unequivocally expressed, as one will discover in this compassionate and heartwarming short essay Arm Wrestling with My Father, written by Brad Manner. Brad Manner wrote this persuasive essay for his freshman composition course, where he shared his unique relationship with his father, as the two bonded through ritualistic father-son competitive arm wrestling. His father’s arm symbolizes the strength and love he has for his son. However, as the story progresses into Manner's college years, the symbolical power and strength of his father begins to fade as his father's unwavering strength weakens with the inevitable and unforgiving progression of ageing. During an arm wrestling competition, for the first time Manner surprisingly takes his father’s

A father and son relationship is very important. It is the foundation for boys to become men. The article, “Why the Father Wound Matter: Consequences for Male Mental Health and the Father-Son Relationship”, by Eric D. Miller explains the concept of a father wound that can manifest in males due to a father neglecting or abusing them. Miller stresses that by becoming fathers’, men can overcome father wounds. He touches upon the idea of masculinity, and how it can be a factor to why there is sometimes a distant relationship between a father and a son. The “A Father’s Call: Father-Son Relationship Survival of Critical Life Transitions”, by Ivory Achebe Toldson and Ivory Lee Toldson explains the relationship between a father and a son from adolescent into adulthood. Lee who was the father describes his struggles through a divorce and how he stayed connected to his son no matter what occurred. Lee’s son Achehbe is also featured in the article and expresses the rough childhood he went through without his father being directly in his life. Together these two articles show that a father is essential to the raising of a boy because without one many form father wounds along with emotional problems.

As a child, people are in the most delicate phase of life. They are a freshly budded lily, absorbing all the light, moisture, and nutrients possible in order to bloom into an adult. These essential fertilizers predominantly come from their parents, who nurture them into the person they will become. This unit commonly consists of a mother and father. The mother a symbol of intimacy and maternal comfort, and the father a symbol of strength and stature. The balance of this yin and yang is extremely important for the development of the psyche. Having a fatherless childhood or a childhood with a degenerate father is common in today’s society. The effects of not having a father figure ripple through childhood and lay roots in the subconscious.

In my interviews, I questioned my father, Jeffrey Benac and my best friend’s father David Dennard. Jeffrey is the youngest of his siblings and came from a middle-class family with a military background from his own father. It is unfortunate by the time Jeffrey was born his father’s health was poor and years later began to rapidly deteriorate. David also came from a middle-class family, however instead of a father of poor physical health his dad had substance abuse problems, often times being drunk and under the influence of alcohol. Although Jeffrey and David grew up with different home lives, both Jeffrey and David have come to develop similar fathering approaches. Part of their approach reflects some of the material we’ve learned this past semester and other parts of the fathering approach drifts away.