From Father to Son

This week, the pieces "Shooting Dad" and "Arm Wrestling with My Father" were discussed. Both pieces discuss a relationship with the authors' fathers, but one deals with a father-son relationship and the other with a father-daughter relationship. In class, these relationships were compared and contrasted according to the experiences by the class. I believe that the father to son relationship is what affects the father-daughter relationship most. In "Arm Wrestling with My Father", Manning describes his relationship with his father as purely physical, and not much actual conversation was ever had, where as Vowell's relationship is more verbal. Fathers seem to be able to show more affection outwardly to their daughters, and this is probably because of how the father and the son relate to each other. As a son grows older, the father starts to treat him as a man and give him advice about women, mainly that they are to be respected and should be treated with absolute love. This usually applies to the son's mother and sister, but eventually when he starts his own family, this will carry on to his wife and his daughter. The ripple effect all starts with the father-son relationship and trickles down to the father-daughter relationship.