#bulletinthebrain

[l0st-in-depressi0n]

"A bullet in the brain is peaceful in its own right." - Elliot Alderson

[jessgrimmond]

Blog Post #2

There are many adjectives that come to mind when describing Anders from “Bullet in the Brain”.  Mean, stupid, rude, critical, sarcastic, and jaded are a few that come to mind.  These adjectives are what most readers initially associate with Anders.  Throughout most of the story, Anders is rude and sarcastic to everyone, including one of the men that was robbing the bank he was at. Pissing off the bank robbers with guns is not a good idea unless you are stupid or have a death wish.  After one too many bad comments, a bank robber shoots Anders in the head.  Before the bullet could completely kill him, Anders saw one last memory dance through his mind.  Anders’ last memory is what changes the reader’s view of him.  Anders did not see his wife, his daughter, his first lover, or the suicide he witnessed.  Instead of all the major events and people in his life that changed him, he saw one hot summer afternoon playing baseball with other boys.  Anders was fascinated with the phrase “they is” that Coyle’s cousin said.  A weird phrase to be captivated by, but Anders loved it.  

From this memory, it appears that Anders is not the complete jerk readers initially thought, and there is more to him than the sarcasm he wears like armor.  It gives the reader a glimpse of Anders without all of his sarcasm and mean comments.  I think this memory shows Anders’ longing for life to be the way it was that hot summer and for him to be who he was at that point in his life. Over time as Anders became bitter and hardened by his life, the young spirited Anders disappeared little by little and became tucked away in a corner of his subconscious.  Anders built a wall of sarcasm and rude comments around him to assimilate into the critical nature of his work as a book critic. Anders hates clichés.  He was amused by clichés that the bank robbers used like when the robbers said “dead meat”, “bright boy”, and “capiche”.  After so many years of reading books with the same clichés and plots over and over again, Anders became deprived of originality. He sees the world as redundant so he is critical of everyone and everything he sees. I feel that Anders was bitter about his life because it was filled with the normal milestones that everyone fulfills: college, marriage, kids, a nice steady job, and so on. Anders hungers for originality so that is why in his last moments he did not see any of his cliché milestone life events in his last moments alive.  Despite the façade of mean spiritedness that Anders shows to the world, his true self is kind spirited and hungers for originality. That summer day was a bright spot of originality and individuality amongst the conformity of clichés of Anders life.

I interpreted the ending the way that I did because, at some point in time, everyone longs to go back and relive a part of their life, whether to do it over again or just to experience a great time in your life again.  Also, no one wants to live a boring, redundant life. Everyone changes many times throughout their lifetime based on their experiences, but their true selves are always inside them no matter how much they change.  What would you think about in your last moments on Earth?

[katelyn-phillips]

Blog #2

Anders is first portrayed as an ill-tempered, smart-ass guy. Throughout the whole beginning of the story, Anders is also very stupid. It’s like he doesn’t realize that the bank is actually being robbed and that the men have guns. He makes many poorly timed remarks. It seems like he can never stop criticizing people. Because we have such an ill view of Anders so far in the story, it doesn’t hurt the reader to hear that he has gotten shot, it was almost predictable. What does surprise the reader is what visions Anders sees while he is dying. The things that come to his mind aren’t the huge, life-altering events that the reader would assume him to see. It’s actually the opposite. The most trivial memory that Anders has is described for the reader, a summer day playing a pick up baseball game. It tells a lot about Anders’ character. Maybe the reader was too quick to judge him. Maybe he's not that bad of guy after all. His reaction to ‘they is’ is also quite interesting to the reader. It seems like such a strange thing to be captivated with, so much so, that it would be your last living memory. What event in Anders’ life made him so rigid after that day playing pick up baseball?

All the memories that we were told didn’t go through Anders’ mind must’ve shaped him into the austere man that he was that day. The suicide, his first love, his wife, his daughter, none of those things seemed to impact him in his last few moments, but those were the things that made him who he was today. 

His true self is actually a kind spirited boy, who is fascinated over the minor things, but he has come to grow a shell around that Anders. He lets the world only see the Anders that has been hardened by life, not the carefree boy in the summertime with his friends. The ending was that summer day because I believe that when you die you become your true self for one last time. You see the moments that you were truly you for, not all the ones that shape you into a different person. How else would you finish your last seconds on Earth?