Bullet in the Brain

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

Does the story fit this schema? If not, what sets it off from this and how does that impact your reading of it?

After reading Bullet in the Brain I definitely think that it fits the beginning, middle, end plot schema. After I read the story through the first time, I went back and read it a second time to try and find what I thought were the different parts of the plots. I considered the entire beginning bank scenario to be the exposition. From the time we are told Anders is waiting in line at the bank to the point where he sees the men in ski masks at the door. The rising action would be the bank robbers entering the bank and demanding the money from all of the tellers, while Anders snickers comments under his breath. The climax is when the man with the shotgun addresses Anders about his comment and begins to threaten him. Anders then begins laughing while the man is still holding a gun to him threatening to shoot him and he is then shot in the head. The falling action is the whole part about the bullets travel through Anders' brain and the idea of remembering something before death. The resolution is when that author says what Anders actually does remember, which is a surprising memory about a childhood baseball game and the grammatically incorrect phrase, "they is" said by a friends cousin. Those words stuck with Anders, and that was the last thing he thought of before his death. I enjoyed reading this story, especially because it ended differently than I had been expecting. Being able to read through the plot of the story with the beginning, middle, and end also made it easier to follow and understand.