The Breakfast Club is set in Shermer, Illinois on March 24, 1984. Five high school students from Shermer High School are required to report for detention on a Saturday. The school's principal, Mr. Vernon, who is supervising the detention, gives them an assignment where they are each required to write an essay about how they came to be in detention and “who they think they are.” The students are strangers to one another, each coming from a different social group, however, throughout the day they eventually open up and they begin to realize they are not, in fact, as different as they originally thought. The Breakfast Club is a movie that falls into the Comedy/Drama type of entertainment media. Several examples of social psychology are entertained …show more content…
These stereotypes are conveyed through the clothes they wear and the way they act. The stereotypes also represent how the members of the Breakfast Club see one another in the beginning of the movie. Brian is considered "The Brain" in the Breakfast Club. He follows the stereotype of being a typical "nerd". He wears high-waisted jeans and a too-small sweatshirt. Brian wears practical clothing that is not seen as trendy in the high school which only solidifies his dorky image. Claire is seen as "The Princess" of the Breakfast Club. She conforms to the stereotype of a "prom queen/prep" by wearing various shades of pink, a skirt, earrings, and bangle bracelets. Because of her high social standing, she feels that she must keep up with the trends to remain popular in the eyes of her social group and the rest of the school. Bender is considered "The Criminal" of the Breakfast Club; He follows the stereotype of a "troublemaker." Bender wears ripped jeans, work boots, a thermal shirt, a plaid over-shirt, and a torn flannel. His layers of disheveled clothing suit his tough, rebellious attitude. Bender's personality could be described as aggressive and disrespectful towards figures of authority, which can be seen in the way he treats Mr. Vernon, the principal. Allison is portrayed as "The Basket Case" of the Breakfast Club. She follows the stereotype of a "weirdo" by wearing …show more content…
In high school, everyone is vulnerable and desperate to figure out who they are. As a consequence, people typically live off the labels put upon them by others. When suddenly they're not that unique 13-year-old kid their parents told them they were; they're a loser, they're a jock, they're a brain, they're a princess and they're a basket case. In this movie, they've come to a point where they don't know themselves as anything other than their label, which they had no choice in. These labels were chosen for them based on their looks, background and family. For example, Claire is pretty and rich and that is what everyone has told her so what else is she supposed to believe? Because of this, she’s always going to think she is supposed to hang out with the pretty, popular girls, because that’s who society has told her she is. The same can be said for the rest of the characters, Bender especially. While growing up, his own parents told him that he was never worth anything. Because of this, when he went to school and was faced with dealing with other adults, he
The Breakfast Club is a 1985 American movie written and directed by John Hughes. The movie focuses on five different teenagers, each of which fits a typical stereotype. Each teen is introduced individually, displaying the traits of their respective stereotypes. The audience is first introduced to Claire, the preppy, popular girl, referred to as “The Prom Queen” in the script. Next, the audience is introduced to Brian, the nerd, or geek, of the group. Following Brian, the audience is introduced to Andrew, the popular athlete, referred to as “The Jock” in the script. In the shortest introductions, the audience is given a small glimpse of John Bender, although at this time the stereotype he fits is not known, a short observation of the physical attributes and clothing style will reveal to the audience that John Bender fills the role of the rebel or delinquent. The final member of the group is introduced in a short fashion as well. Allison, steps out of a car, dressed in dark clothing, with dark hair and makeup, is the outcast, or introvert of the group. Each stereotype represented by the teens is predicated on the general idea of high school cliques and the categories they generally fall into.
The Breakfast Club is a movie about five students from Shermer High School who gather on a Saturday to sit through eight hours of detention. These five students; Andrew Clark, Claire Standish, John Bender, Allison Reynolds and Brian Johnson, have nothing in common. The Breakfast Club zooms in on the high school social groups and cliques that are often seen in the development of peer groups during adolescents. The peer groups that are portrayed in The Breakfast Club include, John “the criminal”, Claire “the Princess”, Allison “the Basket case”, Brian “the Brain”, and Andrew “the athlete”. The movie centers around an essay that Principle Vernon wants each student to write regarding who they think they are. In the beginning of the film, the
The Breakfast Club movie is about five high school students from Shemer High School with different backgrounds. It’s the story of “a brain (Brian), an athlete (Andrew), a basket case (Allison), a princess (Claire) and a criminal (Bender).” The purpose of the movie is to captive the feelings and perspectives on what other people have experienced and learned from each other. The analysis about The Breakfast Club is about the common insecurities and challenges of the teenager during high school. The Breakfast club is a movie to convey emotions, fears, and companionship that everyone can relate to. However, with new knowledge comes new perspective and emotions. This movie opens up a world of abstract thoughts because none of the five students know each other and it helps to create an interpersonal communication, they revealed to each other how their lives actually are. This movie is about Social Judgment Theory, Interpersonal conflict, self-disclosure, Social Comparison Theory and an unresolved life conflicts of a teenager life by finding their identities.
The movie The Breakfast Club was released in 1985, and is based on a group of five high school students from stereotypical cliques; the popular, jock, nerd and the outcasts, who all wind up stuck together for Saturday detention. Throughout the movie many themes present themselves such as teenage rebellion, peer pressure and family issues as the students get to know each other. The most prominent theme throughout the movie is the student’s placement in the social structure of the school. From the very different reasons why they are in detention to the way that they are all treated differently by the principle, their social placement is evident.
The Breakfast Club is a classic 1980’s film depicting the various lives of a group of extremely diverse high school students; each dealing with and trying to overcome their own obstacles and challenges. Despite the initial conflict between the characters due to them all coming from different backgrounds and social cliques, they soon learn that they are not all so different from one another and are each struggling with similar problems within themselves and their personal lives. They eventually learn to accept the differences between each other and realize the falseness of some of their internalized values and stereotypes that they hold against others and themselves. The Breakfast club perfectly exhibits how stereotypes effect our lives, illustrates
In the beginning of the movie we learn that Brian, Andrew, Claire, John, and Allison attend Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, but are worlds apart due to the social cliques developed by peers and society. These social stereotypes have dictated the following labels for each individual: Brian is the reserved brain, Andrew is the typical athlete, Claire is the spoiled princess, John is the criminal/bully, and Allison is the artsy basket case. Each individual comes from a unique yet damaged background, but in some way similarities exist. These various backgrounds play a key role in the plot development later in the film and set forward the bond the adolescents will form before detention is dismissed.
According to Erik Erikson, he identifies the task of an adolescent as identity versus role confusion. This is where adolescent tries to form their personal and social identity. Some adolescents may adopt the values and beliefs of their parents; however, others may develop their identities from peers and oppose the values and beliefs of their parents. Adolescence who are emerging into adulthood struggles to confine with their psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional development. During this time period, there are five distinctive characters of emerging adulthood: age of identity explorations, age of instability, self-focused, age of feeling in-between, and age of possibilities. In The Breakfast Club, five high school students spend their Saturday together in detention, and they have to set aside their differences in order to make it through those long hours. The jock, the princess, the basket case, and the criminal reveal their internalizing problems involving their peers, parents or self. Their behaviors and personalities indicate the underlying issues of their cognitive and social development. The interaction between the students helps them find common ground with each other and learn the details of their life beneath the stereotypes. Throughout the movie, John Bender has an impulsive and aggressive personality that can be characterized by the environment that he was raised in, his
To start, stereotypes are deceptive because people place others into cliques based on their appearances. People assume everyone in a clique are the same, even though their true personality may differ from that clique. The first example from The Outsiders in which somebody doesn’t fit in with the stereotype they are given is Ponyboy. Ponyboy doesn’t quite fit in with his clique, the greasers. After Ponyboy is jumped, Darry has a fight with Pony. Darry yells at Ponyboy to think on the streets and to stay alert. Darry is concerned about Ponyboy’s safety: ‘“You must think at school with all those good grades you bring home, and you’ve always got your nose in a book, but do you ever use your head for common sense?”’ (13). Meaning, Ponyboy isn’t like the greaser stereotype. Compared to all the other greasers, Pony is book smart and not street smart. The greasers are smart where it really matters like on the streets. They carry blades to defend themselves, travel as gangs, and know how to get themselves out of a dangerous situation, if they get stuck in one. Ponyboy, however, is book smart. He succeeds at an outstanding level at school and in his academics. Once he is on the street his intelligence doesn’t follow him. He doesn’t use his common sense and he can’t find his way out of dangerous situations. As a result of this Pony gets jumped by the Socs which
In the film The Breakfast Club, Deviance and Conformity to the norms are used throughout the film to help viewers understand the Labeling Theory and how it connects to the behavior of adolescents. Deviance simply put is the departing of social norms and and values in social situations while the Labeling Theory can be defined as that people generate their own self image solely based upon what others think of themselves which leads to poor self image and feelings about themselves and others around them. The Labeling Theory is applied in The Breakfast Club because it appears that all the characters feel like they already know everything about one another solely based on who they really are when they all first meet. In the film, we start to get an idea of exactly who the characters really are inside. In the first few minutes we start to understand that there is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal but by the end of the film we start to understand that the individuals are all different than what they seem. It feels like only in high school, you really care about how others perceive you, how you’re labeled and you’d do anything to just prove that you’re not some loser who spends time alone feeling bad for themselves. An example throughout the film is how defensive Claire acts when Bender is teasing her for all she has. By the end of the film, we start to understand that Claire does everything she can to get respect from her peers.
Released in 1985, The Breakfast Club depicts five high school students from Illinois as they spend a Saturday together in detention. Prior to their arrival, John Bender, Claire Standish, Andy Clark, Brian Johnson, and Allison Reynolds had not met, nor would they have associated with one another on a typical day in high school. After spending nine hours together, however, the group of vastly different adolescents break down emotional barriers, manage to build a sense of intimacy, and some establish dating relationships by the day’s end (Hughes et al., 1985). The film illustrated a rather realistic portrait of adolescence in several topical domains.
Brian was another case of insecurity. The influence of self-concept was strong with Brian Johnson for he had no sense of self. He could not meet the standards of his desired self and was therefore unhappy with himself as a person. He quivered at the non-verbal communication projected by Benders' glare. Brian used passive aggression and was non-assertive. An example of these is where Bender starts acting up. Brian said weakly " I think we should just do our papers." Any suggestion Brian made throughout the movie was met by disconfirming responses such as verbal abuse, impervious responses, or interruptions. Claire was the "Prom Princess", she had a high self esteem, and was assertive. As well she was highly emotional throughout the film. An example of her emotional language was her straightforward statement to Bender "I hate you" This was after he had broken a promise not to laugh at her. Claire also had the habit of using the defense mechanism of compensation. She made up for her lack of general skills and abilities by turning the discussion to how popular and rich she was. Andrew was the jock. He was an athlete who was assertive, confident, and had high self-esteem. His problem was that he couldn't think for himself, and was in that way passive. He showed aggressive behavior when Bender acted as if he was going to urinate on the floor. Andrew turned and said "you whip it out your dead before the first drop hits, the floor. Two
In every high school film, there are always the teenage stereotypes that are seen. In The Breakfast Club, the five students each represented the major stereotypes that people join with high school. Claire was considered the preppy popular girl, John was considered the bad boy, Allison was considered the weird emo girl, Andrew was considered the school’s best athlete and jock, and lastly Brian was the nerd. The crazy thing about this was that those stereotypes didn't even match the students, those stereotypes are what they used to hide their real identities. John wasn’t the real bad boy, he was insecure and scared. Claire didn't like being popular because she hated to agree with everyone, she wanted to be herself but she couldn't around certain people. Brian didn’t want to be the nerd, but his parents made him become one. Brian was just as cool and chill as the other students but he could never show
The movie The Breakfast Club takes viewers on a comedic tour of the ups and downs of adolescence. The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, focuses on the events that unfold between five very different high school students during a Saturday detention. Even though the movie was shot in the 1980 's the characters portrayal is still relatable in a way to a lot of people today. Director John Hughes takes us on a comedic ride with what seems like another typical "teen movie" while still portraying a few life lessons along the way and exposing some truths behind stereotyping.
The Breakfast Club is a film that exhibits many dynamics within society which are then displayed throughout school systems. Throughout watching this, I was able to relate some of these sociological groups to my own experiences within high school and analyze sociological elements and themes within the film.
The Breakfast Club is a movie about five totally different students in high school who are forced to spend a Saturday in detention in their school library. The students come from completely different social classes which make it very difficult for any of them to get along. They learn more about each other and their problems that each of them have at home and at school. This movie plays their different personality types against each other. In this essay I will go into detail about each of the students and the principal individually.