The Role of Stereotypes in Film Many teen movies focus on the stereotypes of high schoolers. One of the most notable of these films is The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, John Kapelos, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. The Breakfast Club tells the story of five teens, described in their own words as Claire the princess, Brian the brain, Andrew the athlete, Bender the criminal, and Allison the basket case. These teens, while all very different, are united when serving detention on a Saturday. Under the supervision of Mr. Vernon, the schools assistant principal, the teens are expected to write a thousand-word paper about who they think they are. However, after …show more content…
Their experience not only leads to them gaining a greater understanding of themselves, but also of the others. While The Breakfast Club utilizes and reinforces high school stereotypes, it also uses them to address meaningful themes, such as how assumptions affect perception, and how when stereotypes are set aside, people are more similar than they appear. Like many other teen movies, The Breakfast Club explores different stereotypes. Many of these stereotypes are apparent from the very first scene, when each teen is arriving at the school to serve their detention time. Claire, the princess, arrives first. Her label as the princess is quite fitting - she arrives in a BMW, driven by her father who coddles her. "I'll make it up to you," (The Breakfast Club) Claire's father tells her when she complains about wasting her Saturday in detention, which only plays into her stereotype as a spoiled princess. Brian, the brain, arrives next. His stereotype as the nerd is made clear when his mother does everything in her power to make sure he will be studying during detention. After Brian, the audience sees Andrew, the athlete. Like Claire and Brian, Andrew's stereotype is apparent from the start. He is wearing a state letterman
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.
In all of our lives there are goals we have, values we possess, and strengths and weaknesses that make us who we are. All of us, no matter if we are a jock, or a brain, someone who succeeds in education, or someone who wants so badly to get out, face barriers in our lives. Some of us come from broken families, some us of come from abusive situations, but all of us have a unique and individual story. At the heart of this story are the struggles we have experienced, the people we have associated ourselves with, and the lessons we have learnt along the way. Such can be said about my own life, and the lives of the characters from the Breakfast Club. The characters from the Breakfast Club that I feel most represent me are: Claire Standish (The
The Breakfast Club is a wonderful example of pubertal timing in adolescents. Throughout the film the viewer can see where the characters are at in their development as well as the impacts of their pubertal timing. The Breakfast Club highlights physical changes, relationships with parents, relationships with peers, and the timing of early and late maturation. Claire is portrayed as the stereotypical popular girl and can be described as an early maturing girl. She wears expensive clothes, diamond earrings and wealthy accessories. Throughout the film, Claire relies solely on her looks, and is viewed as conceited, privileged and spoiled. Claire shows characteristics of an early maturing girl because she is strongly influenced by social and cultural views. Claire says in the film, “Your friends wouldn 't mind because they look up to us.... I 'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it! I hate having to go along with everything my friends say!” Claire is aware of her social status among her peers and holds herself to higher expectations to uphold her reputation. She states, “Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school.” To fit in with her peers, she must act a certain way in public to impress them. Claire is
The 1985 comedy drama movie, The Breakfast Club, included five teenagers who are in Saturday school detention for various reasons and at the end of the day must write an essay that explains how they define themselves. In Saturday school detention, each teenager learns about one another, what they have in common, and why they were assigned to be in detention. The teens all have similar problems with stereotyping of how society and especially how their parents define them. In the movie, four of the main characters: Claire, John, Andrew, and Allison experience at least one of the following theories: strain theory, social learning theory, control theory, and labeling theory.
The groups that are formed as adolescents often determine group associations as adults and define an individual within their social group that will either set them with or against other groups. This is described in an article on social groupings by Colin Allen, which mentions that our social associations as adolescents are strong indicators to future patterns of social norms as adults. Therefore, the group of students in the movie, The Breakfast Club, can also be extrapolated to adult group dynamics. However, the varying social norms between groups can present conflicts when adults are required to function within a very diverse group of individuals. In The Breakfast Club, the Jock, Geek, Prom Queen, Delinquent, and the Freak groups are brought together initially through an autocratic or directive leadership role, used to bring the group together in order to proceed to the next phase of group development. This stage is particularly important within a group of
Five teens, five different cliques, one eight-hour Saturday detention. These is the basics of The Breakfast Club. Through spending the day with one another Allison, Andrew, Brian, Claire and John realize there isn’t much difference between them, and the differences that are between them aren’t too important. Watching The Breakfast Club is a great way to learn about adolescents. You have five, very different -yet very similar- adolescents to observe along with what they do together. In observing them you can understand how they’re beginning to cognitively develop from children to adults
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.
Stereotype; a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and in the short story, “Geeks Bearing Gifts”, written by Ron Koertge, stereotypes are defied by ordinary people. In The Outsiders, Johnny Cade and Darry Curtis face many struggles throughout their lives. Their town in separated into two: the rich and dangerous Socs, and the quiet, tough Greasers. For them, living dangerously is a reality. As a result of their lifestyle, Johnny has become fearful and Darry is considered the toughest man in the gang. In “Geeks Bearing Gifts” aspiring journalist, Renee, interviews her fellow classmates who are classified as “outcasts.” After meeting several students, she realizes her assumptions were incorrect about them. After reading both of these stories, the reader learns that our thoughts about others often revolve around stereotypes and assumptions, but most of these ideas that we have about other people are proven wrong.
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
The theories of Schemes will be explored. We are looking to see how stereotypes can help influence someone to act a certain way and feel certainly about them selves. Checking Conformity and how Allison reforms to fit what the other students think about her. The was that she changed from the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie shows how people can change just in order to fit and and to feel better about themselves. The meaning of reciprocity and how people view each other and how the psychical attraction could change how people see other people. The way that the students all fell for each other is going to be examined as if it would to really happen like that. Overall going to check to see if the guidelines to these theories are truly in effect for the students of The Breakfast Club.
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.
When each of the students came into detention, they each had their own identities and their own underlying issues that no one knew about. When they started to open up and grow closer with each other, their identities changed all together. They were beginning to show their real personalities within each other and at the end of the film they all embraced who they really were on the inside and who everyone else was.
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.
John Hughes's The Breakfast Club is one of film history’s most iconic and renowned movies and is a cornerstone of 1980’s pop-culture. The Breakfast Club showcases five unique high school students who all unfortunately find themselves imprisoned in an all-day Saturday detention. The students go as following: Claire (a pretty girl), Brian (the nerd), John (the bad boy), Andrew (an athlete), and Allison (the strange, goth girl). These students come from very different backgrounds and social settings which proves to spark many conflicts between them as well as with their supervisor Mr. Vernon. But through this conflict they find similarities between themselves, and after spending nine hours locked up together, they find resolution within themselves and with their new friends. Psychology can explain why this happened as well as what caused other events to occur. This paper will examine four different psychological phenomena: stereotypes, conformity/normative social influence, ingroup versus outgroup/superordinate goals, and the various causes of attraction.