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Films are told in an order. Sequences from films are conventionally told in order like a story. 'Every story has a beginning,middle and end'(1).
The film Pulp Fiction tells its story in chapters as a book would.Different characters lead each different story line these story lines are intertwined and are connected.
However these sequences aren't chronological, the story isn't told in the order it occurs.
For example in Pulp Fiction the first scene is set in a diner with 'Pumpkin' and 'Honey Bunny'.
These two characters are planning to stage a hold-up in the diner.
This chapter is called Prologue-the Diner. According to Nick Lacey 'in conventional narrative,stories must always be chronologically constructed otherwise they would be judged to violate the rules of our universe; they would destroy the rules of logical casualty which define narrative' (2).
The ending chapter of the film takes place in the same diner. Jules and Vincent are eating breakfast and discussing Jules decision to retire.Then there is a short cut away to Pumpkin and Honey bunny moments before the hold up scene from the beginning of the film.This chapter is called Epilogue-the Diner.The ending scene is the beginning scene just told from a different persecutive from different characters 'A single story event may appear twice or even more in the plot treatment' (3).
'This increased frequency may allow us to see the same action in several ways (4).

Pulp fiction is an excellent example of an unconventional narrative as it tells its story in sequences,out of chronological order.This doesn't make sense to what the audience understand about films.'Stories surround us.In childhood, we learn fairy tales and myths. As we grow up we read short stories,novels,history and biography' (5). In these stories are characters we know such as Vladimir Propp's character types such as the villain, the princess and the hero.These character types are used in many Disney films such as Pocahontas and Aladdin and even films such as Avatar. 
Pulp fiction doesn't use these character types therefore the audience might not understand the characters purpose straight away.


Vincent from Pulp Fiction dies during the chapter 'The Gold Watch' this leaves the audience confused as they have been identifying with this character then he dies half way through the film.Vincent then reappears in the next chapter 'The Bonny Situation'. Marion Crane from Psycho also gets killed off early on in the film leaving no one for the audience to identify with. 'Perhaps the character types in film switch for the audience in this final scene, regarding Propp's theory of character types' (6). Psycho's ending was a huge plot twist as Norman's mother 'Norma Bates' who the audience was led to believe was the murderer,was actually Norman who had a split personality and portrayed both Norma and himself. Plot twists break an audiences expectations which makes a film unconventional.
'A plots withholding of events is perhaps most disruptive at the end of a film'(7). Some of audience may try to guess what will happen in the film 'We often make assumptions and inferences about events in narrative' (8). We have anticipations that are characteristics of narrative form itself' (9).


Time and space in a film can make a narrative alternative.'temporal order,we are quite accustomed to films that present events out of story order,a flashback is simply a portion of a story that the plot presents out of chronological order' (10). The purpose of using a flashback is to reveal a truth about the story or a character the audience wouldn't have known, 'We make sense of narrative,then by identifying it's events and linking them by cause and effect,time,and space'(11). In Vertigo, flashbacks are used to reveal plot twists.In Vertigo, Scottie had seen Madeleine plunge to her death making him have a break down and become clinically depressed.A flashback is used to reveal that 'Madeleine' and Judy are the same person.Time can be so vital to the plot it could be seen as the most important element to the narrative, 'Time can be so central as to be almost incorporated as a character itself' (12).

Quotations 
1.Backwards and Flash forwards by Emma Louise Howard
2. Narrative and Genre by Nick Lacey
3.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
4.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
5.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
6.Narrative and Genre by Nick Lacey
7.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
8.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
9.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
11.Film art- an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
12.Film art-an introduction David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas
13.Power of time-Media Magazine-Emma Louise Howard