Arm Wrestling With My Father Analysis

791 Words4 Pages
When the phrase, “cycle of life” is spoken of what comes to mind for most people is the cycle of someone dying and a new life being born. The old will get weaker, and there will come a time when we all have to carry and care for those who once carried and cared for us. What many people fail to realize is that although this cycle is inevitable, we still plan and prepare for it. In “Arm Wrestling with My Father”, by Brad Manning, Brad speaks of the “physical relationship” (Manning 145) between his father and him. Throughout his life they would arm wrestle, but his father would never let him win, Brad knew that no matter how hard he tried to win, his father was quite stronger. Throughout the story as they both get older, Brad realizes that their “roles have begun to switch” (148). He is getting stronger, while his father is getting weaker, and he fears that winning against his father will kill the legend of his father being the strongest man in his world, the man who cared for and carried him. Although this change in their relationship is inevitable because it is the cycle of life, Brad like most people, fails to realize that he has been prepared…show more content…
Manning makes this evident when he says “I am no longer a rebel in the household, wanting to stand up against the master…” (147). This all became clearer to him when he came home from college to visit, and arm wrestled his father for the first time in a long time. During the match, he saw that his dad was really trying, not like in matches before. He began to feel pity for his father. This was shown when the author stated that he “wanted to win but [he] did not want to see him lose” (147). This arm wrestling match is the first time that Brad really realized that while he was getting stronger, smarter, and older, his father was becoming weaker, older, and tired. Winning that arm wrestling match, he realized that things would never be the same

More about Arm Wrestling With My Father Analysis

Open Document