
 The story that I am doing my paper on, “Bullet in the Brain” helps me realize that there are certain times where you can judge and then the other times where you should not judge at all.  The conversation that Anders has with the bank robber who shoots him is a crucial piece of information to this story.  I am going to take that part of the story and break it into small parts to really see how they help support the aim in this story.  I am going split these parts up and find evidence that will help you understand where I am coming from with my aim in this story.

In this story there is a book critic that goes into a bank at the wrong time of the day.  He is criticizing everything that he sees, he is even arguing with the lady in front of him.  Two guys come in the bank with ski mask on their faces.  They are going about forcing the bank tellers to get them as much money as they can, when out of nowhere Anders talking and calling the robbers out on the type of words they use.  One of the bank robbers tells Anders to stop talking but he keeps going and finally he pulls the robber’s last string and the robber shoots Anders in the head.  While the bullet is going through his brain there are lots of terrible things that he did not remember.  He did remember a moment where he was a kid and heard someone say something that he had never heard before and it sparked his intentions to critique people.  The part of the story that I going to break down is when Anders is talking to the robbers, before he gets shot.

My first piece of evidence is when the robber pushed Anders’s head upward so that he was looking at the ceiling.  Once Anders had looked at the ceiling in the bank he could not turn down the opportunity to critique the painting on the ceiling.  He thought the design was funny so he laughed at it and the bank robber thought he was laughing at him.  (Wolff pg. 203) This part is important and it supports my aim for this story because Anders did not have to pay attention and scrutinize the painting on the ceiling at that moment.  Unfortunately, he did and it caused him lots of trouble with the bank robber thinking that he was laughing at him for some reason.

While Anders was laughing it shows that he was not taking the moment serious even if he had a gun pointed at his head.  Most of the time a person in this predicament would not say anything or criticize what the robber says if he has a gun to your head but Anders does not.  He cannot control his tendency to judge things, so when he does look up and see the painting he judges it and finds it amusing and quite funny.  (Wolff pg. 203) He laughs at the painting not realizing the situation that he is in which involves a gun to his head.  This part of the story shows a lot on how he does not care what situation he is in, he is still going to critique.

After Anders is done laughing at the painting on the ceiling he states that he is sorry, saying it twice.  (Wolff pg. 203) This shows that he has messed up and he knows he has done the wrong thing at the wrong time.  So Anders knows that he is in a situation where he should not say anything but he cannot help it.  The same way he could not help but to judge the painting on the ceiling.  This shows that Anders knows what he is dealing with and that there in fact is a time where you do not criticize something that is going on around you.

When they bank robber asks Anders a series of questions, he answers in a very concerned way.  I know that Anders is serious when he answers because he does not even think about judging any of the words that come out of the robber’s mouth he just answers the question and is done.  That is very rare for Anders to not even take in consideration on critizing the word choice of someone.  This piece of the story ties in well with my aim because it shows that Anders has a little bit of sense.  He is in the wrong situation to be talking bad about how the robber talks and his diction.  Anders showed that he knew the situation but his urge to judge took over and he could not stop it.

Anders really shows that he cannot control his self from judging everything that is happening around him.  Anders was trying to answer the bank robber with seriousness, and be calm and collected in the situation he was in but that did not happen because he cannot control the urge the talk about everything people do.  The story says that he “snorted helplessly” that confirms that Anders has no control what so ever over his judgment on people and other things.  (Wolff pg. 203) These two words are important to my aim for this story because it shows how Anders judging someone at the wrong time caused him to burst out laughing uncontrollably and it ultimately gets him in lots of trouble.

One of the most important parts in this story is right after Anders figures out that he is in a dangerous situation and that he should take everything the robber is saying serious.  He tries to pull himself together, and get a hold of everything that is going on so he can stay away from the danger that might happened to occur.  The bank robber says the word “capiche” and it sets Anders under a spell of an uncontrollable laughter. (Wolff pg. 203) He says he is sorry and tries to stop himself from laughing by putting his hand over his mouth, but he cannot help it and he burst out again laughing causing the bank robber to ultimately shoot him in the head.  (Wolff pg. 203) This part plays a big role in supporting my aim because it demonstrates that there is always a time where you should keep your comments or concerns to yourself.  If you do choose to judge someone or something and it is a bad time or wrong situation for it, then you can experience some pretty harsh consequences.  

As you can see you should not criticize something as soon as you look at it, like Anders did when his head was forced to face the ceiling.  Judging something right when you look at it got Anders into a sticky situation that ended very bad.  You should know when to judge things around you and when not to like when Anders said he was sorry to the robber.  He knew he was in a spot where should have been quiet but he could not help but to critique.  Now that I have gave all the information and the key parts in the story that support my aim.  I hope you will see my point, that there is always sometime where you do not want to criticize the things around you.  
