Bullet In The Brain By Tobias Wolff

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change. Tobias Wolff uses perspective shifting in the story to deceive the reader of what they believe to be important in the story. There are numerous times throughout the story which feature the narration whisking the current moment away in favor of an important memory, or observation that needs to be said. I believe Wolff uses those specific techniques in order to hide the meaning of the story, or the subjectivity of the story that he wishes the reader to see with some thinking. By choosing to read “Bullet in the Brain” the reader is walking into Wolff’s house of mirrors, where perspective is changing with each step forward. When the reader is first introduced to

Anders ends up making another sarcastic comment to the woman again, “Great script, eh? The stern brass-knuckled poetry of the dangerous classes”(1). The woman who is speechless at this point doesn’t react but, “She looked at him with drowning eyes”(2). Anders plays such an unlikeable person throughout the beginning of the story which allows Wolff writes to establish the importance of perspective shifting by strongly suggesting an aspect of Anders’ character to the reader. Even if the perspective shift is small it is calculated to not give away too much of Anders’ character all at once because the illusion would wear off. Wolff always makes sure that if the reader gets too comfortable then the plot needs some shaking up to

This is the beginning of Wolff’s fixation on the gun, the mirror which the reader will perceive to be the most important in the story. Rightfully, the gunman becomes very agitated by Anders antics, and takes the issue a step further by pressing the gun upon Anders chin causing his head to turn upwards, “Anders had never payed much attention to this part of the bank”(2). During the story the reader is given glimpses into Anders’ head, so why not give the reader a glimpse of what is outside Ander’s head. Wolff goes into depth about Ander’s opinion on the ceiling he revealing a great deal of information about Anders while also slowing down the narrative time frame of the story. Wolff takes one paragraph of words, and crushes it into a very small time in the story, so he can zoom into Ander’s head a bit more to see what is going on. By zooming in and out of Anders head the narrator re-emphasizes the importance of perspective, It is important to remember that Anders is in Wolff’s house of mirrors, along with the reader, and when the reader is actually inside of Anders’ thoughts, the effect of the mirrors are