Genre and Narrative

Introduction

The two areas I have decided to look into for my assignment are genre and narrative, firstly I will begin to look at narrative, and the media text I am going to be referring to is Quentin Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction. The protagonists are John Travolta (Vincent Vega), Samuel Jackson (Jules Winnfield), Uma Thurman (Mia Wallace), Bruce Willis (Butch), Ving Rhames (Marchellus Wallace), Amanda Plummer (Honey Bunny), Tim Roth (Pumpkin).

Main Body

Narrative is a fundamental characteristic of fictional films. A narrative film contains various human stories and documentaries. Also, the meaning of narrative gives to us to understand the sense of films with the consequence to understand the sense of the world. Narrative is the story comes about in the film and the all links of events of story of films??-. “We can consider a narrative to be a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. A narrative begins with one situation; a series of changes occurs according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally, a new situation arises that brings about the end of the narrative” (D. Bordwell & Thomson, 1997:90)

 “We make sense of a narrative, then, by identifying its events and linking them by cause and effect, time, and space. As viewers, we do other things as well. We often infer events that are not explicitly presented, and we recognize the presence of materials that is extraneous to the story world.” (D. Borwell & Thomson, 1997:91)

The narrative in Pulp Fiction is used in a way to create a cultural statement of the American way of life. The characters are living their lives through mass culture; the way they talk and serve that purpose. Also, in a narrative included the plot of film which is important for the structure of the story. The causes, effects, story and plot have immediate relationship with the time and location. All those characteristics are very significant for the structure of the plot, the chronological serious of events and the understanding of narrative actions.

 

 Pulp Fiction is based on the narrative and it establishes all the narrative actions. In this film we have three plots. The first plot shows the couple Honey Bunny and Pumpkin who are organizing the robbery in the coffee shop.

 The second plot shows Vincent Vega and Jules two gangsters that go to collect money for the lord of drugs Marcellus, their boss. After that Vincent takes Marcellus’s wife Mia out for dinner. Things get nasty when Mia sniffs the heroin that Vincent keeps in his pocket and she overdoses. Vincent takes her to his friend Lance where they give her an adrenaline shot straight to her heart. Vincent revives Mia and takes her back home.

Join now!

The third plot shows Butch who killed Vincent, the conflict between of Butch and of Marcellus and the adventure who they have in the continuity. In the end we are shown again Vincent and Jules who have to clear the car from the occasional accident.

In Pulp fiction we can distinguish many elements of American popular culture. For example Vincent is a gangster and he does not have a relationship with the popular culture because he does not watch television.

Vincent distinguishes Marilyn Monroe from a Jayne Mansfield, basic characteristic of American popular culture.

The characters of Tarantino live ...

This is a preview of the whole essay