SOURCE: "Sheparding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction," in Literature-Film Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1, January, 1998, pp. 60-6.

In the following essay, Davis and Womack explore themes of moral development and spiritual conversion in Pulp Fiction. According to the critics, "Beyond the hazy lens of Tarantino's deliberately dark gangland tableau … Pulp Fiction proffers a fictional universe where miracles still happen, where love can still make a difference."

Although a number of critics in the popular press laud Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) for its non-linear narrative, quirky performances, and oddly resonant dialogue regarding such issues as hamburgers, television pilot episodes, and foot massages, critics in other circles such as Anthony Lane (The New Yorker) and Tom Whalen (Literature/Film Quarterly) deride Tarantino's creation for its extreme violence and lack of moral clarity. In "Degrees of Cool," Lane maligns the film for the director's over-arching reliance upon...