2. Early Life
Tobias Wolff is an accomplished writer who is well
known for his short stories.
Wolff was born in Alabama in 1945 and was the son
of Rosemary Loftus and Arthur Samuels Wolff.
Arthur had forged documents to have a managerial
position before he was caught and fired.
Arthur and Rosemary separated when Tobias was 6
years old.
Tobias moved to the west coast with his mother while
his brother and father stayed on the west coast.
Tobias observed Rosemary in many abusive
relationships, which is why they would move around
the country very often.
When his mother finally remarried, Tobias had had
enough.
3. Adult Life
Tobias had terrible grades and was not attending
school regularly, but was inspired by his older
brother’s accomplishments by attending Yale
University.
Tobias forged a transcript and letters of
recommendations and was accepted into The Hill
School, a private school on the East Coast, only
to be expelled a year later.
Tobias joined the army, and it inspired him to
take his life more seriously.
Tobias graduated Oxford University with a High
Honours in English degree and went on to get his
M.A. from Stanford University.
4. Bullet in the Brain
Bullet in the Brain is a short story that follows
Anders, a dreary book-critic, as he stands in line
at the bank.
Anders is waiting in line behind two women who
complain aloud about a lane closing. Anders
snaps back at them, in a matter-of-fact way,
when he is interrupted.
Three men in business take out guns and begin
robbing the bank.
Anders can’t keep his sarcastic tone in check
and agitates the thieves by laughing at their
cliché phrases.
Anders is shot in the head, and that is where the
5. Accomplishme
nts
Tobias is now a
professor at Stanford
University and has
served as Director of
the Creative Writing
Department.
Tobias was awarded
the National Medal of
Arts this past
September.
6. Bullet in the Brain
Bullet in the Brain was originally published as part of
The Night in Question (1997) anthologies.
This story stands out because of the interesting way it
is told.
The story follows Anders, a pessimistic book critic, as
he stands in line at bank.
Things turn ugly when the bank is suddenly robbed.
Anders can’t hold his sarcastic commentary back as
the thieves use literary clichés in the hold up.
Anders agitates the wrong the wrong gun-man and
Anders is shot in the head.
As the bullet enters Ander’s brain, his life is explored
through the things he doesn’t remember and the one
thing he does in his final moment.
7. I. Subject Matter
A) This story is a short story, sub-categorized as
flash fiction.
B) It is an organic narrative.
C) “It is worth noting what Anders did not
remember, given what he did remember.”
The story follows Anders’ memories of his love life,
his jealousy in work, and witnessing a suicide, none
of which Anders remembers in his death. What he
does remember is a childhood moment play
baseball with his friends.
“Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass,
time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball,
time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-
blackened mitt and softly chant, they is, they is, they
is.”
8. II. The Content
A) This story follows a man caught in a bank
robbery and his death when he is shot in the
head.
B) The mood would be considered a tragedy.
C) The story is about how easily we can forget
the beautiful moments in life that can make us
who we are, that make us human. Anders’
skepticism and judgmental behavior are what
drove him to his death. He knows he hasn’t
always been this way, but as an adult he can
only focus on the hopelessness of humanity.
9. III. The Artistic Form
A) Anders kept eliminating what made him humble and quickly
became jaded as an adult, which we see through his memories.
But seeing him as a child and now dying, his most vulnerable
moments, are what makes the audience able to empathize with
the character.
B) A metaphor is in the gun, harmless without ammunition (as
Anders was as a child), but as it is loaded (as Anders was with
memories of hate, spite and greed) it becomes to powerful. The
shooting of the gun releases Anders of his need to be himself,
pushing him to be as vulnerable as he was a child.
C) The intent of the author is to strip the audience of their
emotions, to show them character to detest. But the reader is
flipped on their head when this despised character becomes more
human than any of the other characters in the story. They see
Anders experience love and sex, his loss of interest in reading
when a classmate is published, and finally an innocent moment of
childhood wonder observing how language works. His final
moment is the most human of them all, proving even the most
