Summary Of Arm Wrestling With My Father By Brad Manning

The connection between parent and child is one that is said to be stronger than no other. When a mother gives birth, the feeling experienced can not be surpassed by any other feeling. When a father holds the child for the first time, the bond and never ending love that forms is automatic. It is fair to say that signs of affection differentiate between each family. Some show their love in more physical or more audible ways than others. In Brad Manning’s “Arm Wrestling with My Father”, a son (Brad Manning) struggles with where he lies when it comes to his relationship with his father. The two do not show affection through the most often used “I love you” or through hugs, but rather through arm wrestling matches. When the boy was young his father would always beat him at these matches, infuriating Manning over the years and motivating him to persevere until one day he would beat his …show more content…
However later in the piece Manning’s motive changes as he sees that he does not want to be victorious over his father. Although one may think that this was change that took years to occur, through reading deeper into the text one will see that this switch in roles was inevitably going to happen. As Manning grew out of childhood, his strong desire to beat his father was not of the most importance anymore. Manning even mentions that “[he did not] feel pressured to compete [with his father] the way [he] thought necessary for years (Manning, 2014). Manning gives the reader the feeling that he did not expect to feel this way about his father as he continues in his essay. He states”...something occurred to me, something unexpected. I discovered that I was feeling sorry for my father (Manning, 2014). This shows that the change in their relationship was not premeditated by Manning but rather occurred by