Quentin Tarantino’s films are always controversial, and Pulp Fiction is no exception. The film depicts graphic violence and overt drug usage, while shying away from politically correct language. The film’s controversial topics such as racial stereotypes, has led some critics to hail the movie as racist; however, the movie denies many of these stereotypes, portraying character and character relationships as not exclusive to their stereotype. Furthermore, the movie mocks many of societies stereotypes, and it is not afraid to address, or not to address, uncomfortable racial topics. Thus, Pulp Fiction challenges racial barriers.
Jules Winnifield begins the movie as a criminal, a hit-man to be specific, but as the movie progresses he decides to move away from his life of crime in pursuit of righteousness. Jules’s character development challenges racial stereotypes because he is initially presented as a stereotype, but as the movie progresses he moves away from the cliché and becomes an individual. His character development thus shows the audience that African Americans are not confined to a few archetypes. African American males are frequently portrayed in media as heartless criminals, who do not think twice about their actions, and this is how Jules is portrayed the beginning of the story. However, after he makes it out of the morning visit alive, Jules decides to reevaluate his life, deciding to end his criminal activity and search for a more righteous life. This is a movement away from the stereotype and thus the breaking of our racial barriers. Further, Jules goes from merely reciting scripture to searching for the deeper meaning behind its versus, thus showing him moving away from stereotypical African American preachers a...
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...ationships, treating them as so normal that they do not even need to be acknowledged in the dialogue. By showing and displaying two interracial marriages Pulp Fiction defies the stereotype of members of one race only marrying within their race.
Works Cited
Aldridge, Kevin, Richelle Thompson, and Earnest Winston. "The N-Word." The N-Word. Cincinnati.com, 1 Aug. 2001. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Carroll, Joseph. "Most Americans Approve of Interracial Marriages." Gallup Poll. Gallup, 16 Aug. 2007. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Metroactive. "The Word 'Nigger'" Metroactive News & Issues. Metroactive News, 9 Apr. 1998. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Spears, Arthur K. "Perspectives: A View of the 'N-Word' from Sociolinguistics." Diverse Issues in Education. N.p., 12 July 2006. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Willis, Sharon. "The Fathers Watch the Boys' Room." Camera Obscura 32 (1994): 40-73. Web.
This movie has all the prejudice and stereotype that could happen between different races. But they do not show how they used to feel before and how they feel after encountering to different races until they crashing in to them.
I found several techniques to help me refrain from using this word and other words of its caliber. I started to replace it with words like dude. Recently I have found great satisfaction in improving my vocabulary, although at times I do feel “naked” with the word to fill my gaps. I find that the best remedy for me is to become more articulate. Whenever I feel that the situation calls for a word like that I pick one from may many other word of equal magnitude. In final analysis I will continue power pledge to refrain from the usage of the N-word. Continuing the techniques that I have learned to employ had really help me refrain. I have not used the word since February 25.
While many blacks and whites agree that the word should not be censored from the English language, it certainly should not be used by all people because of its historical significance. For example, black militants believe whites should never use the word nigger. On the other hand, the word nigger has been “reclaimed” by black youths particularly in the hip-hop culture. These modern day teens claim that it is just a word and that people give words meaning rathe...
True Quentin Tarantino style is blood spurting, violent, and deep, Pulp Fiction is as encompassing as they come. The series of iconic events that formulate Pulp Fiction include a restaurant heist, murder, drug use, and a scene that implicates highly violent S&M style rape. Through its star persona, genre and film theory (specifically formalism) Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction glorifies guns and violence, thereby mitigating the effects of violence, and ultimately, condoning its use.
When it comes to the use of the “N-word”, “nigger”, most of us will readily agree that it is derived from negativity. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of is this word appropriate and should it be a part of our vocabulary today. Many feel like this word is okay to use but there are some that disagree.
... supremacist gang, to rioting in an Asian owned grocery store, to finally brutally murdering someone. We observe as family ties become increasingly strained in every way, the viewer can easily conclude that Derek’s racism as well as his eventual influence on his younger brother ultimately contributed to their own downfall. As controversial as this movie maybe for the offensive language and brutal violence, it is a movie that deserves to be seen, and even discussed. It really provides insight into some factors within society that cannot be contained by the law or even deterred by even the harshest punishments. Even though American society is becoming more modernized as time goes by in terms of tolerance, racism will unfortunately always be prevalent in society and inevitably it will also lead some individuals to violently express their distorted mentalities.
The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.
Furthermore a little later on in the movie two black guys are coming out of a restaurant and talking about How all the white customers were very much catered too and they weren’t even though the waitress was black because she has a stereotype that black people do not tip well. These two black guys who we later find out that they are carjackers see a white woman and her husband walking down the street as soon as the woman sees them she get scared. Her hunts later becomes right as the two black guys rob her and her husband of their vehicle.In the very next seen a white officer who is coming off his shift Shoots another black officer both of them not knowing they were officers. There is many evidence in this movie of stereotyping and prejudice the list can go on and on. I think that prejudice can be reduced overtime I think there’s many ways to do it one way is to start from the youth and teach them socially equality. Another way that we can reduce prejudice is people having a perfectly of their prejudice through life altering
The “N word” as some people call it, is an age old name for people of African American descent. Now where in tarnation did this monstrosity of a word come from? Well of course we look to Latin American Language as the culprit. The word “niger” is Latin meaning “black” and at the time was only used as the name of a color. Eventually, the word “niger” was turned into a noun, a noun being a word for any person, place or thing. The noun formed from the adjective “niger” was “negro”. Which coincidently enough is the word for the color black in Spanish and Portuguese. From these words, the French developed the word “nigre” meaning a black man and “negress” which referred to a black woman. Now I bet you’re wondering how the word “nigger” originated from the word “negro”. Well it is believed that misinterpretation and mispronunciation from white southerners that led to the development of the word “nigger”.
The African influence of American English can be found as far back as the Seventeenth century. Although its influence may have began that far back, the influence of African American slang has arguably reached its peak (so far) in the last half on the 20th century. Evidence of this can be seen in magazines, music, television, and films. Perhaps more importantly, evidence can be seen in the way that people of ethnic groups, other than African American, have changed their speech due to this influence. The Equal Rights Movement lead to a paradigm shift in African American linguistic consciousness due to Black intellectuals, scholars, activists, artists, and writers deliberately engaging in a search for a way to express Black identity and the particular circumstances of African American life. Although there had been strides in Black pride in the past, this was the first one to call for linguistic Black p...
What does it mean to say the “N-word” both it in its original form, or as the “N-word’, and what is the context for the impact which occurs when it leaves the mouths of blacks and or whites. I begin with a look at ‘Teaching the N-Word” by Emily Bernard, she is a 30 year old African American professor who teaches at University of Vermont which happens to be a predominantly white institution. She works alongside her husband, a white man, who is also a professor of African American History ; her brother writes for The Source and urges her students to think about the ways in which the “N-word” is used in pop culture. The students in Emily Bernard’s honors literature class must question the effect of the n-word on black people and just as importantly
One of the biggest issues depicted in the film is the struggle of minority groups and their experience concerning racial prejudice and stereotyping in America. Examples of racism and prejudice are present from the very beginning of the movie when Officer Ryan pulls over black couple, Cameron and Christine for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin. Officer Ryan forces the couple to get out of the car
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
There are movies that make you laugh, that make you cry, that blow you away with jaw-dropping, ever-so-satisfying action sequences. And there is Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, an homage to the old Pulp Magazines and crime novels popular in the 1950s. Known for their incredibly dense and complex dialogue and excessive violence, Tarantino adds his trademark nonlinear chronology and thorough character development to create a movie that celebrates the fact that chance governs all of our lives. The film consists of multiple stories that tell of the criminals, gangsters and outliers of Los Angeles, the underbelly of society. It follows Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield as they embark on their mission to recovering a briefcase that
Feature films in the United States influence American viewers' attitudes on a wide variety of topics. Americans attitudes toward politics are shaped by films, and specifically the politics of racial interaction. The history of modern feature films begins with Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that misrepresents the Black race by justifying the existence and role of the Ku Klux Klan in American society. From this racist precedent, producers and directors understood that visual messages, however latent, were a useful means of communicating a political message to a large audience. After this epiphany, a myriad of films were made for different political causes. Most films had multiple messages, and among them were conservative themes against the Hispanic race. A prime example of a filmmaker who had numerous ideas as to the problems and solutions of race issues in America was Orson Welles. His Touch of Evil (1958) represents many other films in that epoch that had different presentations of race issues. The film utilizes imagery that provokes viewers' ideas of race politics; viewers' attitudes are challenged in many scenes. The reason for this political and racial wavering spawns from the fact that Welles' race politics were not clearly defined. In fact other films, similar to the contradictory nature of Touch of Evil, presented multiple themes precisely because the filmmakers' racial attitudes were blurred. The clearly distinguishable dichotomies of racism were not present, giving way to shades of gray.