Introduction 

“The Rich Brother” is a short story by American writer Tobias Wolff. The author of three novels and countless short-form publications, Wolff taught for many years at Stanford University. However, he is best known for his work as a memoirist (This Boy’s Life) and a short fiction writer (“Bullet in the Brain”). 

Wolff is often associated with the late-twentieth-century short story boom, alongside authors like Raymond Carver. Over the years, he has received significant recognition and many literary awards. “The Rich Brother” was published in June 1985, in Vanity Fair and in Wolff’s 1985 collection Back in the World: Stories.

Plot Summary

As “The Rich Brother” begins, Wolff introduces two brothers: The older brother, Pete, enjoys the wealth of a successful career in real estate, with a family, a boat, and ocean-view property. The younger brother, Donald, is single and only occasionally employed as a painter, often borrowing money from Pete when he is out of work.

The stoutly built Pete is collected and confident; Donald, his bony little brother, is unlike him in many ways, seeking a spiritual home in which to discover himself. This search has led Donald from a Berkeley ashram to various churches—no matter the destination, the chaotic end result is always the same. Pete does not take Donald's spiritual search seriously and is annoyed by his younger brother's implication that his lack of spirituality is a failing.

Donald moves away to join a faith-based farming community, regularly telling Pete how happy he is there and that he feels “in the lord.” However, his happiness soon fades, leading him to quit the farm. As he lacks a car and has no money to catch a bus home, Pete offers to fetch him from the farm. Just as he is about to leave, however, Pete receives a letter from the head of the farm, who explains that they have kicked Donald out. 

Pete leaves anyway, meeting Donald at a gas station. When he arrives, Donald asks for a few dollars to cover the coffee and sandwiches he bought. Pete gives him $100, and Donald comes back with sodas, spilling one on the leather of Pete’s new car.

As it gets darker, Pete asks why the farm kicked him out. Embarrassed, Donald explains that when he grocery shopped for the farm, he would give the groceries away to the less fortunate or would accidentally buy the wrong things. To add to his missteps, he was also unintentionally responsible for a fire—the farm's last straw.

Donald angrily accuses Pete of trying to make him look foolish. Enraged, Donald also accuses his brother of trying to kill him when they were kids. After Donald underwent surgery, Pete would come into his room at night and hit him on his stitches, having overheard the doctor discussing the importance of protecting the suture site. Despite his brother's emotionally charged response, Pete dismisses him, saying it is something kids do.

Pete admits to Donald that he has dreams in which Donald is taking care of him. However, he does not add that, in the dreams, Donald must care for him because he is blind. The thought of being dependent on Donald—a reversal of their roles—makes him uncomfortable.

When they stop for dinner, a man named Webster asks for a lift. Pete immediately identifies him as a con artist, but Donald believes his story of car trouble and a sick daughter.

Webster says his daughter’s illness might have resulted from living in Peru, where his wife had died. Pete—who finds the man an entertaining liar—urges him to tell the story....