Tobias Wolff 's Profound Literature Elements

In This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff tells the story of his youth in his memoir. As a young boy Tobias struggled with abusive step-fathers, being moved around, and the pull of nefarious activities. However, throughout the memoir Tobias struggled the most with creating a false image of himself. In a quotation in the memoir Tobias talks about one image that he created of himself, an a soldier always armed with a lethal weapon. “All the images of myself I wished to be were images of myself armed.

Does the imagery of brave soldiers influence young Wolff in a wrong way? If so, how?

Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” is about a man who is a book critic. He recalls his lost a memory of childhood after being shot in the head during a bank robbery. In the beginning of the story, Anders’ personality is revealed as cynical, narcissistic, and pompous. As the story reaches its end, Anders reveals another side of his personality that has been hidden from the beginning of the story. Anders is presented as an unsympathetic character, but the author uses different points of view in the story that makes the audience sympathetic towards him in the end. The author uses different third person perspective, symbolism, and setting to contribute to the theme of the story that a human’s personality changes by time, and environment or experience.

Anders is strangely aroused, elated by these final words, their pure unexpectedness and their music. This is in contrast to the robber's language, which is slang, crude and inauthentic. The robber is portrayed as sensitive and self- absorbed with a strong persecution complex and murderous temper. The robber is also stupid and heartless. He could have just knocked down Anders with a pistol so as not to attract the cops. Instead he shoots him.

Tobias Wolff’s short story, “That Room” is a very suspenseful story that has the reader on the edge of their seat while reading it. Suspense and excitement is created through the plot and theme of the story which are both developed through four main literary devices. In the story, the narrator is put into what is potentially a life or death situation and it is at this point that he becomes aware that one is never really in full control of his or her own life. Throughout this literary analysis I will discuss the plot and theme of the story in terms of how Wolff uses setting, tone, characterization, and symbolism to enhance both the theme and the plot.

The acts of human nature can become a very difficult concept to understand. Markus Zusak uses Death throughout the The Book Thief to express the complexity of human nature. Death illustrates how complicated beings humans are and how they hold the capacity to act in both evil and beautiful ways. Throughout the novel Death helps give readers insight to the ignorance displayed and the pain it may cause a person. In the most troublesome and discriminatory times of the Holocaust, Death will point out the beautiful acts of compassion carried out by characters involved in the novel. Sometimes beauty and pain is mixed within the sacrifice some make for those they love and are loyal to.

Throughout Old School, by Tobias Wolff, privilege has a significant and negative impact on the lives of many people on campus, and the narrator. Privilege is very prevalent in the unique all boys environment in which the story is told. Many of the students have a very self-centered and egotistical attitude where self image and success is valued far beyond morals and character. The narrator, who comes from a different background than most of his peers, falls victim to the harsh and competitive expectations placed on him by the culture of his school. Feeling immense pressure to succeed and acquire status, the narrator is weakened by his lack of wealth, falls victim to the anti semitic environment, and out of jealously cheats on an assignment which ultimately leads to his unfortunate dismissal.

The olfactory imagery connects the reader to the events and makes them feel like they are there; the fact that these murders were planned in cold blood emphasizes the mercilessness of the Nazi Regime and their lack of emotion for their cause. She also continues the rhetorical questioning of the reader, giving them an obvious answer to her

A “sentence” can pierce, too. The use of these literary devices is important in depicting what these soldiers might have been feeling when they heard Katczinsky’s words—a sudden break in their thought process that instantaneously made them fear for their

Schultz first describes an experience he has of a prostitute approaching him and asking if he needed “company” in which Schultz responds by asking her why she chose this life (6). By questioning her career choice instead of shaming her ethics, he convinces the readers to reconsider their quick judgement of her selling her body immorally, knowing she has no other choice. This occurs again, when he experiences being held at gunpoint “not even 15 minutes later” by a strange man on the same street (23). Ordinarily, most people would assume this man is a criminal, but Schultz stated that it was “clear he wasn’t looking for a fight,” thus the listeners reconsiders how they feel about the him since he was not actually looking for violence, but just a way to get by (28). What is surprisingly appealing is the questions he asks them to figure out why they committed these crimes. Schultz uses these experiences to persuade his readers into understanding the reasoning behind these people's actions. Moreover, seeing it through Schultz’s point of view changes the audience’s perspective of these individuals giving them more credit than just being labeled a criminal or

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.

To begin with, Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff’s lives were filled with misfortune, misery, and abuse. In addition to this, the brothers also went through their own form of hardship while living with their parents. Geoffrey, who lived with his father and Tobias, living with his mother. With this in mind, I will compare and contrast the central conflict behind their family issues and apply it to their work. In other words, compare Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff’s childhood and look at how it impacted them as adults.

The story brings the reader in for a closer look at the mind and thought process of the narrator who killed an old man because of his “pale blue eye, with a film over it.” The narrator had no hatred for the old man at all yet was almost compelled to kill him simply because of his eye. The story goes on to describe how the narrator believes his thought process to be sane and even justified. This can be summarized when he says, “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen knows nothing. But you should have seen me.” This seems to be an observable trait in human nature where we can see how the narrator, much like psychopathic murderers today, are delusional and even hysterical. In fact, one can even diagnose the narrator of numerous different psychological disorders through WebMD. The average person may see the actions of a murderer like the narrator to be crazy and even insane; however, the murderer himself//herself can still be delusional in thinking that he/she is sane. Although the readers may not relate to the narrator on a personal level, whether or not we approve of his actions, we can understand where he is coming

“Bullet in the Brain” was written by Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff, who was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama. Wolff has a degree in English from Hertford College, and an M.A. from Stanford University. He also was in the Military during the Vietnam war. He published his collection of short stories called “In the Garden of the North American Martyrs” in 1981. Wolff also published memoirs, one being “This Boy’s Life” which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award.

When analyzing a character and their actions, perspective is an important element to consider. This coincides with point of view, which gives us further context of a character's actions. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", murder is a common theme in which the protagonists struggle to overcome the guilt they feel. The protagonists inevitably let their guilty consciences overpower them, leading them to their demise. Looking at these texts critically, focusing our attention on the perspectives of the given texts, gives us a comprehensive understanding of the character's actions.