Arm Wrestle

Shawn Shelton

Dr. Lowery

16 September 2014

English 111

                                Questions on Writing Strategy

1. Manny starts with a match that leaves him “too bitter to smile” to show how mad he was from losing to his dad in arm wrestling when he would give it his all the win and how his relationship with his father was a physical one. As it says in the story, “Ours has always been a physical relationship I suppose, one determined by athleticism and strength”. Then It moves backwards to show he use to feel about his father and arm wrestling comparing to how he feels now.
2. Manning knows that his father has changed back from when he was trying to arm wrestle him. We are not suppose to know which will happen but we are suppose too know that there is a possibility now then one or the other might happen. Contrast to in the past when it was almost fact that his father would have pushed him to be competitive. In the text it says, “I realized then that dad must have learned something as well, and what he had said to me n that last hug was that he loved me”.
3. The finishing analogy refers to a big moment that was happening in Manning’s life. That big moment and exciting feeling of catching your first big fish, was the feeling he was getting knowing he was beating his dad in arm wrestling for the very first time. Something that he has waited for a very long time to do and had never accomplished.
4. He used narrative and descriptive elements to really give us a sense of how a arm wrestling match between them would go. The use of language he used helps us visualized the match itself and get the feeling of the environment as the match was happening. In the text is says, “My arm would lie at rest, pressed into the carpet beneath a solid, immovable arm.” This really makes us realize how strong his father felt to him at that time of his life.