It is unusual how the author lets you spend much of the story not liking this character and only near the end of the story reveal some humanizing qualities. The reader begins to care for him or at least understand him. The author begins to list one thing after the other that he did not see as his final memory, but these things humanize Anders. After he is shot in the head, we are told of many past moments in Anders life that lead to where we saw him in the beginning. He is not even what we might consider an anti-hero. He continues to remain defiant up until the very moment he is shot in the head.ĭuring this whole time, Anders is not a likeable character in the least. Even while he has a gun to his head, he takes time out the moment to critique a mural. He seems unable to censor himself or realize that there is a time and place for everything. He critiques them as he would one of the books he reads. You wonder if he cares about his own life, if he is even aware of the severity of the situation, or if he even finds these bank robbers to be too predictable in their actions. His interactions with the woman in front of him, and his overall critical nature of the world present him as a character who the reader has a hard time caring about. The noticable nonchalant attitude he had towards the bank robbery was an interesting aspect of the story and preludes his rebellious attitude towards the bank robbers. With these initial reactions to the bank robbery, you can begin to see the peculiarness of this character. Anders, the main character, is presented in most of the story as being a pompous and unsympathetic character. “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff is the story of a man named Anders, a book critic, who experiences one final memory after being shot in the head during a bank robbery.

Bullet to the brain tobias wolff