The Briefcase (symbol)
The contents of the briefcase that Jules and Vincent procure from Brett's apartment for Marsellus are never specified. All that is known about them is that they glow, and that Pumpkin calls them "beautiful." The briefcase is an example of what is called a MacGuffin: a cinematic plot device that advances the plot with little to no narrative explanation. Given its alluring mysteriousness, the briefcase symbolizes human desire itself, with its status as a highly coveted object mobilizing several characters to commit unspeakable acts of violence.
Ezekiel 25:17 (allegory)
Jules recites Ezekiel 25:17 to strike fear into the men he is about to execute, conceiving of himself as the Lord who "lays vengeance" on men who have practiced "evil tyranny." At the end of the film, after an act of divine intervention prompts him to enter a "transitional period," and reconsider the true meaning behind the words, Jules ponders various interpretations out loud to Pumpkin, while they are engaged in a Mexican standoff inside the diner. Eventually, Jules determines that he is not the "righteous man" he thought he was, but in fact one of the "evil men" of which the passage speaks. As Jules's decision to non-violently de-escalate the confrontation in the diner bears out, he no longer wants to be an evil man, and instead is, "tryin' real hard to be the shepherd."
Bathrooms (motif)
Bathrooms are bad luck in Pulp Fiction, especially for Vincent. Vincent uses the bathroom at three separate points in the film, and each time disaster strikes shortly thereafter. The first time he uses the bathroom, Mia mistakes his heroin for cocaine and snorts it while he is gone, leaving him to find her unconscious body on the rug. The second time he uses the bathroom, he leaves his assault weapon behind for Butch to find, who promptly kills him with it. The third time we see him use the bathroom, he leaves Jules alone in the booth just as Pumpkin and Honey Bunny leap up to hold the diner hostage. The unnamed character in Brett's apartment who fires haplessly at Jules and Vincent before being himself killed also hides in the bathroom. Bathrooms augur death and misfortune, and are perhaps a reference to Stanley Kubrick, who was also known for filming pivotal scenes in bathrooms.
The Gold Watch (symbol)
Butch's gold watch is a family heirloom, the significance of which is explained in a long monologue that is, chronologically, the earliest event in the entire film. As a child, Butch received the watch from a man named Captain Koons who had served in the Vietnam War with his father. The watch is a symbol of patrilineal love, being passed down from Butch's great-grandfather, to his grandfather, to his father, and finally to him, surviving an incredibly unlikely series of events in the process. The fact that so many men put forth so much effort to save the watch, including stashing it for years in their anuses, is what makes Butch willing to risk his own life to retrieve it, after Fabienne mistakenly leaves it behind.
Breakfast (motif)
Much of the film takes place in the morning, undermining the borrowed conventions of film noir, a type of post-war crime drama that mostly takes place at night. As a result, many characters eat and discuss breakfast in distinct ways, revealing something about their character in the process. Fabienne, for example, enumerates to Butch all the breakfast foods she wants to order—ironic given her petite frame. Butch tells her he will return before she can say, "blueberry pie." Jules talks to Brett about eating cheeseburgers from Big Kahuna Burger for breakfast, and Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are eating breakfast in the diner when the film opens. Breakfast as a motif often reveals the ordinary, everyday qualities of the film's characters, making them relatable to the audience, even though they are extreme and brazen in other ways.
Jackrabbit Slim's (symbol)
Jackrabbit Slim's is a retro 1950s diner staffed by a small army of celebrity impersonators, who are dressed up as such figures as Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly, Ed Sullivan, Mamie van Doren, and more. The restaurant is a living symbol of the history of American mass culture, especially during the 1950s; Vincent jokes that it resembles a "wax museum come to life." Pulp Fiction uses the visual iconography and cultural lexicon of this "family-friendly" era as a counterpoint to the more sensational, exploitative genres that began to emerge after 1970, and the graphic depictions of drugs, sex, and violence that they entailed. The image of Vincent and Mia's trophy-winning twist routine, for instance, contrasts jarringly with the subsequent image of Vincent plunging a needle into her heroin-addled heart that very same night.
