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“He did not remember Professor Josephs telling his class how Athenian prisoners in Sicily had been released if they could recite Aeschylus, and then reciting Aeschylus himself, right there, in the Greek. Anders did not remember how his eyes had burned
at those sounds.”
This is one of several memories that Anders does not fixate on as he dies. The quote describes an instance in which a younger Anders was moved to tears after listening to his professor recite the works of Aeschylus, a famous Greek playwright who is known as the father of tragedy. This moment is significant because it illustrates the powerful connection Anders once felt to literature and the written word, a stark contrast to the Anders of today, whose sole relationship to both is now one of outright mockery.
“The bullet is already in the brain; it won't be outrun forever, or charmed to a halt. In the end it will do its work and leave the troubled skull behind, dragging its comet's tail of memory and hope and talent and love into the marble hall of commerce. That can't be helped. But for now Anders can still make time. Time for the shadows to lengthen on the grass, time for the tethered dog to bark at the flying ball, time for the boy in right field to smack his sweat-blackened mitt and softly chant, They is, they is, they is.”
This is the final paragraph of "Bullet in the Brain." Here, Anders is suspended in the liminal space between life and death, and he relives a once-cherished but now long forgotten childhood memory. Hearing Coyle’s cousin utter the phrase “they is” was a formative moment for Anders; it sparked an early appreciation for the power of language. Anders marveled at Coyle’s cousin’s unconventional phrasing and was struck by the way his words made him think and feel, and it’s telling that this, rather than any of the other key memories the narrator mentions, is the moment he returns to at the end of his life.
