Bullet in the Brain

In the beginning of the story, the author presents the story with third person point of view with limited. This point of view allows the reader to privy Anders’ thoughts and it shows one dimension of Anders’ personality. Also this point of view tends to be objective so that the reader might judge Anders quickly, and it makes little ambiguity about the character because the character does not introduce himself. For instance, while he was waiting in line, his reaction to the woman in front of him on the line at the bank, “He got stuck behind two women whose loud, stupid conversation put him in a murderous temper.” (Wolff1244), shows he is an impatient person. Also, he adds more, “Tragic, really. If they’re not chopping off the wrong leg or bombing your ancestral village, they are closing their positions.” (Wolff1245), after the teller closes

Memory is a powerful concept. Often when an individual undergoes a traumatic situation, the ramifications of these actions seep into an individualfs psyche unknowingly. In effect this passes through memory and becomes sub-consciously buried within a personfs behavioural patterns generally. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink explores the concept of a young mans subconscious desire for a woman whom he gcanft remember to forgeth (1Memento) as she is so deeply inlaid within his soul.

The book "The Assault" by Harry Mulisch is very centered around the main character Anton's struggle with memory. The relationship between his approach to memory and the effects of his approach proved to be the main conflict of the story. Being complicated, it is hard to decipher. During the beginning of the novel (post-tragedy) Anton is very much a shell of his memories. Many details of his character, from major life aspects such as his wife or his job, too small (seemingly) insignificant things such as what sorts of media he likes can all be traced back to his supposedly forgotten memories of the events surrounding his families tragedy.

Starting the story, Jonas receives his assignment at the Ceremony of 12. He was chosen to be the receiver of memory. Jumping forward to his training, an old man named,¨The Giver¨ transmits memories for Jonas to cherish. He was told he will experience joy, happiness, loneliness and most importantly, pain. Beginning his training, Jonas lays on a couch for The Giver to lay his hand on his back to transmit Jonas´s first memory. It was very joyful. As an

Memory is defined as “The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.” Memories are units of information that have impacted one’s life and are stored in the brain for years. In some cases, dramatic events may not let the brain register every single detail about a situation. This is much like Anton’s case of the winter of 1945 of the novel The Assault by Harry Mulisch. The events of that winter affected him like no other would. The loss of his mother, father and brother and the burning of his house left an impact on him but the events were so grave his brain did not allow him to remember the smaller

In “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff, a character named Anders is shot in the head. As the bullet is traveling through his head and his life fades away, his last memory is portrayed as one of his favorite days, “This is what he remembered. Heat. A baseball field,” (Wolff 4). Instead of remembering his family or friends, he remembered a simple time where everything was once easy. As a boy, Anders was able to enjoy his life with not a worry in the world. One day in the summer, he met a boy during a baseball game. As they decided which positions to play, he became intrigued with the words that came out of the boy’s mouth, “Shortstop… Short's the best position they is," (Wolff 4). As Anders comprehended this unique

He opens by drawing the reader in and put them in the perspective of his supposed “victims,” writing something straight out of a murder mystery novel by eerily describing his encounter with a woman on the street. He utilizes diction such as “menacingly” and listing off all the things she could have considered him to be, some of which being a rapist or a murderer. Upon reading this and the way he builds literary suspense, one is lead to believe that we are being confronted with a murderer, much like the same woman on the street has been lead to believe. This somewhat simulates the perspective of the woman, causing the reader to make predetermined assumptions of which Stapleslater elaborates upon. After drawing the reader in and making an example of the reader, Staples changes personas in exchange for one that is much less aggressive and fearsome, stating that he is, “...a softy who is scarcely able to take a knife to raw chicken.”

Initially I did not like the main character, sanders, in Tobias Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain". Andrés was somewhat rude in the beginning of the story and seemed very inconsiderate of others. Anders' negative attitude is most prominent when he makes a snarky remark about one of the tellers who is being targeted by one of the robbers. As a reader, Anders' attitude and self-centered behavior caused me to dislike him. However, after Anders is shot, my opinion of him changed. As the bullet travels through his skull, Anders recalls a memory from his childhood in which he and two other boys play baseball. The innocence of Anders' memory caused me to change my opinion of him. The memory recalled by Anders seemed foreign when compared to the way Anders

“ 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

The memories are painful and somber as well. “The S.S. lied to the Soviet’s officer by saying he was going to take a shower, but then they send a bullet to his head. (Seprun 71)” Remembering this scene from prison is a psychological memory, because it bring backs the feelings that had gone through his head at the time. “He understood the S.S. mentality. (Seprun 71)” It would bring unimaginable pain for the author, because he saw Nazi ruthlessly murdered an officer. Then he went on to talk about other memories. He talked about how “two young partisans had opted for the possibility of dying and emerge from the war clean and pure of heart. (Seprun 80)” This means that while Manuel was imprisoned in the camps, he sees humanity at its finest. The two soldiers are willing to risk their lives. This would make the author have a sense of joy. There was an instance of trauma that this psychological voyage had left. “I still hear the voice, that echo of ancestral terror, that voice which speaks of the blood of the butchered, that viscous blood itself, which sings dully in the night. (Seprun 132)” The memories of the imprisonment will always be haunting the author, as he had witness a lot of massacre during his time. He can’t escape by trying to forget all these had

F. Scott Fitzgerald understands that memory is a double-edged sword, and he illustrates this thought in two of his short stories, Babylon Revisited and Winter Dreams. In his story Babylon Revisited, the protagonist, Charles Wales, is tormented by memories of his past. His wife is dead, and his old friends won’t stop interfering in his life. His sister-in-law is basing her current ideas of him on the fact that he was an irresponsible person in the past, and it hurts his life greatly. Winter Dreams takes a slightly different approach. In this tale, the memories of the protagonist, Dexter Green, start off as pleasant but are later warped by new information. With these two works, Fitzgerald describes the problems that memories can cause in

In the story “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff, Anders is introduced as a bit condescending in his response to the woman in front of him as the teller leaves her station. He take this small comment and escalates it out of proportion by going on about “…if they are not chopping off the wrong leg, or bombing your ancestral village, they’re closing their positions.” (p. 73 line 15-16) and “Heaven will take note.” (p.73 line 19). His response to this phrase, or use of words leads to the belief that language is very important to him, given that he is a book critic, this would make a great deal of sense. This attitude carries on into the robbery when the man says “dead meat” and “capiche.” Anders is so passionate about language that he does not seem to take ongoing the robbery seriously. Through his reaction to some of the words used by the gunman Anders can be pictured as being fearless. All this leads to Anders being singled out of the group and eventually his death. But what is really going on in his head?

A certain image, scent or sound can bring back moments that may have been forgotten. The speaker is astonished by the dreams she has of her mother. Her mother died very ill, the person who she was when she died was merely a shell of who she truly was. She describes her as “so much better than I remembered.” (Monro, 151). At the end of her mother’s life she could not hear her voice. She remembers her “mother’s liveliness of face and voice before her throat muscles stiffened [as] a woeful, impersonal mask fastened itself over her features.” (Monro, 151) In her dreams she was able to hear her mother’s voice again, opposed to the reality before her death. A mother’s voice is beautiful, and there is no other sound that compare to something as unique. Elliot writes “The unconscious sifts through memory, and then offers up details either strangely distorted or implausibly combined. As in art, as in story, dreams too, render experience metonymically.” (Elliot, 79). With time memories inevitably fade, but the dreams bring a sense of comfort and replenish the image of her mother. “How could I have forgotten this?” (Monro, 151). Heller writes that this scene “serves as a springboard from which the narrator launches into a story being told by her mother.” (Heller, 1). This scene leads us to the central conflict in the story of her mother’s life, and assists in understanding the conflict

We begin the story with Anders being introduced as a book critic who is being tested to his limits. Behind two obnoxiously loud women in a bank line that is taking its sweet time, we can see the protagonist is not amused. The plot takes a turn when happy trigger gentlemen storm into the bank in an attempt to rob it. Unfortunately for the predictability of our main character, Anders shoots off his mouth to the robbers. With his well thought out commentary, rewards him with a bullet to the brain by one of the

Memory – what it is, how it works, and how it might be manipulated – has long been a subject of curious fascination. Remembering, the mind-boggling ability in which the human brain can conjure up very specific, very lucid, long-gone episodes from any given point on the timeline of our lives, is an astounding feat. Yet, along with our brain’s ability of remembrance comes also the concept of forgetting: interruptions of memory or “an inability of consciousness to make present to itself what it wants” (Honold, 1994, p. 2). There is a very close relationship between remembering and forgetting; in fact, the two come hand-in-hand. A close reading of Joshua Foer’s essay, “The End of Remembering”, and Susan Griffin’s piece, “Our Secret”, directs us