Raniya Harris Christopher Gilchrist English 1102 13 April 2023 Bullet in the Brain Anders took the bank robbers as a joke. They came in demanding cash and had guns. Anders was not fearful of the robbers like the rest of the people in the bank. At the beginning, Anders was already in a bad mood. He did not want to wait in the long line and the women in front of him were annoying him. When the robbers came in, he did not do what they asked and was for him to be quiet. Anders continued to make fun of the robber even with a gun pointed right at him. Since he did not listen and mocked the robber, Anders was shot in the head. When Anders was shot, all of his memories and emotions came to the surface almost like a flashback of his life. Throughout life, Anders suppressed his traumatic experiences. From this story, it seems like Anders does not fear death. At the beginning of the story, Anders was very annoyed by the line and women in front of him talking. He did not like how loud the women were. “he got stuck behind two women whose loud, stupid conversation put him in a murderous temper” (Wolf pg1). Anders had a sarcastic personality through the story even up until his death. His attitude was almost as if he hated everyone. He mocked the robber and did not follow their orders. His sarcastic ways made him …show more content…
He remembered all the things he went through in his life that were traumatic. He forgot about his first love. He also forgot about his mother's last words which are both significant. Times. In his life. Anders. Only remembered. Playing baseball. Which is a good memory. He suppressed all of his bad memories. And. During this flashback. All of the. Bad memories came back, but. He only focused on the good memory, even as he was dying. Ander seems like the type of person who did not like pain but did not fear it which is why it seems like he did not fear
“Shifty- Shifre. She could remember that.” Pg. 47. But, even though they’re small details in the book, they do create a huge theme. Since remembering is a huge contribution, there are many other parts of the story where remembering is a factor.
Memories can express many emotional times and events in your life, but it’s terrifying when you can’t remember anything at all. In the novel Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf, the main character, Allie, goes through her life after a tragic accident where her boyfriend, Trip, drove off a cliff in his truck. Allie was found near the cliff but she has no memory of the accident. Allie is forced to return to her life before the accident with the exception of having Trip. Allie experienced some traumatic events that influenced changes in herself as well as some people, some being Trip’s death/the accident, having to go back to school, and having Blake there for her every step of the way. .
Therefore, he uses his own will power to forget
To show the character’s cynicism the author writes, “Anders burst out laughing. He covered his mouth with both hands and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” then snorted helplessly through his fingers” (Wolff 3). In the moment when the people in the bank are being robbed at gunpoint, Anders is filled with uncontrollable laughter that gets him killed. When reading the story, it can be confusing as to why Anders is laughing in the face of danger, but Wolff built on Ander’s cynicism from the beginning of the story.
He also remembered how his mom and his sister was sent straight to the gas chambers to die as soon as they stepped off the cattle car. He remembered waking up one morning and his dad wasn’t there anymore. He knew when he didn’t return that his dad was dead. Ellie however was lucky enough to survive the Holocaust.
Makes you wonders if he cares about his own life or if his even aware of the severity of the situation that he’s in. During the robbery, Anders critiques them as he would one of the books he reads. He seems powerless to censor himself or comprehend that there is a time and place for everything. Even while he has a gun to his head, he takes time out the moment to analysis a painting. He continues to remain disobedient up until the very moment he is shot in the
Also When ever he remember how people cried because they were being separated from their family. But he was also the man who knew that nothing could frighten him anymore. The last time he was scared was during the
His inability to move on highlights the lasting impact of loss and the profound effect it has on one's life
He goes on to say throughout the speech “ And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.” This means that the things that he went through if he were to forget those things then he wouldn’t be helping not forget the horrible things that he and other people were put through.
As i have said before Brian has had a lot of memories some are positive and some are negative, one that is negative is. When Brian saw his mom at the mall kissing a man who wasn't his father, it was so hard for him and while he was trapped in the middle of the canadian woods he thought about that every day it was like a knife cutting into him. And a couple of months later Brian's parents got divorced and Brian never told his mom that he saw her and that man, and brian never told his dad what he saw that night.
His recollections and visions of his past traumas serve as a
The whole thing changes and becomes retrospective. Slowly but surely, the playfulness disappears from the presentation. Where there was, a play of words comes a serious look at a person’s life. The trajectory of the bullet seems to be set on a course that unlocks memories in stages. The sarcasm fades away, and one can almost feel a tone of empathy with Anders.
Language is powerful, and can even mean the difference between life and death. This proves to be true in Tobias Wolff’s short story “Bullet in the Brain,” in which he makes a point about criticism and language. The main character is Anders. His profession as a book critic is essential to the story because he deals with language every day. He even ridicules bank robbers who point a gun at him because their language is stereotypical.
When you remember something you usually recollect your thoughts to do so. He needs to gain control of his life, just like he needs to gain control in the room. “And what can you do but what you did back in this awful room…Smile and hope for a change of subject” (270). Just like your life problems you want to forget that they are happening and think of something different. Confronting your problems is a hard and usually, an unwanted thing to do, that is why the room was so dingy and unkempt.
In the text it states, “In a firm commanding voice she announced, ‘Jonas has been selected to be our next Receiver of Memory.’ Jonas would soon learn all the memories about the world and really be told the truth about the community. His first day as a Receiver, he receives a memory about snow and riding a sled on snow. These memories were the soothing and fun memories which he first received but later in the novel, he would receive memories that weren’t all fun and games. His first bad memory was about the snow and sled, but it cut Jonas and he started bleeding everywhere.