The Path of the Righteous: A Deconstructionist Reading of Pulp Fiction Anonymous College

Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s arguably most popular film, is a complex pastiche of popular culture. Its unique blend of dark humor, violence, and nonlinear and disjointed storytelling, as well as its willingness to throw genres together with no seeming rhyme or reason, combine to make a story about the normal lives of a bunch of morally bankrupt individuals. 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. In order to begin to read the film, we must first look at the characters themselves, and the roles they play in the greater story.

First of all, we can look at the two hitmen, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega. Together, they are unarguably the protagonists of the film, and the vast majority of the film is dedicated to their escapades as a duo. Their escapades, of course, are entirely immoral, involving the murder of a handful of college-age kids, heroin abuse, and general just being horrible people. In the midst of their violent rampage through LA, however, Jules and Vincent take time to debate religion, culture, and the ethics of rubbing a married woman’s feet. They seem to have a genuine camaraderie, although Jules seems to be the far more...