Analysis Of Tobias Wolff 's ' The Bullet Of The Brain '

David Dobbs in the Article “Beautiful Brains” proves the theme that it takes teenage brains longer to mature due to the recent change in impulsivity and adolescent behaviors.

Imagery is used flawlessly in this short story. O’Connor uses descriptive adjectives fairly often to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and to add spice to her

In his poem Auto Wreck (p. 1002), Karl Shapiro uses carefully constructed similes to cause the events he relates to become very vivid and also to create the mood for the poem. To describe the aftermath, especially in people's emotions, of an automobile accident, he uses almost exclusively medical or physiological imagery. This keeps the reader focused and allows the similes used to closely relate to the subject of the poem. Three main similes used are arterial blood, tourniquets and cancer. These images all follow the same idea, and thus add more to the poem than other rhetorical figures might.

Imagery, initially, supports Burke’s use of narrative in his piece. Burke forces the audience to picture the traumatic events that occurred that day and how they felt watching it unfold. Burke uses descriptive words and phrases such as: “bodies charred,” “bodies rained down,” “and they exploded” (4). These words help emphasize the horrible scene that was happening right in front of their eyes. Citizens watched as workers jump out of the towers, choosing to commit suicide instead of being crushed by falling the debris. These short phrases brings them to the images of bodies, dead and destroyed, laying on the street. Additionally, he uses short one sentence lines to show what the first responders sacrificed on 9/11.

A great American mathematician, John W. Tukey, once said “The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.” This quote relates to stories because the author can use figurative language and descriptive language to paint a picture in the reader’s head. By using these, the author can almost assure the reader that they have the same vision as the author has. In the novel The Pigman by Paul Zindel, many examples of figurative language and descriptive adjectives are present to help the reader envision the story in their minds and to develop characters.

The use of imagery allows the reader to picture the long-lasting emotions gripping the narrator. Being a concrete representation of an object or sensory experience (myLearning), imagery permits the reader to visualize what the narrator is experiencing. One example of imagery is used in line 5 “I'm stone. I'm flesh.” The narrator is using metaphoric and literal imagery describing his body. The reader can visualize the attempt to harden the body against the onslaught of emotion, and the reflection of the vulnerable flesh body in the granite wall. Another example of imagery can be found in lines 22 through 24 “Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's / wings cutting across my stare. / The sky. A plane in the sky." Here the realistic memories of war involuntarily flash through the narrator’s mind.

In order to comment on the actuality of search in social predicament, 19th and 20th century authors seemed to have used short stories in order to have their prophecies and outlooks heard. In Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” and Theodore L. Thomas’s “The Test”, both short stories comment on certain social issues through the description of their settings; however, each author does so using different forms of reality. This essay will examine how both short stories accomplish the inclusion of their criticisms of their current social realities. This inclusion will be examined with a comparison of the short stories’ themes, as well as their settings.

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

According to Drugabuse.gov, Drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. Addiction is viewed as brain disease due to the changes that are going on in the brain due to the usage of the drugs, so it alters the structure and how it regularly functions. However, after reading Maia Szalavitz book, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary new way of understanding addiction (2016)”, she has a unique view of what brain addiction is and her experience with addiction. In her novel, she views addiction as a learning disorder, like in her case it started early on in her as a child learning to be addicted to other things that develop habits of pleasure, reaction that makes up their addiction. Her memoir is her personal experience with addiction with using reputable journals and study to convey her point on what her rollercoaster with addictions has been starting early on in early childhood.

The world is a massive place full of endless literature, beginning from ancient scrolls to daily news articles, filled with many secrets, perspectives and surroundings that help connect literature to an individual’s daily life. Some writers use the skills of literary elements to express and discuss an event that has happened to them or what has happened to others. This helps others to comprehend the perspectives of the author’s understanding toward an incident that one might experience. For instance in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, she uses many literary elements to express her views over most of her stories. O’Connor expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary elements of point of view, irony, and setting.

In the short story Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolff creates a sarcastically doughty character by the name of Anders. However, it becomes transparent that beneath this stone-cold portrayal of a man resides a troubled past. Throughout the story, Ander’s life struggles slowly begin to show through the cracks, giving the reader insight into what has turned him into such a hateful man. Another interesting character in the story is the man who takes charge of the robbery. He remains unnamed for the entirety of the happenings, and, although he is not alone in committing this crime, plays an important role in framing the theme of Wolff’s work. Wolff uses literary strategies such as imagery and extreme detail to pull the reader into the story, lock in their attention, and relate the symbolism and emotion of what’s happening. These devices have a great effect on the story.

“ Sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness oftentimes, you can not make the right sort of settlement, so I am aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me”( Donald Trump). This quote kind of means that you can not come up with a solution if there are no problems. In literature, so many authors use the literary element conflict to develop their stories. Conflict in the terms of literature is split into three branches, there is Man against Self, Man against Man, Man against Nature. In the short writing “Bullet in the brain”, by Tobias Wolff; the main character Anders faces all three conflicts. Conflicts causes humans to react in other ways depending on how big of

In the short story “the Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and the short story “blue + yellow” by Chris Killen compare in many ways. These two stories use the same literary device strongly such as imagery. Imagery is a literary device in which the author uses words and phrases to paint a picture in the readers head throughout the story. These two short stories are written with very descriptive language to help paint a picture of the occurrences in the story and describe a scene. These two stories also contrast in many ways such as the way they use symbolism as well as the relationships between the characters in both stories.

Short fiction can be seen as a literary medium through which the writer concisely creates a story that is almost as fleeting in its detail, as it is in its length of words. Imagery can be used in varying manners depending on what the writer is trying to achieve. In the short story ‘Sleepy’ by Anton Chekhov, we see a more vivid and palpable type of imagery that’s almost figurative and has the ability to lull the reader into sharing the protagonist’s feelings rather than just her

The PBS special "The Secret Life of the Brain" took us through all different aspects of the brain and its formation through life. These five movies taught us that the brain is plastic and is always changing, cutting unused neurons and filling with different ideas and thoughts that you learn from your environment. The five videos go through the five stages of life; baby, child, teenager, adult and finally the aging brain.