Pulp Fiction: Story, Plot and Narrative

Story: “Everything that happens in the fictional world between the beginning and the end, including events that viewers infer or presume to have happened.”

Plot: “What viewers see on screen and hear on the soundtrack to allow them to construct a story in their heads. Plots can begin anywhere on the chain of story events and can leap backwards and forwards in time and space.”

Narrative: “Flow of story information constructed by the plot at any given moment. Narrative implies a point of view, which may be that of one of the characters or of an omniscient (all seeing) narrator.”

 

Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

‘Pulp Fiction’ is the second feature-length film from the American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and was released in 1994. The film comprises of multiple narrative threads which are shown out of order, but are all inter-connected. It follows two hitmen (Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield), a boxer (Butch Coolidge), a gangster and his wife (Marsellus and Mia Wallace), and a couple of bandits (only known as Pumpkin and Honey Bunny). The film, similar to Tarantino’s other films, has an above average script length. This has to do with the fact that the film is very dialogue heavy, with the majority of scenes just being characters talking, often about seemingly meaningless topics. There are also quite a few scenes of excessive violence, another staple of Tarantino’s films.