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Essay / The Path of the Righteous: A Deconstructionist Reading of Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction, arguably Quentin Tarantino's most popular film, is a complex pastiche of popular culture. His unique blend of dark humor, violence, and non-linear, disjointed storytelling, as well as his willingness to mix genres with no apparent rhyme or reason, combine to create a story about the normal lives of a group of morally moral individuals. bankrupt. Pulp Fiction would be a tragedy, but it never seems to be that tragic. It would be a comedy, but there's never really a punchline. To begin reading the film, we must first look at the characters themselves and the roles they play in the overall story. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay First, we can look at the two hitmen, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega. Together, they are undoubtedly the protagonists of the film, and the vast majority of the film is devoted to their escapades as a duo. Their escapades, of course, are completely immoral, involving the murder of a handful of college-aged children, heroin abuse, and generally being horrible people. However, in the midst of their violent rampage in Los Angeles, Jules and Vincent take the time to debate religion, culture, and the ethics of rubbing a married woman's feet. There seems to be a real camaraderie, even if Jules seems to be the more competent of the duo, leaving Vincent as a foil, a bumbling idiot very well camouflaged by his partner's strengths. When reading this film, an important choice to remember What I recognize is that Tarantino seems to write in such a way that there is no police involvement during the film. In fact, being located in a large metropolitan area, no one seems to worry about the police and their influence on business. For example, after shooting a few young adults in broad daylight, Jules and Vincent drive away in their car, holding a man at gunpoint in broad daylight, accidentally shoot the man, then drive away in a car bloodied to a house. In this house, they stand in the yard, drenched in blood, while someone sprays them in front of the entire neighborhood. Nobody pays attention to it. It's interesting because it takes the viewer into a world of its own, in which violence and horror seem commonplace and almost comical. If things as obvious as brandishing guns in broad daylight or shooting people in a moving vehicle don't draw police attention to you, one wonders how ridiculous the crimes would have to be before the police are involved. police intervention, normally a necessity in a crime film, there is very little over the course of Pulp Fiction that doesn't seem to be resolved by violence. There are, of course, three major stories in Pulp Fiction: the story of Vincent Vega and his untimely demise, the story of Jules Winnfield and his retirement, and the story of Butch Coolidge and his inability to fight. Vincent and Jules seem to use violence to solve almost all of their problems, while Butch is a boxer who kills his opponent in the ring and now resorts to violence to keep himself alive. Even non-violent segments between characters threaten or hint at violence in some way: Vincent's panic as Mia is about to die of a heroin overdose leads Vincent to the stabbing with an adrenaline needle in one of the film's most disturbing scenes. Granted, there isn't a lot of direct violence in this film, but the violence still manages to overshadow themajority of the film, allowing the reader to anticipate far more violence and horror than is ever shown on screen. For the majority of the film, Pulp Fiction seems to glorify this violence. We start with a few jokes from Jules and Vincent, then we immediately move on to violence and threats. This is not the majority of the film, however. We see these protagonists talking to each other about nothing for long periods of time, which allows us to identify with them and bond with them to some extent. This sort of bond that we form with the three protagonists - but especially Jules and Vincent - forces us to accept and almost enjoy the random and seemingly senseless acts of violence throughout the film. To demonstrate this, it is enough to quote the “I just shot Marvin in the face!” " scene. Vincent immediately jokes about the horrible thing he just did, and to the viewer it's all portrayed as one big joke. Jules knows how to solve the dead man in the car problem, and Vincent is too addicted to heroin to be anything but apathetic about it. This, of course, only strengthens the duo's dynamic, and the audience at this point nods and smiles, already desensitized to the violence. Tarantino seems to up the ante again and again with the film's gruesome acts, from robbing a restaurant to somewhat downplayed multiple homicides to viscerally stabbing someone in the chest, and so on until rape and everything else. brutal scene with Marvin. The audience seems to become more and more desensitized to the violence as the film progresses, until it seems to simply be a reality for the characters involved. At one point, it starts to feel like the film is making fun of itself – or, better said, satirizing the uproar over violence in cinema and media. In this reading, Pulp Fiction is a film that celebrates violence, in a sense. As a viewer, we are pushed into a situation where we root for these characters, even though they do horrible things, and the plot moves forward even though we know that one is doomed to fail. The cyclical nature of the plot - starting and ending at the same point, roughly halfway through the film's timeline - emphasizes it considerably, allowing the film to feel like it's about a confusing circle, sandwiched at both ends by the threat of violence. However, this is not the only meaning that resides in Pulp Fiction. To discover a different meaning and shake up the stability of the interpretation that Pulp Fiction is just a satire of violent films in general, one only needs to look and deeply analyze the character of Jules Winnfield. Jules is a hyper-competent hitman, hot-blooded, intelligent and intimidating. His frightening efficiency allows him to cover for his seemingly incompetent partner, but he appears to be the more morally troubled of the two. After their near-death experience, Jules proclaims it a divine miracle, while Vincent simply attributes it to luck. Jules appears to be troubled by his conscience throughout the majority of the film, deciding to retire after the initial job with Vincent fails. This morality present in the film seems to contradict the violence that is omnipresent, because Jules is one of the main instigators of the horrific acts that occur during the film, and also allows himself to play the role of the bully in the duo hitmen. On top of that, Quentin Tarantino allows two major selfless acts to occur over the course of the film. First, escapee Butch Coolidge, who could just run away, goes to save Marsellus Wallace, the man who plans to kill him. This act of kindness is reciprocated when Marsellus allows him to..