Bullet in the Brain is a short story written by Tobias Wolff and it is about a man, whose name is Anders, and his attitude towards life. The story is set in a bank and he cannot help but be ironic and make fun of other people’s statements. Anders behaves in such a way that people do not understand his sense of humor and this costs him his life at the end of the story.
Anders is at the bank, which is crowded, waiting in line for his turn and he is using his time to reflect on life. There are two women in front of him who are nervous about the fact that the line is long and that the teller decides to close her position. The woman resents this and Anders says: “Tragic, really. If they’re not chopping off the wrong leg, or bombing your ancestral village, they’re closing their positions” (Wolff 1234). This sentence describes his character completely and he stays true to himself until the very end when he is killed by a robber. Anders cannot help but mock all the things that he observes. However, once the robber shoots him, the story is not so funny anymore. The reader has to feel sympathy for Anders because the robber obviously lacks empathy and kills him cold-heartedly. Since the robbers are wearing masks, they probably do not want to harm anyone, but Anders increases the tension and the robber decides to kill him by shooting him in the head. It seems surreal that such a positive man gets killed, but in this kind of situation people are not supposed to mock armed robbers. Anders does not understand this, or even if he does, he chooses to keep his integrity. It seems like everybody is aware of the fact that the robbers might shoot apart from Anders. One of the women who are in front of him tells him not to talk especially because he was already reprimanded by the robbers. The person who holds the power is the one to be listened to because when life is at stake, everything else is irrelevant, including pride.
There is the medical depiction of what a bullet does to a brain and Wolff describes the bullet’s way. At the moment when the bullet enters his brain, Anders remembers specific scenes from his life and the omniscient third person narrator retells Anders’ life. It seems that his life was fulfilled and that he does not have much to be sorry about. However, it is tragic to see this interesting man die in such a ruthless way although it is a fact that he does not value life much. Otherwise, he would have listened to what the robbers were saying. He is an honest man and he laughs when he finds something funny and this leads him to his death. “Once in the brain, that is, the bullet came under the mediation of brain time, which gave Anders plenty of leisure to contemplate the scene that he would have abhorred, “passed before his eyes” (Wolff 1236). He does not remember the most significant events from his life, but he remembers an event that occurred forty years ago and this selective process says a lot about human mind. His memory makes him appear selfish because he does not remember the most important people in his life, his wife and daughter. He probably believes that they will be fine without him because they are well-equipped for life, unlike him.
The beginning of the story suggests that something bad is going to happen to Anders because he arrives at the bank at closing time and he is irritated by the women in front of him. Wolff writes: “He was never in the best of tempers anyway, Anders – a book critic known for the weary, elegant savagery with which he dispatched everything he reviewed.” (Wolff 1234). It is evident that Anders is not a person who cares much about the opinion of other people and he stays true to himself at all costs. Moreover, he is ready to die rather than keep quiet because he is not afraid of anything and does not fear for his life at all. He might seem to be crazy, but the narrator informs the readers that he has a wife who bores him and a daughter who is a professor. This means that nobody needs him, or at least that is what he sees from his own perspective. Scofield says that: “the short story is becoming increasingly recognized as a form of equal importance with the novel” (Scofield 94). This can be seen in this story because although it is short, it has a great message about important things in life to convey.
Anders goes to the bank although he is well aware that it must be crowded at this time. The narrator points that out and explains that “he was stuck behind two women whose loud, stupid conversation put him in a murderous temper” (Wolff 1234). It seems that Anders is not very keen on living and that he would rather express his opinion than do what he is told, even if his life is at stake. This suggests that he is suicidal, although he seems like a normal man who has a family and a job as a book critic. Being a critic might have made him bitter and angry which he demonstrates by risking his life. It is evident that the robbers are serious and that they are ready to kill somebody. Everybody is nervous, but Anders is laughing which means that he chooses death over conformity. He would not take orders from anybody and he laughs and mocks the robbers. “Tobias Wolff’s stories frequently give the reader, among other things, the satisfaction of a shaped and finished work which aspires to a kind of unity, reaches a conclusion, and suggests a way or ways in which it might be read” (Scofield 96-97). Anders’ personality is well defined and the readers can only enjoy the final product of Wolff’s imagination.
His last memory is from a sports field from his childhood days when he also laughed at the words of a young boy who did not know grammar well. When the robber says: “Capeesh?!” (Wolff 1236), this word triggers Anders’ disobedience and he refuses to be a victim by resorting to laughter. He is not stupid and he can predict that the robber is ready to kill him because of his undisciplined behavior. However, it is a fact that Anders has no regrets because he could have prevented this from happening. “The areas that Wolff’s stories explore also frequently involve moral questions, which means that the reader has something serious to think about” (Scofield 97). Killing a person while robbing a bank is an immoral act and the impact of this story is great because an interesting character gets killed in such a merciless way.
Anders led a fulfilling life according to the story told by the narrator. When the readers learn more about his life, they are bound to feel sorry for him. His last memory describes his personality in a different way by revealing that he was not so judgmental when he was younger. He had friends and liked to play baseball with them. This is the turning point of the story because Anders is finally seen as a person who has a lot to offer. He is not cruel and mocking people is just his way of dealing with the difficulties in life.
Works Cited
Wolff, Tobias. The Night In Question: Stories. New York: Vintage, 1997. Print.
Scofield, Martin. "Winging It: Realism and Invention in the Stories of Tobias Wolff." The Yearbook of English Studies 31 (2001): 93-108. Print.
