  Last weekend, after reread the short story “Bullet in the brain” by the author, Tobias Wolff. I found that I misunderstood the author’s project. In this paper, I am going to analysis the author’s meaning again in a right way. My pervious thought about this story is that people will keep wonderful memory but leave the bad off when they are dying, which is totally misleading to the purpose of author. The real project of author is that he creates a character, Anders, who would like to taunt other people at any situation, even his life is in danger during a robbing. The meaning comes from this story that author wants to tell us is people should learn how to control their temper at every different situation. Don’t be a person like Anders to ironize the robber who holds a pistol and is aiming at him as a target. Obviously, it is not a smart action, and then Anders gets a shot right in his head. Therefore, try to be clam down and don’t do anything stupid. You will live longer meanwhile enjoy the lifetime. In the story, the lady does a good model “She looked at him with drowning eyes.” She keeps silent like most people and select to ignore Anders’ weird response. This is a typical instance to show the significance of keep a calm temper rather than attempt to express a bad temper in the public.

  How does Anders die because of his strange temper? In the beginning, the author directly says “He was never in the best of tempers anyway, Anders—a book critic known for the weary, elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed.” (Wolff, 200) It means the main character, Anders is not equipped with great temper due to his job, as a book reviewer. According to this background, it affects him to criticize not only books but also people in the daily life. And the phenomenon at that time is quite negative to Anders. He just gets to the bank when it is almost closed. There is a countless number of people who wait in the line in front of him and the teller is inefficient, she put a “POSITION CLOSED” sign in her window. The customers are starting to complain. Author wants to tell us that under this circumstances, no person will feel happy. On the contrary, people will produce terrible mood and become cynical towards the things that around them. However, Anders becomes worse than normal people. “She turned to Anders and added, confident of his accord, ‘One of those little human touches that keep us coming back for more.’” (Wolff, 200) The woman who stands in front of Anders wants to get his accord, thus she decides to talk with Anders to grumble the bad condition. Anders takes the option to satirize what she said instead of agreeing with the inefficient bank and the irresponsible teller. It is distinct that Anders feeling is being worse, even a little crazy. In the next page, the bank is robbed by two men who wear black ski masks and blue business suits. Everyone is frightened and stay silence, expect Anders. He judges the words that come from the robbers. “‘Oh, bravo,’ Anders said. ‘Dead meat.’ He turned to the woman in front of him. ‘Great script, eh?’” (Wolff, 201) Dead meat means dead people, and this phrase is utilized to threaten everyone who still in the bank. As a book reviewer, Anders ignores the potential meaning of the word but criticizes the phrase for being cliché. The robber doesn’t think it is a praise, Inversely, what Anders said and doing are a kind of shame to him. Anders successfully attracts the robber’s attention to mark himself as a target, which is really dangerous. The same situation happens several times in page 202 and 203. Every time that Anders analyzes the things, including what robbers said or the decoration on the bank’s ceiling, the robber becomes angrier. He thinks Anders makes fun of him, and gradually forms the idea in his mind that shut Anders’ mouth up. “‘Fuck with me again, you’re history. Capiche?’” (Wolff, 203) The robber shows his purpose clearly enough. That is last warning to Anders. Nevertheless, Anders still ignores it and repeats the word along with a loud laugh, which seems like a shame to robber. Then, his brain gets a bullet by the pistol. “Capiche” is an essential word in the climax of the whole story. It is a word from Italian, which means understand or clear. It mostly uses in the military. The general, usually, says the commands to the soldiers, they will use “Capiche” to make sure soldiers understand what the order is.

  The author writes a long paragraph to describe what happened when the bullet enters into Anders’ brain. Anders is unable to remember most things before his life, such as his first lover, his wife, his poems and so on. The only memory that he remembers is a baseball field. He plays baseball with a group of boys, and then there come Coyle and his cousin who from Mississippi. His cousin says that he wants to play shortstop in the game. Next, there is an important action that Anders expresses in the ending of story. “He takes the field in a trance, repeating them to himself.” (Wolff, 206) Since Anders was a little boy, he would like to analyze others’ word. At that time, he merely was a child, he did not have the courage to say it. But during the growing time, he experienced a lot complicated things in the society and finally becomes a book reviewer. Anders would like to judge people’s word so that he gradually ignores other people’s comments and any conditions. That means Anders is used to analyze books or words in any conditions. Therefore, he doesn’t change his temper even he is facing a dangerous person and he pays his valuable life for the lesson.

  In conclusion, the useful thing in this short story that author wants to show is we are able to control our temper, to be a nice person. Although it is a good habit for a book reviewer to comment words in any time, they should know what kinds of situation allows them to say what kinds of situation stays silent. Another thing that author intends to tell is our temper will start to form from a small detail in childhood, and it will be reserved in subconsciousness of brain. The temper is hard to change and control if we don’t pay any attention to it. For instance, my friend Chris, he would like to bite his nail when he felt nervous since he was a child. Biting nails is a rude behavior to show in front of others, which also can be seen a bad temper. Until now, he keeps this action in any condition. Thus, the bad temper is difficult to cover, once we ignore it. The limiting thing from the story is author doesn’t write how to control the temper like Anders. The readers will be confused about this because some of them have bad temper and wants to change. All in all, when we are unable to change some bad tempers, it is necessary that use other new and good habits to cover. People can’t be controlled by those bad temper.
