The Breakfast Club Student Identity Essay

Who are you? Five high school students are asked this question at the beginning of a Saturday detention session in The Breakfast Club. This question is not just unique to these students in this high school, but this is a question all high school students attempt to figure out by the time they enter college or join the work force. Unfortunately, a person is often perceived based on stereotypes which does not reveal the true person. In The Breakfast Club, perception of students based on stereotypes leads to biased expectations, isolation, and peer pressure in American high schools.

The Breakfast Club contains important themes that resonate in many people, particularly teenagers, one of those themes being alienation and acceptance. This film perfectly portrays the alienation many students feel in high school, whether popular or unpopular, and follows it up with acceptance as they see they are not alone and find those who can help them. These themes are portrayed both through the characters and the way they act and what they have been through as well as in the movie as a whole. In 1985, when The Breakfast Club was made, this portrayal of the isolation of high school was very important for teenagers to see, and today in 2017, it is still insanely important. From then to now, high school has been a hard time for many

The film, “The Breakfast Club”, demonstrates the sociological topics such as socialization, culture, stereotypes, education, family, deviance, socio-economic status, and cliques. Five students have somehow ended up in Saturday detention for a total of nine hours. These individuals have nothing in common. As high school students, they are each stereotyped differently and placed into cliques. Claire is the princess, Andrew is the athlete, Brian is the brain, John is the criminal, and Allison is the basket case.

Almost 150 years ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., expressed the following sage but sad observation in his book "The Professor at the Breakfast Table": Society is always trying in some way or other to grind us down to a single flat surface. Unfortunately, this is still true today. Last week I saw the movie "The Breakfast Club" written and directed by John Hughes which expressed a similar theme. Fortunately, youth of every age "are quite aware of what they are going through" and have the ability to break the fast imposed on them by the socialization process which begins in the home and is reinforced at school, not only by students and parents but teachers like Mr. Vernon as well.

I picked the brain and nerd or Brian for my essay. One thing I thought that was really interesting is that his name is Brain except the i and a in his name is switched around. I thought that as the movie started he was more just afraid and quiet. However as the movie went on he got more confidence and started talking in the group and started talking about him and his story.

that sport. I play with my friends at games and practices. I also hang out with my friends at

Throughout your adolescence people had a distinct idea of who you were and where you fit into the chaos that was your high school career. Many, if not all, high schools have cliques that you happen to fall into. In the typical portrayal of high school, there are the ‘Jocks’ and the ‘Cheerleaders’, who may not be the brightest of the bunch. The ‘Nerds’, who although you would never date, you wouldn’t mind if they tutored you for an upcoming test. Then, there are a selected group of individuals that seemed to have gotten the brains and the beauty. Again typically speaking, you found this elite group taking up ranks in student government or perhaps you came across them in the “Most Likely to Succeed” section of the yearbook. Without haste you could easily know that these people were going places.

Becoming youreself with highschool can be one of the most lost and draining causes a teenager can face. It is as easy to lose the meaning of “me” as forgetting to put your name on a paper. The pressure that is placed on a student wether it is good grades, sports, clubs or getting a job for instace. We face the question of who are we? How are we truly able to find ourselves when ourselves our trying to balance the pressure of becoming who our parents, teachers and peers expect us to be.

“Socially vulnerable people”, according to an article by “BioMed Central”, states that “beginning to participate in anything among others, you will eventually begin to socialize and less likely to be socially vulnerable if they continue being active with others.” This means that while you’re playing a sport you must have interaction with others in order for you to have the full understanding of what the game is all

Individuality is a facade and conformity is the norm. A person who is “different” is considered an outcast, undeserving of the pleasant and jocular memories associated with high school, or as some adolescents refer to it, “the best four years of their lives.” Such statements, filled with glittering generalities and hopeful testimonies, run completely opposite to my personal experiences. Although I have learned positive lessons, the overwhelming perusal and close examination of self I have had to face has become an outstanding negative consequence of high school. These repercussions primarily stem from academic performance, self-image, and overall social stratification.

As a college student looking back fondly at my days in high school, it pays to remember that high school is a stressful and complicated time in people’s lives. Students are navigating an entirely different arena. They are trying to figure out who they are, trying to balance school work and soccer practice and parties, making and losing friends. High school is a time of uneasiness. However, it is also a time of change. Everything changes in high school. Well, everything but the assigned reading.

Sometimes it is best to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Life can carry you away like a river with commitments and responsibilities and in a blink of an eye, the river will end. It is imperative that one fights the current and takes a step back to realize what life is actually about and who one truly is. High school is like that river, and it takes you away with all the time in clubs, sports, and hours of studying you invest. Defining who the real “me” is difficult because there is barely any time to explore myself. Nonetheless, my background and identity allow me to realize who I really am and ignites a fire in me to succeed in life.

The four years of high school have finally come to an end. The numerous hours and all-nighters we have spent studying excessively in order to get into the most advanced universities have finally paid off. It feels like only yesterday we were throwing our graduation caps in the air thinking “We finally made it through high school!” Here we are now leaving our homes, families and friends, carrying a huge responsibility and beginning a whole new, unusual chapter of our lives. Here we are, with our future before us, filled with countless adventures and surprises. Although there may be a few similarities between high school and college, the differences outnumber them.

From kindergarten all the way to college, adulthood slowly dawns upon teenagers as they say goodbye to their ”comfort zones”, and are thrown right into the real world. Even with their secondary school careers behind them, the harsh reality of attending a university is still on the way. For most university-bound high school students, college is viewed as a monstrous change in dynamic and diversity, and is widely conceived as ‘a leap’ into the unknown. Meanwhile, college students look back at their high school years and reminiscence on their pasts and old friends. Though the two are perceived as vastly different, the two are more alike than seems to be.

I met Jessica Brunk while playing volleyball as well. She wants players to get better so she helps them by challenging them. Jessica helped me last year when I didn’t have a partner to warm up with. She was also one of those friends, who would listen to what you needed to say. Jessica is playing volleyball for college and I am really happy for her, since that was what she always wanted to do. Danielle and Jessica were seniors last year so I can not talk to them all the time since they are at college.