For this post, please consider some of the concepts covered in TLE in the reading so far (including the chapter on Character) and apply some of your choosing to the Tobias Wolff short story, "Bullet in the Brain." Try to be specific in your points and use some evidence from the text to back them up. Here are some possible ideas to consider:
1) Trace the structure through plot: “the meaningful fabric of action”—beginning, middle, end—a whole action.
- Exposition (context)
- Rising action (conflict that leads to a decisive point)
- Climax (the decisive point)
- Falling action
- Resolution or denoument
2) Focus on foreshadowing and flashback, the tension of anticipation, expectation, release etc.
3) According to TLE authors, plot has multiple functions. One is to “communicate a compelling worldview by giving larger shape, meaning, and purpose to action” (12). Apply this to the story. What "compelling worldview" does this story communicate? (or fail to?)
4) Approach the story through Anders as a character. Who is he? What is his value system? How does Wolfe use different techniques to evoke his character? (What is Wolff's method of characterization?)
5) Consider the story from the perspective of interaction of static/dynamic, round/flat, and stock characters. Would you consider Anders to be dynamic and/or round? Why/why not?
6) Anders is not a sympathetic character from the exposition to the climax. Does your sense of him shift over the rest of the story? Does he become more sympathetic to you? If yes, account for this.
2) Focus on foreshadowing and flashback, the tension of anticipation, expectation, release etc.
ReplyDeleteThe Story "Bullet in the Brain" creates dramatic tensions by establishing expectations and fulfilling them in novel ways. Beginning in the bank theTobias exposes Anders character to readers through the detailing of his thoughts in a line at the bank; a common scene. The Expectations created by the scene are those of custom and commonplace. The Way in which Anders acts and talks to the women in line reveals character traits by fulfilling those expectations in unordinary ways. The authors use of the bank robbers is a blatant stock character choice. The Men are differentiated slightly and given some character but ultimately are stock characters. Their interaction with Anders creates more suspense and expectations now specific to the character the reader understands Anders to be. HIs actions and response become expected, like the bullet in the brain, we as readers, are well aware of outcomes and rather than expect we know what is going to happen. The creation of tension is what makes the story interesting by establishing suspense for an event that has none dramatically. Anders flashback precluded by what he did not remember in his last moments is the establishment of this suspense. The Author makes clever use of refusal by calling to attention his final thought but by denying its details. In pointing out all of the thoughts of seeming importance as not Tobias provides great weight to the memory he does recall providing a catharsis for the reader that is only tenuously related to narrative tensions.
6) Anders enters the story's scene with annoyance. From the beginning it is already clear that this man is an impatient brute "known for weary, elegant savagery" and seemingly angry at all who pass before him. He's not a sympathetic character, but probably not to the point that a reader would actually wish the title upon him literally. Throughout the story, Anders insists on being difficult and refuses to believe that the robbery is even real at first. Even up until his last moment which ironically is in a fit of laughter rather than rage, he manages to keep his unlikable persona alive. It isn't until the second that he suddenly begins to die that his past is reflected upon and sympathy begins to emerge. The reader catches shards of his life as each reflects a glimmer in Anders' departing mind. They all rest upon a single innocent and even childish recollection of a man who has been eroded by a life of calamity and indignation. Together, all of these fleeting memories piece together the outline of a person who was once happy, a realization only possible in the last second of his life.
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