Bullet in the Brain: analyse af Tobias Wolffs novelle

Tobias Wolff’s short story Bullet in the brain is about how the important substances in life becomes unimportant in the times where the head character, Anders, is in between life and death.

The title indicates that the story is not about the feeling of the person that dies from the bullet, but is simply about the inanimate object, which is the bullet. By this you can tell how the author does not recognize nor feel the need to indicate Anders’ emotions. Perhaps the author despises what the head character does and represents, and is telling us so through the title, which completely ignores Anders’ emotions.

The head character, Anders, is known for “the weary elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed.” He is very cruel and shameless towards criticising other human beings. It has become a habit to him to criticise other human beings by their grammar, the way they inform, and what they say. He is also being very sarcastic, which you can see an excellent example of when he engages with the woman in the bank. Anders critical behaviour is also seen when he is criticising the teller for her negligence and doing little to satisfy her customers. He is also criticising the cry-baby for crying, which indicates that he does not care for the baby’s feelings.