The American culture in PULP FICTION

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the tyranny of evil man. blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And i will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the lord when i lay my vengeance upon thee. ”

This is the famous lines of pulp fiction, which also comes from The Bible. I have seen a lot of American’s movies, but this one, pulp fiction, made me confused and thought a lot until now. You may think what kinds of deep and profound things you can figure out from a film which is fulled of violence, sex, and drugs. But on the country, through the classic “black humor”, it exactly reflect the reality life of American lower class in 19 century. Pulp Fiction is structured around three distinct but interrelated storylines—in Tarantino's conception, mob hitman Vincent Vega is the lead of the first story, prizefighter Butch Coolidge is the lead of the second, and Vincent's fellow contract killer, Jules Winnfield, is the lead of the third. Although each storyline focuses on a different series of incidents, they connect and intersect in various ways. The film starts out with a diner hold-up staged by "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny," then picks up the stories of Vincent, Jules, Butch, and several other important characters, including mob kingpin Marsellus Wallace, his wife, Mia, and underworld problem-solver Winston Wolfe. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner: Vincent and Jules, who have stopped in for a bite, find themselves embroiled in the hold-up. The structure of the movie just like drawing a circle, coming back to the beginning in the end. Vincent and Jules are the most comparative people in the movie. They are both killer, but come into a different end. Why? Maybe it is because they had got into the different faith. I think a lot of American people at that time just like Jules. They believed the power and magic of God. They wanted to believe it, but just in their own ways and understandings, they did the bad things as the name of God, they convinced themselves that what they did were for justice, no matter it took. But on the country, Vincent chose to ignore the power of belief. He would rather believed the sensual world. Something like drugs, sex, speed, egoism and violence. He felt high when he was driving fast after stoned, and felt awesome when he was going out with his boss’s wife. He only got his satisfaction through the sensual stimulation. America went through a lot in 19 century, especially in 1990s, the economy was developing very fast, it seemed that they all became money-oriented, no one left to care about the human inside, the whole nation’s quality was rapidly descending. You can clearly saw that from the movie, the drug dealer, the murderer, the homosexual raper, and so on. Everyone seemed to have trouble, no one was safe, but they had no feelings. To be alive or dead were having no connections with law and justice. After the world war second, the western world transferred from modern society to post-modern society. People began to anti tradition at that time, they began to think about the influence of quick development, they left something far behind. They tired of the stiff stuff, they wanted something more, they believed that less is bore. So they were yelling from deep inside, where was the milk of human kindness? The director Quentin Tarantino, once lived at that age, have witnessed the violence, drugs, but still saw the eagerness. That likes Mia. Although she was a wife of Gangster and had took a role of cold woman who good at knives, she still longed for love, she was longly, the only thing she can do was paralyzed herself by drugs. I believed that this could not be the unique thing that only happened to her, there must be thousands of people who lost their feelings in that society. They don’t care about the place they go is fancy or not, as long as they love it, it’s also a kind of mind relief. They get rid of the old stiff mind, but looking for freedom. We also can see the tradition from this movie. When Butch left his watch in the house, he was going back there to get it without hesitation, regardless of the dangers there. So, he was living with his dignity, and looked for a different future where he would not be controled anymore, but on the other hand, he still could not forget the tradition. He also was a killer, and he said he felt no guilty after killing, this definitely left him a cold impression. But his tender towards his little girlfriend, and the promise he made to his family, ironically changed my mind. Talking about tradition, a feeling of complication came to my mind, when the Holy Bible and the scene of killing were mixed up in the movie. Every time before the Jules killed somebody, he would recite one chapter from The Bible, at first i though it was just a kind of atonement. But if you read the chapter carefully, you will find, he did not feel guilty but regard himself as a just man. He did all the killing things just for his friends, he took it as a responsibility. And at the end of movie, he recited the Bible, this time not for killing, but for real helping. After struggling, he realized the void of being violent, he was moved by God and miracle. John Macquarri says in his book 20th century religious thoughts, the experience of holy touching can be more and more obvious in the the post-modern religions. The excitements from hysteria stuff can be very close to the one comes from belief. There were a lot of Vincent who lost their way, they want to find the truth but in a wrong way. We need more people like Jules, who maybe once lost their way, but made a perfect transformation. He was willing to start over, be the shepherd. And trying to pull the society out of the big vain valley. Maybe this is also the great influence of Bible on American people, they will try to correct their behaviour, change their life. I talked a lot about post-modern here, because the movie itself is a successful reflection of post-modern society. The director not only drew it from the content, also from the whole building of the movie. He put different kinds of music in the movie, and changed them frequently; he changed the old way of telling a story, ordered them in a circle; and the classic scenes from others movies. He showed us a compound work. The pulp fiction is a reflection of the life attitude of American people during the post-modern time. Their life seemed to be interesting, funny, ridiculous and exciting. But from their deep inside, just full of hollow spirit. They held negative attitudes towards holy and eternal, which was completely wrong, so Vincent died at last. But if they had more profound thoughts, and respect the history, they will go long, just like the shepherd Jules and Butch.

Reference : 陳韻琳—— 後現代的靈覺經驗 ── 談電影「黑色追緝令」 从电影《低俗小说》看后现代主义电影的叙事模式与主题想 李新博—— 当代美国社会与文化的后现代特征探析 颜春龙—— 从影片美国后现代文化在电影媒介中的传播 Wikipedia—— pulp fiction

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