Commentary: Pulp Fiction

Commentary: Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is a story about the lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangsters wife, and a pair of diner bandits whose tales of violence and redemption intertwine. I am going to review the ending scene where Jules is quoting from the bible, whilst holding a gun to another man's head.

From watching the clip and reading over the transcript, I find that in this particular scene, Jules is the person holding the control. The framing of the discourse lies with him as he both starts the conversation and ends it. Whilst he is talking, there are no interruptions or turn taking, therefore he dominates the scene as he is the one, and only, speaker. During the scene, Jules speaks in a calm but slowly pace, being sure to emphasise every point he is making. He does this to remove the power of the other guy, showing that he is of a higher status. The demanding tone in his voice, seems overly aggressive portraying the hatred for what he believes he is. In this case, the 'evil man'. In addition, Jules uses an aggressive Lexis to put his point across and to show whose in power. For example, “say to a motherfucker 'fore you popped a cap in his ass”

I find that Jules does not show politeness in his speech, however the depth and context of his
quote seems to imply that he is trying to be the ‘righteous man’. As Jules does not hesitate or correct himself, I am sure that he means to assert pre-eminence. However, he provides assurance by quoting a specific term from the bible. The quote seemed to be remembered precisely and accurately, both implying that Jules does have a 'righteous' side to him. Jules also states dominance by using personal authority when using first person throughout. For example, 'I been saying that shit for years.' Not only does this grab the attention of the reader, but it also focuses all tension on him, leaving the audience to conjure thoughts on what he might do next.

Not only does Jules provide us the intuition on how powerful he is, but he also states that the other man has less power than he does, by telling him, “The truth is you're the weak”. This can either refer to the other man's physical or metal weakness. By pointing the gun at the other guys head, Jules seems to take on the lead role of the 'evil man'. However, by removing the gun from his grip and setting the guy free, he has foreshadowed his earlier words, in which were said to show that he does indeed have a 'righteous' side. These last words were, 'Im tryin' real hard to be the Shepard'.

In the transcript there are no rhetorical questions implying that Jules is not interested in what the other guy thinks. The sentence function seems to be interrogative, as in he is pressurising the other guy by using an intense tone. Jules heightens the pressure by using different complex structures. By varying between complex and simple sentences, Jules plays with the pace of his speech. Therefore, he was intending on grabbing the audiences interest to provoke a reaction for when he decides not to shoot the other guy.

I think that Jules is a very literate character and tends to repeat things for emphasis. For
example, ‘But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak.’ He does this to generate pressure or the sense of being pushed too far. This creates the other guys sense of insecurity and sadness, therefore it can have an effect on the audience, who may fear death.

Finally, Jules character does not use any alliteration or juxtaposition, as he is a very opinionated person, by only speaking the truth. This sense of heightened honesty provokes a simple but powerful status, that can sometimes effect the people around him. In this case, his honesty is interpreted as hate as well as respect towards the 'Shepards' from his first words. Also, there are no facts or statistics present in his speech, producing an insight to his sense of imagination and interpretation of the world around him.

In conclusion, I think that there isn't a 'hidden' subtext meaning, however, I feel that we can all see that the writer of Pulp Fiction was trying to get Jules' character to sound menacing and hard. This was done to not only scare the audience, but, to make the character seem human. As we humans are forever preventing past experiences from changing our future.

Gemma Lucas