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Film: The Breakfast Club Essay

Decent Essays

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.
In the movie, the principle asks the students to each write a 1,000 word essay on who they …show more content…

It is very similar to high school with the jocks, the popular kids, the people who climb themselves up the social ladder, and the people who just happen to fall into popularity. Many times with people of the Upper Class, they believe that they can get away with anything by either paying someone off to not suffer the consequences, or whoever does find out will just brush it under the table because of who they are. Similarly, Claire, the popular one, is in Saturday detention because she got caught skipping class to go shopping. She thought that her dad would have the power to get her out of detention but he didn’t. This mirrors how members of the Upper Class will often pay their way out of a lawsuit or legal issues because they have the ability to do so. Also, Andy who is the jock in the movie is in detention because he “taped Larry Lester’s buns together,” and he thought that he wouldn’t have to face detention because he was a varsity athlete. This can be compared to professional athletes that commit a crime and instead of being charged for it immediately or at all. Therefore, the Upper Class of America and the social elites of high school are very similar and the members of these social groups rely on their status to get themselves through certain unfavorable situations. The Middle Class of high school is the students who don’t do

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