On this site will be posted analyses of popular media productions. These analyses will have to do with determining the underlying meanings of various movies, songs, and certain novels. Methods used to analyze a given production will include exploration of the creators' use of symbolism, allegory, metaphor, etc., and deciphering any arcane or obscure references that it may contain.
Previously, we have looked at Augustine's Confessions on biblical creation. From Book 12, chapter 3, with Augustine speaking to God (as always),
"[T]ruly this earth was invisible and unformed, and there was an inexpressibly profound abyss above which there was no light since it had no form. Thou didst command it written that "darkness was on the face of the deep." [Gen. 1:2] What else is darkness except the absence of light? For if there had been light, where would it have been except by being over all, showing itself rising aloft and giving light? Therefore, where there was no light as yet, why was it that darkness was present, unless it was that light was absent? Darkness, then, was heavy upon it, because the light from above was absent; just as there is silence where there is no sound. And what is it to have silence anywhere but simply not to have sound? Hast thou not, O Lord, taught this soul which confesses to thee? Hast thou not thus taught me, O Lord, that before thou didst form and separate this formless matter there was nothing: neither color, nor figure, nor body, nor spirit? Yet it was not absolutely nothing; it was a certain formlessness without any shape."
The well in Jame Gumb's basement (shown at left), in which his victims are kept prior to skinning, represents the abyss present at the beginning of creation, of the 'evil kingdom' that Lecter and Gumb are (or were) to 'create'; and the respective victims in the well are, to Gumb, "formlessness without any shape."
Recall that we are interested in Gumb's (evil Freemasons') allegorical act of (more precisely, bungling attempt at) creation. From Augustine's Confessions, Book 11, chapter 5:
"But how didst thou make the heaven and the earth, and what was the tool of such a mighty work as thine? For it was not like a human worker fashioning body from body, according to the fancy of his mind, able somehow or other to impose on it a form which the mind perceived in itself by its inner eye (yet how should even he be able to do this, if thou hadst not made that mind?). He imposes the form on something already existing and having some sort of being, such as clay, or stone or wood or gold or such like (and where would these things come from if thou hadst not furnished them?). For thou madest his body for the artisan, and thou madest the mind which directs the limbs; thou madest the matter from which he makes anything; thou didst create the capacity by which he understands his art and sees within his mind what he may do with the things before him; thou gavest him his bodily sense by which, as if he had an interpreter, he may communicate from mind to matter what he proposes to do and report back to his mind what has been done, that the mind may consult with the Truth which presideth over it as to whether what is done is well done."
In accordance with the above passage, Gumb, in his attempted act of creation, is unlike God: Gumb is fashioning body from body, and he is working with something already existing (the women's skins). Therefore, going by Augustine, Gumb is not creating.
Above left: Gumb's bungling attempt at creation is depicted in this scene in which he is sewing a piece of a woman's skin. Above right: Gumb believes that if he collects and stitches together patches of skin from various women's bodies, and then wears a skin 'suit' composed by this method, he will effectively have the body of a woman; thus, going by Augustine in the above, Gumb is "a human worker fashioning body from body."
Contrapasso is the process whereby souls serve penance in Dante's Inferno (Hell) according to the nature of their sins in life. A literal translation of the word 'contrapasso' would be "counter-suffering." It is the ironic theological law, ensuring that "the punishment fits the crime." The fate suffered by each of Gumb's victims is a kind of contrapasso: in life, each of them was a glutton: recall that Clarice confirms Lecter's guess that they are all 'big' girls, which if carried to the furthest extreme, would (theoretically) result in them 'bursting through' their skins; and it is, in fact, their fate that their skins are removed from them after they have been killed.
Like Gumb's other female victims, Catherine Martin is physically large, indicating that she is a glutton.
A copy of The National Inquisitor posted on a bulletin board in Jack Crawford's office says, "Bill Skins Fifth."
The FBI map showing Buffalo Bill's (i.e., Jame Gumb's) victims: The blue dots denote the locations from which the girls were abducted, and the red arrows show where their dead bodies were found.
Near the beginning of the movie, when Clarice Starling first walks into Jack Crawford's office, she sees some news clippings and photos on a bulletin board (as shown in the top screencap above). The headline on the posted copy of The National Inquisitor says "Bill Skins Fifth." Later, during Starling's first visit to the institution in which Lecter is kept, Lecter at one point asks her why the authorities call the killer 'Buffalo Bill' - he didn't know Bill skins the girls. This implies that Lecter has not yet seen the aforementioned news article, so at this point he doesn't know there has been a fifth victim, or that all the victims were skinned. The press, operating under directions from the authorities, must have held off on reporting (until this fifth victim was found) that Bill's victims had been skinned, to avoid panicking the public.
Still later, while Starling is flying with Jack Crawford to West Virginia to do an autopsy on a sixth body which has been found, we get a view of a map Crawford is holding (lower screencap above), which shows where each victim was abducted (shown by blue dots), and also where each of their bodies was found (denoted by red arrows). One thing Crawford tells Starling while showing her the map, is that the new victim (the aforementioned sixth victim) washed up today in the Elk River (in West Virginia), and that this victim is not marked on the map. Jack also states that Buffalo Bill keeps his victims alive for three days, then shoots them, skins them, and dumps them, each in a separate river. Crawford also tells Starling that Frederica Bimmel was the first girl murdered, but only the third girl found, because Bill weighted her body down.
Moving on to Starling's third visit to Lecter, we find that Hannibal now has knowledge of the West Virginia victim, a fact which is evident when he begins to ask Starling questions about this victim during this meeting, without being prompted by Starling. At this point, Lecter realizes that Catherine Martin is the intended seventh victim. Lecter asks if the West Virginia girl was a large girl, and Starling responds "yes", that all the girls were large. Starling tells Lecter that an object had been found inserted in the sixth victim's throat. When Lecter asks if the inserted object was a butterfly, Starling responds, "Yes, a moth." She tells Lecter that the insertion of the object has not been made public yet, and that it is just like the moth found in Benjamin Raspail's head "an hour ago." Lecter says that "the significance of the moth is change - caterpillar into chrysalis, or pupa, and thence into beauty." (Since it is butterflies, not moths, whose pupae are called chrysalis's, Lecter is here correcting himself when he says, "or pupa"). In this meeting, Starling sells Lecter the (phony) offer from Senator Martin.
What's actually the case is that Lecter was expecting Bill to use butterflies; when Lecter finds out moths are being used instead, he knows something is not going as he had expected it to go. Then sometime after Starling's third visit, when he studies the map and the rest of the Buffalo Bill case file given to him by Starling, and finds out that Frederica Bimmel's body had been weighted down, he realizes that Gumb is trying to trick him on the true number of victims: Gumb weighted Bimmel down thinking she'd never be found, so Lecter wasn't supposed to find out about her. (If Lecter hadn't found out about Bimmel, he would have thought Catherine Martin was to be only the sixth victim).
Gumb must have met Frederica while he was living in Calumet City, Illinois, which is just outside of Chicago - recall that Frederica's father tells Starling that she had gone to Chicago for a job interview two years earlier. Once Gumb got to know Bimmel and discovered that she was a a tailor, he realized that he could take advantage of this situation by having her teach him this trade, and then murdering her and setting himself up in Mrs. Lippman's house in Belvedere, Ohio (recall that Bimmel did occasional work for Mrs. Lippman). After Gumb killed Bimmel, he skinned her, and then began assembling his 'suit' earlier than had originally been planned.
Recall that while Gumb has Catherine in his basement well, his suit needs two more patches of skin for its completion. Gumb plans for Martin to provide the seventh patch of skin for the suit (the creation of which, as we've said, represents the creation by certain parties of an 'evil kingdom'/modern-day 'utopia'); and, Gumb also wants to eliminate the possibility of Lecter's resurrection becoming an eighth day of creation, by killing and skinning an eighth girl, i.e., Gumb wants to 'pre-empt' Lecter's planned resurrection. Lecter's intention is that when Starling shows up at Gumb's doorstep, Gumb is to think that he can use Starling's thigh as the eighth and final piece for the suit. It's true that Starling is too small to provide this piece, but Lecter 'sends' her to Gumb with this in mind: Gumb is botching his attempt at creation, and is a sloppy thinker, so he would consider killing Clarice for her thigh. (Lecter knows Gumb is sloppy, because of his ineffective weighting down of Bimmel's body).
In the dorm room scene, Clarice and Ardelia are shown looking at the case file map (the same map that Crawford showed Starling on the flight to West Virginia), and it shows Lecter's writing and a large black mark made by him in West Virginia (click on image to enlarge). Ostensibly, this mark was made to denote the discovery of Gumb's sixth victim, but keeping in mind that Starling herself is from West Virginia, it was also a subtle suggestion to her, to help guide her to Gumb. Once Lecter figured out Gumb was trying to trick him, he timed the sending of Starling to Gumb, and his immediately subsequent escape and attempt at resurrection, so that he would be resurrected prior to Gumb having enough opportunity to complete the formation of the suit and pre-empt his resurrection. Since Gumb represents evil Freemasons, the fact that he is trying to cheat Lecter symbolizes that these Freemasons are attempting to cheat the evil hermaphroditic Jews (as represented by Lecter), out of their position as the leaders of the aforementioned modern-day utopia that these two (and other) evil parties are seeking to establish (this utopia being planned to be located in the United States, in southern Indiana).
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 75 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Above left: A group of FBI trainees (shown) watches Senator Martin (Catherine Martin's mother) on television. Ardelia Mapp is standing on Clarice's left. Above right: We see Clarice's face and hear what are ostensibly her thoughts, while her lips are not moving.
In the scene in which some FBI trainees are clustered together watching Senator Martin on TV, we are at one point shown a close-up of Starling's face, and while the camera is focused on her we hear a female voice say, "Boy, that's smart; Jesus, that's really smart." (This voiceover statement is a comment on Senator Martin's television appearance, in which the Senator speaks about her daughter Catherine's childhood to evoke sympathy for Catherine within Jame Gumb, who is holding her captive in his basement.) Then just after this voiceover, we see Clarice's lips moving as she begins speaking aloud. Since Starling's lips do not move while we hear the voiceover, we are supposed to realize that the words it contains could be Clarice's own thoughts, or they could be words Ardelia is speaking; what's being suggested is that Ardelia is inside Starling's head - this is what is being represented in this part of this scene. In her capacity as 'working for' evil forces (Jame Gumb, representing evil Freemasons), part of Ardelia's function is to act as a psychopomp for Starling, that is, as a mediator between her unconscious and her conscious mind. In performing this function, she influences Starling's thinking.
We can see the above-mentioned influence at work in the dormitory scene where, in commenting on the map of Gumb's victims that Clarice shows her, Ardelia makes some statements that are actually subtle suggestions to Clarice's unconscious, to effectively guide her toward reaching a certain conclusion: that Gumb personally knew Frederica Bimmel prior to killing her. This is, in turned, designed to guide Clarice to Bimmel's home, and ultimately, to the house that Jame Gumb himself is occupying.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 71 of this analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Let us examine some supposed 'goofs' made by the movie-makers, and show that they are, in reality, intentional aspects of the movie. The following two items are listed as "factual errors" in the movie on the Internet Movie Database website.[a]
1) "Although [the creation by Jame Gumb of] a human skin garment is implied, most of the sewing examples [in the film] are blatantly wrong to anyone experienced in tailoring. For example, [one scene] shows [Gumb] sewing on one end, single thickness. He's not sewing anything to anything else, and he's using a piece that is typically cut off and discarded during garment construction."
Gumb at work.
We, the readers of this analysis, know that there is an explanation for what is said above about Gumb's work: we know that each of Gumb's (evil Freemasons') victims represents a day of creation, insofar as the suit he is assembling represents the 'spreading' of Lecter's (evil hermaphroditic Jews') 'word' (scripture); but, we have seen from St. Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica that only God can create. Gumb's bungling attempt at creation is doomed to fail. (Note to those viewing only the parts of this analysis that explain the movie's hidden plot: It is not necessary to have read the posts in which the writings of Thomas Aquinas are discussed, to understand the hidden plot).
2) "The biologist identifies the moth found behind [one of Jame Gumb's] murder victim's soft palate as Acherontia styx, the Deaths Head moth. The Deaths Head moth used in the [movie's theatrical release] poster is actually Acherontia atropos. (A third Deaths Head moth is called Acherontia lachesis.) While A. styx is native to Asia, as identified by the biologist, A. atropos is native to the Middle East and Mediterranean."
The above is explained by the fact that insect biologists are lying to Starling, when they examine the moth cocoon that she brings them (the one found in the mouth of the murder victim who was shown being autopsied - the same victim mentioned above): the moth's species actually isAcherontia atropos, but the biologists want Starling to believe it is Acherontia styx, so they tell her it is. The biologists are working with Jame Gumb, as stated previously in the analysis, and they are assisting Gumb by deceiving Starling on the species of the moth. More information on the moths and the details of this deception, will be covered later in the film's hidden plot thread.
The species of moth (whose cocoon is shown at left) that is examined by the two Smithsonian biologists is Acherontia atropos (click screencap to enlarge). One difference between the skull-like marking of A. styx, and that of A. atropos, is that it is anteriorly narrower in A. styx.[b]
The theatrical release poster for The Silence of the Lambs.[c] The skull-like marking in the image of Acherontia atropos is bright white here, due to the fact that the image was edited by one or more of the film's artists, so that the marking is composed of strategically-placed tiny drawings of bodies of naked white women.[d]
a. "The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Goofs." The Internet Movie Database. Internet Movie Database Ltd. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/goofs.
b. Rothschild, Walter and Karl Jordan. A Revision of the Lepidopterous Family Sphingidae. London and Aylesbury: Hazell, Watson, and Viney Ld., 1903. Google Books, p. 154. URL = https://books.google.com.
c. Image from the Wikipedia 'The Silence of the Lambs (film)' page; "The Silence of the Lambs poster", licensed under fair use via Wikipedia. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the item promoted, Orion Pictures, the publisher of the item promoted or the graphic artist.
d. Wikipedia, 'Silence of the Lambs (film)'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(film).
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 70 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
Let us perform an analysis of the last name of one of the two insect biologists consulted by Starling on the moth cocoon found in Gumb's sixth victim's mouth: regarding the name Pilcher, one (archaic) meaning of the British word pilch is "an outer garment, originally one made of skin";[a] this meaning is reminiscent of the idea of Gumb's victims' skins, which are being removed from them and assembled into a suit that Gumb can wear. Based on this name analysis, we see that Pilcher is associated with (i.e., working with) Jame Gumb.
We can go further and conclude that the other insect biologist, Roden, and Starling's roommate, Ardelia Mapp, are also working with Gumb. This conclusion is based on the fact that Roden and Pilcher work together very closely in performing their job functions, and the fact that near the end of the movie, at the FBI academy graduation ceremony, Ardelia meets up with Roden and Pilcher and poses for a photograph with one of them (Roden, with Pilcher handling the camera; see screencap at left). This occurs while the three of them are alone together after Crawford and Starling have walked off, and indicates a comradeship among the three of them.
a. Collins English Dictionary, "Definition of pilch." Web, n.d. URL = http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pilch.
[If you are only interested in viewing the explanation of the film's hidden plot, continue on to part 69 of the analysis. Otherwise, use the buttons below to navigate the analysis.]
According to behindthename dot com, the name 'Clarice' possibly comes from a medieval French form of Claritia, a derivative of Clara.[a] Clara is a feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which meant "clear, bright, famous." The name Clarus was borne by a few early saints. The feminine form was popularized by the 13th-century Saint Clare of Assisi (called Chiara in Italian), a friend and follower of Saint Francis, who left her wealthy family to found the order of nuns known as the Poor Clares. As an English name it has been in use since the Middle Ages, originally in the form Clare, though the Latinate spelling Clara became more popular in the 19th century.[b]
Pope Pius XII in 1958 named St. Clare the patron saint of television.[c] This reminds us of there being a television set sitting nearby during Clarice's second visit with Lecter (as shown at left).
a. Behind the Name, 'Clarice'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/clarice.
b. Behind the Name, 'Clara'. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.behindthename.com/name/clara.
c. LETTRE APOSTOLIQUE PROCLAMANT Ste CLAIRE PATRONNE CÉLESTE DE LA TÉLÉVISION (Apostolic Letter proclaiming Saint Claire as Heavenly Patron of Television) (French). 1958. Official website of the Holy See. 11 Nov. 2015. URL = http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/fr/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-xii_apl_21081958_st-claire.html.
From Augustine's Confessions, Book 10.31 (Chadwick translation):[a]
"There is another 'evil of the day', and I wish it sufficed for the day [Matt. 6:34]. We restore the daily decay of the body by eating and drinking, until in time you destroy both food and stomach [1 Cor. 6:13], when you will kill need with a wonderful satiety and when you clothe this incorruptible body with everlasting incorruption [1 Cor. 15:53]. But at the present time the necessity of food and drink is sweet to me...
"My pains are driven away by pleasure. For hunger and thirst are a kind of pain, which burns and can kill like a fever, unless the medicine of sustenance brings help. Because this cure is granted to us, thanks to the consolation of your gifts, by which earth and water and sky minister to our infirmity, a calamity can be called a delight...
"I hear the voice of my God giving command: 'Your hearts shall not be weighed down in gluttony and drunkenness' [Luke 21:34]..." (bible citations inside square brackets in original).
The denial of good food and drink and other sensual pleasures to Lecter, due to his being imprisoned, is God's way of punishing him for disobeying the command given in Luke 21:34 (quoted by Augustine above); for Lecter, while free, was a connoisseur of fine food and wine, and also of human body parts and organs.
During Starling's first visit to Lecter, he says to her (regarding a test questionnaire she had given him), "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti."
a. St. Augustine. Confessions. Trans. with introduction and notes Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. pp. 204-207.
[UPDATE 1/9/11: See part 8 of the Hannibal Rising analysis on this blog, for a listing of the reasons why Lecter is a cannibal.]
Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century CE, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and early Platonists.[a] Saint Augustine was influenced by the works of some Neoplatonists, particularly in The Six Enneads of Plotinus. Augustine found there an original synthesis of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics (Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic). Among other topics, Plotinus writes on the relationship between sense perception and memory:
"Perceptions are no imprints, we have said, are not to be thought of as seal-impressions on soul or mind...Memory is not to be explained as the retaining of information in virtue of the lingering of an impression which in fact was never made; the two things stand or fall together; either an impression is made upon the mind and lingers when there is remembrance, or, denying the impression, we cannot hold that memory is its lingering. [We] reject equally the impression and the retention...
"But if perception does not go by impression, what is the process? The mind affirms something not contained within it: this is precisely the characteristic of a power — not to accept impression but, within its allotted sphere, to act...Our tendency is to think of any of the faculties as unable to know its appropriate object by its own uncompelled act; to us it seems to submit to its environment rather than simply to perceive it, though in reality it is the master, not the victim...
"The very fact that we train ourselves to remember shows that what we get by the process is a strengthening of the mind...
"Sensation and memory, then, are not passivity but power..."[b]
If we go by the above, then it would seem that Hannibal Lecter uses what Marcus Aurelius would call his directing mind when he perceives Starling with his bodily senses, and when he remembers these sensations.
Top left and right: During Starling's first visit with Lecter, Lecter can detect Starling's scent through the holes at the top of his cell plexiglass barrier. Above left: Starling during this meeting. Above right: A short while after detecting Clarice's scent, Lecter says, "Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view."
a. Wikipedia, 'Neoplatonism'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoplatonism.
b. Plotinus. The Six Enneads, Fourth Ennead, Sixth Tractate. Trans. Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Page. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, URL = http://www.ccel.org/ccel/plotinus/enneads.v.vi.html.
Let's explore the etymology of Hannibal Lecter's name, to see if we can confirm that he represents a personification of evil Jews, and of Satan.
Starting with Hannibal's last name, Lecter is related to the name Lechter, which is derived from the name Lichter. Lichter is a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) occupational surname for someone who made candles or possibly for someone who tended a light, from an agent derivative of from Middle High German lieht, Yiddish likht 'candle', 'light'.[a] Due to this name symbolism, we see that Hannibal Lecter represents Jews, within some context.
One traditional Jewish celebration during which candles are lighted is Hanukkah. Hanukkah (also romanized as Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, is observed for eight nights, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of a special candelabrum, the nine-branched Menorah or Hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night.[b]
Left: The nine-branched Hanukiah.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Menorah (Hanukkah)' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above: Lecter bites Officer Pembry on the face in Memphis.
Let us now analyze Lecter's first name. The name 'Hannibal' means "grace of Ba'al" from the Phoenician hann "grace" combined with the name of the god BA'AL. Hannibal was the name of a Carthaginian general known for his cruelty, who threatened Rome during the Second Punic War in the 3rd century BC.[c] BA'AL is a Northwest Semitic title and honorific meaning "master" or "lord" that was used for various gods who were patrons of cities in the Levant. Worship of all such spirits was rejected as immoral, and many were in fact considered malevolent and dangerous.
The demonization of Ba'al Zebûb led to much of the modern religious personification of Satan as the adversary of the Abrahamic God.[d]
As can be seen, the etymology of Lecter's first name confirms that he represents a personification of Satan, and this taken with his last name indicates a correspondence between evilness and certain Jews. As we've already observed, Lecter represents evil hermaphroditic Jews (recall from part 8 of the analysis, that the hermaphroditic aspect of Lecter is due to the 'femaleness' within him, insofar as he corresponds to the witch, Baba Yaga).
a. Ancestry, Lichter Family History: Lichter Name Meaning. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=lichter.
b. Wikipedia, 'Hanukkah'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah.
c. Wikipedia, 'Hannibal'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal.
d. Wikipedia, 'Baal'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal.
The diner standoff: Jules points his gun at Ringo (foreground), while Vincent and Yolando (standing on a table) point their guns at each other.
In part 2 of the analysis, we talked about the 'situational switching' going on in the movie - certain 'roles' and their 'opposites' are played out. An example we looked at was that in one scene, a character pays someone for their help, and in another scene, a corresponding character accepts pay to help someone. Now we will look at one specific context in which much of the switching in the movie occurs, that of being in control: A given character in the movie may be in control in one situation, but find himself under control in a different one.
The most obvious example of this 'switching of control' is the sequence of events that takes place in the diner at the movie's ending, i.e., the armed holdup of the diner by Ringo and Yolanda ('Pumpkin' and 'Honey Bunny', respectively). At the beginning of the holdup, the pair take control of all the employees and customers at gunpoint. However, once we're fairly well along into the robbery, soon after Ringo begins speaking to Jules, Jules grabs Ringo's gun, pulls out his own, and takes control of Ringo. Immediately after this, Yolanda re-asserts at least partial control for her and Ringo - if Jules shoots Ringo, Yolanda will shoot Jules. Then, control switches back toward Jules again, when Vincent returns from the diner's men's room and, upon seeing what is happening, points his gun at Yolanda. Eventually, the whole standoff ends in a neutral outcome, in the sense that no one is killed or wounded.
Another instance of control switching in the film occurs during the scene in Jimmie Dimmick's house. Jules and Vincent, who have been in control in most or all of the situations they have been in up to this point, now find themselves subject to Jimmie's good will. Note that Jimmie effectively forces Jules to acknowledge that he did not see a sign outside his house saying "dead nigger storage." Then, when The Wolf shows up, we notice that Jimmie becomes somewhat obsequious toward him - control now belongs to a different character, with Jimmie, Jules, and Vincent all under the control of The Wolf.
Disclaimers 1) In certain instances it has been determined that the creators of some of the productions analyzed on this blog, and/or the creators of source material(s) used in the making of these productions, may be making negative statements about certain segments of society in their productions. These statements should be taken as expressing the opinions of no one other than the creators.
2) This blog is not associated with any of the studios, creators, authors, publishers, directors, actors, musicians, writers, editors, crew, staff, agents, or any other persons or entities involved at any stage in the making of any of the media productions or source materials that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced herein.
3) In keeping with the policies of the filmmakers, authors, studios, writers, publishers, and musicians, that have created the productions (and their source materials) that are analyzed, mentioned, or referenced on this blog, any similarity of the characters in these films or source materials to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Saint Augustine's Confessions andCity of God from Wikisource (except where otherwise noted); portions from Wikisource used on this blog are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Saint Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica from the 'Logos Virtual Library' website (except where otherwise noted), compiled and edited by Darren L. Slider; believed to be in public domain.
