Shooting Dad and Arm Wrestling

Everybody has or had a father at some point in their life. Some people may take their fathers for granted and others will not. My father is someone who I can always look up to and know that if I follow his lead I will end up being as great as a person he is. Fathers are your biggest fans and supporters. Whether you can tell it or not, they will always be there for you even if you are opposites. In Brad Manning and Sarah Vowell’s narrations about their fathers, they both have unique relationships. From being only a physical communication to total opposites until adulthood, it is talked about. Manning and Vowell both effectively communicate the point of their story to us even though their stories are opposites of each other. Brad Manning’s story about his father is set up as a narrative to explain the relationship between each other. This is an effective way for Manning to get his point across. Manning gives a lot of descriptions of their physical relationship growing up and how he always looked up to his father for being big and strong. Manning use to love losing to his father in arm wrestling matches but as he got older and stronger and his father got weaker, he realized he had a lot more power now. “I might have preferred him to be always the stronger, the one who carries me. But this is impossible now; our roles have begun to switch.” Manning realizes that even though they only ever had a physical communication and love, they actually had emotional as well. If Manning did not include the descriptions for his father and him in an arm wrestling match, then we would not know to what extent that Manning looked up to his father, and if we did not know how much he looked up to his father we would not be able to see a change in Manning’s future, and if we did not see a change In Manning’s future this narrative would not have made sense and would be a waste. Manning effectively uses a narration with lots of description to show the depth of his relationship with his