Pulp Fiction - Non-Linear Storytelling

Pulp Fiction and Non-Linear Storytelling

Released in 1994 and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction, follows the stories of different criminals in Los Angeles. The film narratives told in a non-linear order, hoping back and forth, between different events in the interconnecting stories of the different characters in an episodic narrative structure. The film is split into three different stories each on focusing on a different character, the first, "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife" focusing on contract killer Vincent Vega, “The Gold Watch” focusing on champion boxer, Butch and the third and final segment, “The Bonnie situation” focusing on Jules, Vincent’s partner.

The film is interesting in the way it uses the method of Zigzagging back and forth between different points in the timeline of the narrative. It begins with a prologue set in a diner before a prelude that introducing the main characters. "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife", the first story in the film, is also the first story chronologically in the timeline, excluding the flashback prior to, “The Gold Watch”. The story then jumps forward in “The Gold Watch”, which takes place last on the chronological timeline. Point of note in this segment is the death of Vincent Vega, one of the lead characters throughout the first half of the movie. He later appears in the next segment, “The Bonnie situation”, which jumps back to directly after the first segment, "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife". Before jumping right back to the follow on to the scene that started the film at the diner, that in the timeline of the film set after the first segment but prior to the second. The episodic storytelling in the film, takes the narrative in a circle ending where it begins and allowing for the stories in the film to reference and interconnect each other throughout the film. 

Besides the jumping back and forth in the narrative another method of non-linear storytelling used in film Is the use of flashbacks, although brief the film uses a flashback before one of the story segments to set up the importance of the golden watch to Butch. 

The main reason the film is structured in a non-linear fashion allows for the lives and stories of each character to feel intertwined something which wouldn’t be possible in a sequential timeline. The audience is prevented from realizing that the end of the film is really the middle and the middle Is really the end, Vincent’s death is the most interesting part as it is a complete twist in the narrative, as it comes out of nowhere due to its placement in the film. Vince is set up to be the lead character throw the beginning, and the end of the film, so seeing him die so soon and out of nowhere, for him to miraculously reappear, in later scenes set prior to his death. 

Overall Pulp Fictions non liner narrative is intentionally told in such a way to not only make the narrative more shocking and exciting, but to trick the audience into seeing the story in the wrong order.