Pulp Fiction’s bathroom scenes carry a hidden meaning.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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you
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[Music]
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quentin tarantino’s distinctive style
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here’s the mundane with the extreme as
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we’re watching a Tarantino movie long
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rambling conversations unremarkable
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settings and small seemingly
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insignificant moments are suddenly
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punctuated by over-the-top explosions of
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gores and violence man a shot Marvin in
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the face in Pulp Fiction
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Tarantino highlights this coexistence of
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mundanity and danger using the motif of
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bathroom breaks every time John
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Travolta’s Vincent goes to the bathroom
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something bad happens I’m gonna take a
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shit Vincent has gone to the bathroom
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when Jules has his hard to heart with
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pumpkin and honey bunny in the diner
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shortly after leaving the bathroom
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Vincent finds that mia has overdosed and
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Vincent dies in the bathroom while
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staking out witch’s apartment a gunman
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also barges out of the bathroom to shoot
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at Jules and Vincent and this guy also
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falls victim to the bathroom Curt’s
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meanwhile Mia’s close brush with death
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via her overdose is foreshadowed by a
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bathroom scene of her own other women
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powder their noses while Mia snorts
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powder up her nose BAM while we see
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Vincent in the bathroom isolated from
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the main action Mia shares her frame
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with others still she’s just as isolated
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in her oblivious company her actions
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going totally unnoticed this feeling of
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isolation in the bathroom is a fitting
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symbol for the ultimate loneliness of
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death there may be some hidden logic to
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Vincent’s frequent bathroom visits his
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heroin addiction which is known to cause
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constipation with this in mind we could
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argue that his addiction indirectly
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causes his death but thematically pulp
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fiction’s toilet motif sends a larger
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message that life revolves around the
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mundane everyday as much as it does
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around eventful action-filled peace
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sometimes those go on glamorous details
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can even prove life-changing or
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life-ending big events in pulp fiction
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like Mia’s overdose and Vincent’s own
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death could have played out differently
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if at that crucial moment Vincent hadn’t
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been stuck on the toilet
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throughout his filmography Tarantino
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couples the everyday and danger
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I don’t simply Gus society says I have
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to we’re gonna throw in mr. pink he
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mixes in insignificant details that feel
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jarring and maybe come for voting or
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life threatening think of Vernita greens
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kitchen in Kill Bill
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the KKK rally and Django Unchained I
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can’t see fucking shit out I could have
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cut it better than knit and the
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inglorious basterds German pub scene
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where the simplest detail the way the
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undercover British officer holds up his
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fingers to signify the number three
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gives him away The Odyssey glasses
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that’s the German Sweden most
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immediately pulp fiction’s bathroom
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scenes add levity they’re just kind of a
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funny touch I gotta go pee nope
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Vincent’s bathroom reading a pulp
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fiction which subtly linked Tarantino’s
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film to victors bowel movement this
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tongue-in-cheek self reference
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encourages us to equate the film with
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the kind of juicy low culture
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entertainment that’s enjoyed on the pan
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it undercuts the high art feel of other
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aspects of the film like the complex
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structure Tarantino reminds us not to
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take anything too seriously including
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the movie we’re watching death on the
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toilet and life itself
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[Music]
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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