Bullet In The Brain Summary

Anders who is an English professor at a university enters a bank and is a witness to an armed robbery. He irritates one of the robbers so much that he ends up getting shot in the head. The short story bullet in the brain was published by the New Yorker in 1995. The main character in the short story is a man named Anders who is a book critic and has become very complacent with his work. He has not only become bored with his work, but the things surrounding him as well, so much that he finds the need to judge everything and everyone around him. The first half of the story is mainly a dialogue between Anders and the two women who are standing in front of him. When Anders first enters the bank in the story he ends up being stuck behind two women who …show more content…
From the moment he walked in he was already criticizing them as if he were critiquing a book. As they watched one of the tellers leaving their position to start a conversation with one of the other co-workers Anders conceals his hatred he feels towards the teller but gives the two women in front of him a hard time once they express their resentment towards the teller. “The women in front of anders broke off their conversation and watched the teller with hatred “oh that’s nice” one of them said. She turned to Anders and added, confident of his accord, one of those little human touches that keep us coming back for more.” To which Anders responded “dammed unfair” “tragic.” (Wolff) That very moment is very hypocritical of Anders to comment like that because he himself is upset with the teller’s actions but he begins to put down the lady in front of him for making a comment. Anders never had the best attitude to begin with, especially when it came to people expressing how they feel or obnoxious people. “Anders couldn’t get to the bank until just before it closed, so of course the line was endless and he got stuck behind two women whose loud conversation put him in a murderous temper.” (Wolff) After this incident is