The reader develops a dislike for Anders’s disrespectful manner because they realize something bad is going to happen if he keeps being disrespectful. While sexist male readers may find humor in the main character saying and doing whatever he wants. This action demonstrates, to misogynist audiences, that Anders is stubborn. What also makes the beginning of “Bullet in the Brain” so significant is the fact that Anders, even when held at gunpoint, cannot restrict his harsh thoughts to protect his life that is the hands of agitated gun-wielding robbers. While other readers might disregard the importance of this part of the story, the target audience sees this section of the story as a setup for what is to come later on in the progression of the story’s events. These parts of the text unravel the savagery inside Anders’s head to characterize him as a mean man.

It was worse than he remembered” (Wolff 82). Anders’s critical nature is reinforced, yet again, to audiences when the narrator states, “He did not remember the pleasure of giving respect,” and, “ had no choice but to scrutinize the painter’s work. When the target male reader reads and contemplates this sentence, their mind forms assumptions that Anders is going to be a harsh, critical person who has the ability to find himself in trouble if he is not careful. In the first paragraph, readers develop a somewhat-wary perception of the main character as the story builds its exigence by claiming “He was never in the best tempers anyway, Anders – a book critic known for the weary elegant savagery with which he dispatched almost everything he reviewed.” (Wolff 82). The significant presence of characterization in the story helps the target reader to first learn and understand Anders’s character to then learn from it.

Bullet to the brain tobias wolff