Stereotypes In The Breakfast Club

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 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

Through everybody’s eyes is their own version of the American Dream. Whether it’s the stereotypical dream with a good job, a family, and a house with a white picket fence, or it could be just getting by at the end of the month financially. The American Dream doesn’t have a specific image but rather a particular mindset. Lots of people have a goal in their life that they have to work hard to be successful towards that goal, but in most cases that goal may be unrealistic.

John Hughes masterfully captures the shades of adolescent stereotypes and interactions, the culture clash between adolescents and adults, and the role that parents play in modeling the high school experience of each adolescent. The Breakfast Club follows five different teenagers throughout the course of a day as they are forced to endure detention on a Saturday. Each character symbolizes a classic adolescent prototype: the athlete, the basket case, the brain, the criminal, and the princess. At first, the adolescents separate themselves and make judgments and assumptions about each other based on the stereotype they each characterize. As the film develops, the characters start to move past these stereotypes to recognize they have

The American Dream is pivotal to America's upbringing and culture. It has existed before America has. Its is the belief that a person could achieve success in America through hard work. The American Dream is somethings everyone wished to accomplish, and for good reason. However, the dream is increasingly getting harder to achieve than ever before. Be it for prejudice, persecution, social constructs, or even sexism. For some people, the American Dream is still a reality, but for others it will always be a dream.

Coming of age is a popular theme in literature with many authors, directors, and musicians basing their work around it. They create works with the intent to examine our youth from different perspectives. Two great examples of this would be the film The Breakfast Club and novel The Perks of being a wallflower. Both show a realistic and relatable take on the lives of high schoolers, however I’d argue Breakfast Club better accomplishes this goal. The Breakfast Club takes each classic high school stereotype and grants the viewer some understanding as to who they really are beneath their label, compared to The perks of being a wallflower which performs poorly in trying to accurately portray high school life.

What is the American Dream? Back then, the American Dream is to have a piece of land. That land would make life “better and richer and fuller for everyone”. Like George and Lennie, their dream was to get a piece of land. Now, people have many interpretations on what the American Dream is. In the article, The American Dream: What is The American Dream?, it says that some think that it is all about being able to have higher wages and have “motor cars”. Others think that living their life to the fullest and want to be recognized by others for their talents is the American Dream. Of Mice and Men depicts the American Dream perfectly.

The primary tensions are apparent in the first scenes when Claire states at the beginning of the detention sentence that she does not belong there. With this statement in this scene, Claire explicitly expresses her hesitation in forming as a group. Another example where this primary social tension is evident is with Allison’s nail biting. When Allison is loudly biting her nails, the others stare at her bewildered and annoyed. She looks at them and continues, showing that she does not care that they do not approve of her actions or what they think of her.

John Hughes’ eighties classic film, The Breakfast Club, tells the story of a rebel, a princess, a brain, a basket case and a jock spending their Saturday together in detention. They first believe that they are completely different from one another, but by the end they learn that they’re more similar than they are different. A variety of social psychology concepts can be found throughout the entire film. Stereotypes, self-fulfilling prophecy, and social norms will be discussed within this paper.

Breakfast Club film contained a wide variety of behavior and stereotypes. Each person had their own personality and taste at the beginning of the film. I believe that communication played the biggest part in the movie. It shows the way that people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues. The various types of communication and behaviors within the film will be discussed.

In the 1980’s, John Hughes was a very popular film director. He mostly made comedic movies about teenage life. One of his most famous and most quoted movies is The Breakfast Club. The movie is set in Chicago, Illinois inside a high school library; it is the story of five teenagers who have Saturday detention for different reasons. Their assignment during detention is to write an essay explaining who they are.

There is perhaps no greater studied and “troubling” time in a person’s life than their teenage years. From the ages of 13-19, a person grows up- during this time, they began to realize that the world has problems, and to wonder whether those problems have always been their and are just being noticed, or if the world has suddenly began falling apart. This is also the age in which children attend High School- a place where, on one end, there are kids who are still afraid of crossing the street without their parents’ help, and on the other end, students who want nothing more than to break free, explore the world, and exist on their own. It is also the time in a person’s life where they are told they must be ready to do the latter; so, the question

John Hughes’ movie The Breakfast Club is a classic American film. It includes Hollywood’s famous Brat Pack that was included in most of John Hughes’ films. The Brat Pack included Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall. There are multiple themes that run throughout the film itself. The one I would like to point out is “People aren’t always what they seem.” John Hughes uses mostly camera angles that either zooms in on a specific character to depict a feeling or a thought, or he zooms out to show a group dynamic. John varies the shots between these scopes throughout the film.

The American Dream is a concept that is essentially older than the United States, dating back to the seventeenth century. It was then when people began to come up with hopes and aspirations for the newly discovered, unexplored continent. The “American Dream” is in essence the idea in that puts forward the notion that all people can succeed through hard work, that all people have the right to the pursuit of happiness, and be successful. The definition of the American Dream has been expanded upon and redefined over time. The concept of the American Dream has always been debated and put under criticism. There are many that believe the structure of American Society belies the idealistic goal of the American Dream. It points out examples of

What is the “American Dream”? The American Dream has always been characterized by a thriving job market, opportunities for advancement, stability, etc. It is “the pursuit of individual achievement without consideration for moral or legal restrictions” (Angulski, 2013). This idea dates back as far as 1630 to the puritan colonists. It was first established within a sermon given by John Winthrop while sailing to Massachusetts. This sermon set into motion the ideals that we have adapted today enveloping the “American Dream”. From then on Americans put their faith in the theory that if you work hard and do the right thing you will manifest your goals and eventually attain success and comfortability. The dream of the time was to live in a land where there existed a right to religious freedom and opportunity. This ideal has stuck to this day, however the validity may is no longer intact. The American Dream is a mere afterthought within today’s society, overtaken by massive debt and loss of opportunity. The American Dream is the greatest asset we as a country possess, “the fact that people from across the world still want to come to America to fulfill their dreams, to join a society that they see as dynamic, exciting, and full of potential, is a testament to the great potential of America to improve lives and offer opportunity for all” (Ross, 2016).