A Shot in the Dark: The Allegory of Respect in “Bullet in the Brain” Michael Clyde Craddock Jr College

Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,” tells the story of a disrespectful literary critic who gets shot in the head by a recounts one last memory before his gruesome death. Wolff’s story probes readers to not only challenge but contemplate their thoughts regarding life’s ability to change in one instance, one act. Various readers and literary examinations interpret Anders’s challenging character in different aspects. Although “Bullet in the Brain” typically perpetuates readings of biology or demonstrations of reprobation, this text actually redefines these readings and reveals, through the incorporation of characterization, tone with rhetor, and flashbacks, that this story is actually developed as an allegory catered towards disrespectful misogynist male audiences.

The significant presence of characterization in the story helps the target reader to first learn and understand Anders’s character to then learn from it. In the first paragraph, readers develop a somewhat-wary perception of the main character as the story builds its exigence by claiming “He was never in the best tempers anyway, Anders – a book critic known for the weary elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed.” (Wolff 82). When the...