In Stephanie Vaughn's narrative "Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog" the title is a controlling metaphor for the father's mentality on life. He believes if he lives in a precise and perfect manner, mimicking the meticulousness of the phonetic alphabet, his life will be perfect. However, in a moment of imprecision, he loses his perfect life. In the events thereafter, his inability to adjust his manner and adapt to a new life cause him to fail. Ultimately, the father thinks he can create an ideal life by living by a code and ignores the fact that life requires one to make exceptions in specific circumstances.
             Gemma sees her father exemplifying a calculated life. He always walks home via the most mathematically efficient path, in "a diagonal that would cut the parade ground into perfect triangles" (612) despite raging snowstorms. When on of the billowing gusts veers him off of his path, and he can only wonder naively "exactly where [he] miscalculated the velocities, how [he] misjudged the vectors" (613). Through his actions, Gemma's father implies that life is perfect and can be predicted, and if he acts in a deliberate and exact way, he will obtain the expected outcome.
             Furthermore, at the dinner table, Gemma's father mandates strict rules in attempt to instill his idea of perfection into his daughter. Gemma is not allowed to eat while she is talking or others are speaking to her. This indeed is very proper etiquette, however, she "never gets to eat a hot meal" (613) because her father is constantly lecturing about the use of semicolons and periods in her speech. Gemma's father is so familiar with the exacting rules of the army that he cannot see when they are unneeded and refuses to adjust his practices at home.
             The father uses this military alphabet to avoid emotions and the real world. He also tries to teach Gemma this precision and control. While facing...