Manning and Vowell Essay Example

arm wrestling match where Brad Manning won against his father. Brad Manning may have been late to realize what that match and the hug meant, but his father did, and it probably also meant for him that he is now giving his son independence.

It was a beautiful moment in their relationship, the silent but physical and transparent act of pure love that Brad Manning’s father shown in. They would probably never speak of it again, but it will always be there, and they would know what it means to them and their relationship. For Sarah Vowell, her relationship with her father is a peppered with their differences. From their differences in interests to their differences in their political beliefs, they have always disagreed on a lot of things.

Vowell grew up in a peculiar environment, her childhood is surrounded with memories of guns and rifles and all kinds of firearms, with her father being the mastermind and their mother and her twin condoning it. However this environment failed to influence her, as she pursued another area of interest: the arts. This would probably strike their father and twin (who share the same interests) as strange, and consider her even stranger. Add to that her liberal stand on politics. But her father had never stopped her from pursuing what she wanted, and though they were always arguing was open to her ideas.

Sarah Vowell’s extreme opposition to her father’s preferences, to the point that she described her residence “a house divided” only emphasized that her will and her passion was as strong as her father’s, which she probably got from him. When

she finally realizes this, she now also realizes that her bond with her father is strengthened by their differences, ironically enough. This would be why she wants it to hurt when it comes to the time that she has to use the homemade cannon to scatter her father’s ashes.

She will have lost an instrument of an important part of her identity. Each writer made use of different style to convey their insights. Manning used symbolic images and was descriptive of their emotion, while Vowell used wit and humor. Both were effective methods used as an advantage because for Manning, the use of more emotional text contrasted the very physical relationship with his father, and Vowell’s slightly off-kilter narration contrasted the many arguments she had with her father.