Nihilism comes from the Latin nihil, which means « nothing ». Considering it nihilism could be explained as a philosophy built upon the fact that life is particularly useless and holds no particular meaning in whatsoever. The father, we could say, of nihilism was known to be Nietzsche, one of his characters was declaring that God is dead, what it really meant was that society drifts aside from its Judeo-Christian substance. Moreover, there is no substitute for this godless world, de facto, chaos. Life having no utter value, reason, logic and scientific perspective becomes truth in the last instance.

So what’s the link with Pulp Fiction. This film is an accurate critique of modern America, of the American nihilism that has become common sense. Where conversations are basic, discussions primitive, and human life has no true value. As Nietzsche was analyzing, nihilism became the mainstream ideology, the only issue is chaos, that is why you see characters dying one by one, in the most miserable ways, or at least, facing death. Tarantino left one figure in the film having a better fate, the only figure driving away from nihilism, back to religion.

We could write a full analysis of this movie here, in order to get a full explanation of this medallion. But it would not be right, for those who have not watched it. For those who did not know what nihilism was:

What is sure is that now, you will able to understand the movie fully.

Analysis by Kipras Petravičius