Sarah Vowell's Shooting Father And Arm Wrestling With My Father

The controversy of if a relationship with fathers growing up is important has been a argumentative topic for a while. Some believe that a relationship is essential while others disagree. Authors Sarah Vowell in “Shooting Dad” and Brad Manning in “Arm Wrestling with My Father” think that this relationship is important. Even though they both think their fathers are important they describe their views about them differently as they go throughout their childhoods, adolescence and young adulthoods. In her childhood, Vowel sees her father as a “god like figure” but not in the way one would think. The complication between her and her father can be seen when she says, “ And because I believed in the devil, I did what my mother told me to do whenever I felt an evil presence. I looked at the smoke and whispered under my breath …show more content…
This can be shown when he says, “ I might have preferred him to be the stronger, the one who carries me. But this wish is impossible now; our roles have begun to switch” (141). Manning finds this out while him and his dad are having another arm wrestling match, but this time Manning is winning. In that moment Manning does not know if he can handle the responsibilities his father once had, but he has no choice in the matter it is the way things will eventually be. At the end of this entire fiasco both authors realize that their fathers have made a powerful impact in their lives. To conclude, Sarah Vowel and Brad Manning realize that they both love their fathers and our loved in return. In Vowels conclusion she says when her father dies she wants it to hurt. Manning sees that his father loves him even though he rarely says it out loud. Vowel and Manning had different views of their father’s during their childhood, teen years, and young adulthood, but they come to the same conclusion that a relationship with their fathers were