There is a theory that that one single moment in your life can shape everything you do from that point on. It is seen as a focal point in one’s life and can be viewed as the most important thing that can happen to you. It could either be an action you do, something that is done to you, something that you witness, and so much more. The novel Bullet in the Brain, written by Tobias Wolff, is a perfect example of this theory. Wolff shows in his work that one moment can make a path for the rest of your life, and then another moment can be the last moment of your life. Whether it was hearing someone pronounce something wrong, or hearing a funny remark, Wolff shows his readers that little moments may not be as insignificant as we think. This novel shows us that one moment in Anders life changes it completely.  Wolff shows the reader that one moment can change a person’s life, some people can even have multiple moments like this, and the attitude one has can lead to one of these moments.

To start, Wolff shows us that one moment from the protagonist Anders’ childhood shaped his whole life. While playing a game of baseball as a child, Anders hears one of the other boys make a grammatical mistake when the other boy says, “Shortstop, … Shorts the best position they is” (Wolff 205). This made Anders not react out loud to the boy, but think about what he said and find enjoyment out of the other boy’s mistake when Wolff says, “The others will think he’s being a jerk, ragging the kid for his grammar. But that isn’t it, not at all-it’s that Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final two words” (Wolff 206). This led Anders into getting a career as a book critic. Hearing the term, “they is”, invoked the inner critic in Anders and gave him vision to the future. Anders is noted as a very harsh critic so all he does when he reviews a book is point out all of the errors in the novel. Finding that he enjoyed doing this as a child led him to becoming a critic as a grown up, and if that moment had not presented itself to Anders, who knows what he would be doing when he got older. Moments like this happen in almost every person’s life, but they mostly go unnoticed to the person that they happen to. Anders didn’t know at the time that he wanted to be a book critic when he got older, but this one instance showed him that he could get a great deal of joy in his work if that is what he would choose to do. When Anders gets that feeling where he is “strangely roused, elated” he cannot explain why (Wolff 206). He cannot sum up why he is feeling this strange, happy feeling, but he knows now that it is something that can bring him much joy. This is one very particular defining moment in Anders life, and he has more to come. This pushed him into a life of criticizing others and this will cause his down fall later in his life.

Additionally, Anders also has another life changing moment when bank robbers enter the bank he is in. Being in a traumatizing situation, such as a robbery, can make people react in many different ways. Anders chooses to act like nothing is happening and that the robbers are not even bothering him. Anders shows this when one of the robbers demands money from the tellers and tells them if they hit the alarm they are ‘dead meat’, and Anders reaction is to say, “Oh bravo, … Dead meat.… Great script, eh?” to the woman next to him (Wolff 201). Anders sees the bank robbers as almost a show and even seems to get some enjoyment out of seeing them in action. His remark to the woman shows that he is not filled with fear when men with guns come into the bank, like everyone else, and he is just there to watch what happens. Asking the question, “Great script, eh?” gives Anders the appearance of someone who is there for a show. This attitude that Anders is pushed into will come back to hurt him later, but for now, he is just appearing as someone that will make the bank robbers mad. He isn’t listening to them and he is making fun of what they do. That is a very bad thing to do in a high-pressure situation and the robbers are not going to like someone criticizing their work while they rob a bank. This moment where Anders decided to have an arrogant attitude will lead up to his death later that day in the bank. That one moment where he could have chosen to be scared and listen to what the men with guns said, but instead decided to be a critic would later cost him his life. All he had to do was be quiet and wait for it to be over, but he had to be different. His attitude was due to his joy of critiquing others. If he had not learned about his love for critiquing from the baseball game as a child, none of this would have happened. If he had not been obsessed with critiquing people, he would follow the robber’s commands and still have his life. He would not have mouthed off to the robbers and basically taunted them into shooting him. 

Lastly, Anders attitude led him to a certain moment in his life that ended up being his last. Since Anders decided not to listen to the robbers and make fun of what they are doing, and the robbers did not like that. The robber’s response to that was, “What’s so funny bright boy? … You think I’m comical? You think I’m some kind of clown? … You think you can fuck with me? … Fuck with me again, you’re history. Capiche?” (Wolff 203). Anders response to this is exactly the opposite of how he should have reacted. Any other person on the planet would listen to a robber that just threatened their life and stuck a gun in their face, but not Anders. He thought that the word ‘Capiche’ was so funny that he could not help himself from breaking out in laughter. Being a critic where all you do is judge people, and hearing such an Italian stereotypical word from a bank robbing gangster just made the perfect storm in Anders and he could not control himself when he heard the word ‘Capiche’. The one little exchange followed by Anders laughter would be the last thing Anders ever did though. The bank robber did not like being laughed at and shot Anders in the head for it. He told Anders, “Fuck with me again, you’re history”, meaning he was going to kill Anders if he does anything else, yet Anders still laughs in his face (Wolff 203). That one moment was it, the last one of Anders life. If he could have held in the laughter, he would still be alive, but that one moment when he let it out changed everything. He went from being alive and being full of joy, to a dead body on the ground with a hole in his head. All it took was one moment to change everything. This all leads back to the baseball game where he learned about critiquing others and how it makes him feel. If he had minded his own business and kept his mouth shut, he would still be alive.

All in all, it is sad how one second or moment in your life can make such a difference. It could be a great thing that can show you your path for life, or it could be what ends your life. In Anders case, it was both, the baseball game where the boy used improper grammar, and the word ‘Capiche’ followed by laughter. It is scary how this could happen to anyone, one moment changing, or even ending your life. If you think about it, the moment that could change your life may have already happened. But for Anders, everything could be traced back to his one moment as a child when he first realized how fun it was to criticize other people. When he was in the bank when the robbers came, he chose to criticize them, and when the robber said, “Capiche”, Anders criticized him by laughing in his face. Everything leads back to that one moment on the baseball field, and that can happen to anyone. One moment can set you down a path of life that you could stick with for the rest of your life. It can change your life for the better or worse, but it is something that almost every person will go through. It is what shapes people into who they are. It is the occurrence of living though it that makes people gain experience to use later in life.
