Hi this is Charlie

“Bullet in the Brain” does a really good job with a lot of characterization in a small space. The first line, “The line was endless” (282), is relatable--we’ve all been stuck in a ridiculous line before--and immediately makes the protagonist relatable. The next line complicates things a bit: Anders thinks of the women’s conversation as “loud” and “stupid” and it “put[s] him in a murderous temper” (282), which can either be interpreted as mean or just relatable, frustrated hyperbole. Then the reader finds out that Anders unfailingly mean in his book reviews, something which takes away from his character, but the exact phrase for what he does is “weary, elegant savagery” (282) which is so contradictory that it’s hilarious. In fact, most of Anders complex characterization comes from the irony of his cruelty. He sarcastically condemns the teller, surprising the reader by switching his position on her abandonment of post (282) and then continues to shock the reader with his brutal wit as he mocks the bank robber about his cliche lines, even to the point of death (282-3). Not what is expected, but makes the reader laugh even as they think Anders is an idiot, and a mean one, too.

The second half of the short short story constructs his complex character in a different concise way, by telling the reader what does not flash through Anders’s mind as he dies, uprooting the cliche and making the flashbacks much more interesting. Once again, the author uses contrasts, but for a different effect. He says how Anders loved his wife and then grew exhausted of her (284) and how he found “the pleasure of giving respect” (284) before he “began to regard the heap of books on his desk with boredom and dread” (285), showing his progression from loving and considerate to cynical and giving him character development, albeit all in the past. He also contrasts what are considered important, life changing events, like “seeing a woman leap to her death from the building opposite his own” (284) with simple but equally emotional ones, like “standing outside his daughter’s door as she lectured her bear about his naughtiness” (284), giving Anders both stunning life events that the reader knows must have caused change and ones that are more relatable and show his everyday life. Thus, by the climactic reveal of his last moment, the reader has a full picture of Anders.