Tobias Wolff's short story "Bullet in the brain" describes the events leading up to the primary character, Anders, being shot by the robbers in the bank. Tobias emphasizes a number of Anders' character flaws that ultimately contributed to his demise. To highlight Anders' personality and traits, the author employs a variety of methods. First, the author employs sarcasm to illustrate Anders' personality. In his talk, he presents Anders as an adult behaving childishly. Anders has less regard for his life and mocks the robbers who ultimately shoot him in the cranium. Also, the author uses contrast to bring the two parts of Anders’ personality. The author demonstrates the contrast by highlighting Anders’ wisdom while he was young and the innocence he displays when he is an adult. In this paper, the main argument will focus on Anders’ love of words and the negative experience which are the cause of his death. In this analysis, the story is divided into two to give the two contrasting lives of Anders.
First, Anders is a short-tempered person who fast develops hatred and criticism towards anything in life. On his arrival to the bank finds many people in the queue. The teller closes her position, and Anders becomes angry. However, instead of making inquiries, he shifts his anger to the women next in the line. Anders has developed an attitude of criticizing everything in his life. He has developed hatred towards the teller and instantly turned it to the lady in the line. He sarcastically tells the woman, “Damned unfair” referring to her comments about the teller. He goes ahead to condemn the woman of her statements out of anger as he said, “tragic really if they are not chopping off the wrong leg or bombing your ancestral village, they closing their position.” Even when the women defended her statement, Anders terms it, “Unforgivable.” It displays Anders unwillingness to sustain a conversation positively, always criticizing every statement made. His anger turns away the women who passed him without saying a word. The character of Anders turns away anyone who does not understand him. He is cynical about everything and makes reckless comments on any issue. He responds to the woman with a lot of hatred he had developed towards the Teller. He knew he could not reach the teller to express his anger hence he turned on anyone around him who happens to be a woman.
Secondly, Tobias exposes Anders as being sarcastic. The character trait is evident when the robbers enter the bank. When one of the robbers warn the tellers not to hit the alarm, Anders went on with his reckless comment, “Oh, bravo.” He was less considerate of the danger he was attracting to himself knowing that any moment the robbers could take his life. One of the robbers asks for the operator of one of the slots. When a woman shows up as the operator, the robber shouts, “Then get your ugly ass in gear and fill that bag” (Wolff). Anders comes with his sarcastic comments, “There you go,” addressing one of the robbers. The comment attracted the robber who sends a strong warning to Anders. He displays a funny behavior, showing a lot of courage to engage in words with a robber holding a pistol. Even the woman herself was surprised with the manner in which Anders replied to the robbers. She knew the consequences would be dire if the robbers took action against Anders. When Anders was asked any questions, his answer was always, “No” yet he was quick to make reckless comments about the robbers.
Also, Anders displayed a lot of arrogance in the bank. The manner in which he treated the woman who was in the queue showed a high level of arrogance on his side. Having shifted his anger from the teller to the woman, he was so furious, and one would mistake the woman in the line for the teller. Also, all through his conversation with the robbers, he was never soft, his choice of words angered the robbers who ended up shooting him in the head. He said, “’Bright boy.’ Right out of ‘The killers’.” This statement was a mockery of the robbers. Anders never cared about the possibility of the robbers taking his life. His high level of criticism had brought a lot of negativity in his thoughts and no longer cared about his own life. As a result of the negative attitude, he developed arrogance in his reckless statements. He went ahead to mock the robbers by saying, “The stern, brass-knuckled poetry of the dangerous classes.” The statement makes him feel superior to the robbers while in a real sense he was just a common person caught in a tricky situation. His choice of words proofed that he was not aware of the imminent danger that could happen. All his responses to the robbers were simply, “No” which to an extent displayed his reluctance to explain anything to the robbers.
Conclusion
It is evident that Anders’ own choice of words led to his death. The story towards the end brings the second part of Anders’ personality. His earlier life was different and full of love. The story brings memories of his past life, her first lover, Sherry. The memories of her wife whom she loved very much are also given in the story. Anders’ past is full of good memories. While still a young boy, he always accepted the musical qualities of a person with faulty grammar, and he never questioned about it, however, in his adulthood, he seems to find fault in everything. As a result, his childhood wisdom fails him and he never shuts his mouth, always criticizing anything with sharp words. His has a negative attitude and approaches issues with a lot of criticism. If he had retained his childhood wisdom, he would have managed to calm down and save his life from the robbers. However, due to his high level of arrogance and criticism, the robbers did not spare him. His arguments and mocking comments towards the robbers had him shot in his head. The two sides of the story complete the author’s objective of bringing the two contrasting parts of the story in an eloquent manner which helps in understanding the personality of the main character (Anders). The author managed to shed some light on Anders’ past which was bright while contrasting it with his adulthood life which is full of hatred and criticism and thus making it easier to understand Anders’ personality.
Works Cited
Wolff, Tobias. Bullet in the Brain. Blackstone Audio, Incorporated, 2013.
