Tobias Wolff uses an immense amount of character development in his short story “Bullet in the Brain.” Wolff begins the story by laying the foundation for Ander’s character with his temper and lack of compassion for others. The author developed the character by displaying his cynicism and mocking nature in a dangerous situation. He then builds Ander’s humanity by telling how the character’s perspective progressed from his youth and building on his love for language. Throughout the story, Ander’s character develops from an unsympathetic and unlikable man to a more complex character in his last moments that the reader can sympathize with.
In the beginning of the story, the author tells the reader that Anders has a bad temper and a genuine disdain
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To show the character’s cynicism the author writes, “Anders burst out laughing. He covered his mouth with both hands and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” then snorted helplessly through his fingers” (Wolff 3). In the moment when the people in the bank are being robbed at gunpoint, Anders is filled with uncontrollable laughter that gets him killed. When reading the story, it can be confusing as to why Anders is laughing in the face of danger, but Wolff built on Ander’s cynicism from the beginning of the story. Anders was amused by the robber's ability to adhere to the clichés, giving a comical feel to the moment that kept him from taking the criminals seriously. In “Tobias Wolff’s Exploration of Vanity” the author explains, “It does not take long for one of the felons to murder Anders, provoked as he is by Anders’s overweening captiousness and by what must appear to any sensible reader as Anders’s incomprehensible failure to understand the great peril of the moment.” (Hanley 10). Anders also feels extraordinarily little sense of danger during the robbery, this explains his reaction of laughter because he could not sense the seriousness of the moment and continued to make a mockery of the situation like he did everything