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Breakfast Club: an Identity Crisis Or a Stereotype Mess

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Words: 2434 |

Pages: 5|

13 min read

Published: Jun 7, 2021

Words: 2434|Pages: 5|13 min read

Published: Jun 7, 2021

The stereotypes in The Breakfast Club are more leaning towards social stereotypes, much akin to the reality world of social inequality.

Stereotype is a term used to over-generalized belief about a particular category of people as one assumes that the stereotype fits for each individual based on what they perceptive in the category.

The Breakfast Club presents an engaging story with different personalities of people categorize into mainstream stereotypes amongst teenagers, especially in high schools.

This film is a story of outcasts working to overcome differences, opposites falling in love and all to help each other.

This movie gives us a breakdown of stereotypes characters that define those around us allowing the audience but also seems to reinforce it. This movie presents itself with an attitude of resigning that stereotypes will always be amongst us, an inherent in the society, it is unavoidable.

However, unlike many stories, The Breakfast Club did not attempt to provide us the solutions to the problem faced in society. Rather the film views it as a much realistic approach to its ending, that there are no idyllic or happily-ever-after endings. It seems the film want us to accept the fact that the old age question of stereo will be always part of our society.

The stereotypes of this movie are negative and confining, separating all in our society into a certain number of little boxes that we categorize people’s personalities and their lives.

This movie about five students - John Bender 'The Criminal', Allison Reynolds 'The Basket Case', Claire Standish 'The Princess', Brian Johnson 'The Nerd' and Andrew Clark 'The Athlete' - from completely different social groups are sent to nine hour detention at Shermer High School. Due to their personality differences, they start out not getting along. At the beginning of the movie, there is much conflict amongst the group and the characters have very little in common. Over time their friendships are developed and more is to be discovered about their similarities which they are all faced with life's pressures and are challenged to deal with their individual issues.

The movie came out in 1985 and has become a staple in our society to which realize that the surface level stereotyping that the movie does is most clear in the examples it presents of the classic high school students. The types of stereotypes that people dress up as because they are so widely recognized and accepted. In a way that society works to mold people, especially teenagers, to fit into certain stereotypes.

Undoubtedly, we are just toward the start of tending to these issues. We are not even close to where we should be on issues, for example, stereotyping, shame of dysfunctional behavior or harassing — considerably more should identify.

The Breakfast Club endeavors to remark on these generalizations by overstating them and endeavoring to depict the underlying side to each character. The characters in The Breakfast Club were initially exhibited as personifications: a 'nerd,' (Brian Johnson played by Anthony Michael Lobby), a 'competitor' (Andrew Clark played by Emilio Estevez), a 'bundle of nerves' (Allison Reynolds played by Partner Sheedy), a 'princess,' (Claire Standish played by Molly Ringwald) and a 'criminal' (John Drinking spree played by Judd Nelson). As the characters get to know each other, they understand that they rise above these generalizations and perceive that they share much for all intents and purpose.

For instance, Brian is the great geek. He is brilliant and takes an interest in the cliché 'geek' clubs: 'the math club, the Latin club, and the material science club.' Both Brian and his parents place a great amount of importance upon receiving very high marks and results. Brian’s parents are very determined for Brian not to just do well but o be the best, so much so that they make him study majority of the time leaving him no time to have a social life or friends. He has been limited to this generalization by everyone around him at school, yet by his folks. In the principal scene of the film, Brian's mother places weight on him to 'utilize the opportunity to [his] favorable position' and concentrate as much as he can. Thusly, his mom is compelling a generalization onto him, such that leaves Brian with no opportunity to make sense of who he really is. In this particular scene the camera zooms in on Brian’s to show the emotion and hurt he is feeling. Even though the gun he had was a flare gun at the time he did not know, he was still willing to take his own life because of failing a class.

John’s drinking spree epitomizes the generalization of the criminal. He is the child in secondary school who does not come to class or pursue the standards. In this manner, individuals accept that he is an awful individual. Be that as it may, the motion picture endeavors to demonstrate that there is a whole other world to this generalization of the criminal than the vast majority acknowledge, furnishing Drinking spree with a back story of a harsh home life and a dad who trusts he is useless.

There can't be a motion picture about secondary school generalizations without depicting a 'prevalent young lady,' and The Breakfast Club satisfies that prerequisite with the character of Claire. S demonstrated at the beginning at the front of her father's BMW, going into the vehicle where her father discusses 'influencing it to up' to her. Saying that the reality she needs to go to confinement for playing hooky, to go out on the town to shop, does not make her a faulty. This demonstrates her ruined and bratty appearing manner, fortifying her 'Princess' (well known and ruined young lady) generalization once more.

Claire wears precious stone hoops, is a member in Understudy Committee, has numerous companions, and adjusts to fit in with those companions. Prevalent young ladies are regularly observed as lacking substance and being favored, however the film endeavors to break this generalization by making Claire increasingly mindful and demonstrating that she detests the weight she feels from everyone around her to demonstration a specific way: 'I loathe obliging everything my companions state!'

Andrew Clark is the typical school jock in a high school society, respected and admired by everyone. He is revealed to have a strong and happy exterior but the fact that his is mentally weak. He has many pressures in his life, to be the best in his father’s eyes. Andrew is constructed through the use of film conventions to be portrayed as polite, friendly, and articulate, however this is a superficial appearance and more is to be discovered about what is going on in the inside. From various perspectives, Andrew fits the generalization of the moronic muscle head who utilizes his status to menace other individuals and over utilizations power to get what he needs. However, the film attempts to demonstrate that Andrew breaks his generalization in the manner in which that he treats Allison and ends up powerless.

At last there is Allison, who is stereotyped as the insane, rationally sick individual. All through the primary portion of the film, Allison scarcely talks, just making a couple snorting clamors all over. Allison's shout because of what Claire says about her folks, the cinematography, the way Allison is dressed, her cosmetics, and her developments depict her as creature like. Along these lines, the motion picture draws a similarity between the rationally sick and creatures. This affiliation dehumanizes the rationally sick and generalizations them as something not exactly human. The story endeavors to break this generalization by having Allison open up to alternate characters, experience passionate feelings for the competitor, and be given her a makeover.

The Breakfast Club caught the high schooler anxiety of an age, digging into topics, for example, stereotyping, the shame of psychological maladjustment and harassing. Also, we did as such by taking the defiance of youth and attempting to handle the social issues tended to in the motion picture.

The most clear issue The Breakfast Club addresses is stereotyping. We've started to comprehend that 'generalization risk' is unsafe to youngsters and grown-ups alike; even apparently benevolent stereotyping can be destructive to training and improvement. For instance, one investigation demonstrated that preparing an understudy to know about their way of life as a 'competitor' really decreased test score execution. Accordingly, significant work is being embraced to lessen stereotyping dependent on a scope of areas including race, sexpersonality.

The film joined to psychological maladjustment has additionally changed since it has released and turned out to be breakthrough of research recommends that most of individuals hold contrary frames of mind and generalizations towards individuals with psychological sickness. Since early on, youngsters will allude to others as 'insane' or 'abnormal;' these terms are utilized normally all through adulthood also.

Regularly the pessimistic generalizations include recognitions that individuals with psychological maladjustment are hazardous. This discernment is filled by media stories that paint savage culprits as 'rationally sick' without giving the setting of the wide range of psychological sickness. This predisposition isn't restricted to individuals who are either clueless or separated from individuals with psychological instability; truth be told, social insurance suppliers and even some emotional wellness professionals hold these exceptionally same generalizations.

The another topic of interest in The Breakfast Club's message about harassing. In the film, we are stood up to with a few types of tormenting, from John Drinking spree taking Brian Johnson's lunch to Andrew Clark portraying a savage assault on another understudy for which he gets detainment. Observing tormenting from lecturers compromises physical ambush against John Drinking spree and secures him a wardrobe. Research on tormenting — comprehensively characterized as rehashed forceful acts in which there is an awkwardness of intensity between the culprit and injured individual — shows that casualties of harassing background pressure related physical medical problems, for example, head and stomach throbs and dependable psychological well-being issues as dejection, uneasiness and, in the most serious cases, suicide. The film demonstrates that 'being a harasser is certifiably not a decent look.' Correspondingly, one would expect that in the present condition the tormenting conduct of the characters would be met with removal and lawful activity under real life circumstances.

Throughout the film the characters John Bender, Claire Standish, Andrew Clark, Brian Johnson, and Allison Reynolds have all shown us that they have underlying issues beneath them which shaped the way they act. John Benders parents did not care for him. Claire Standish parents hated each other and use her as a means to get back at each other. Andrew Clarks’ dad pressures him to be the impossible best. Brian Johnson's’ parents put pressure on him to do well academically. Allison Reynolds parents ignore her that she felt alone. All these pressures and issues are extremes of each scale though normal people do face these issues in real life situation, they are dramaticized for the purpose of the film.

At the center of this motion picture was this focal proposition of The Breakfast Club is perhaps the idea of falsehood sum up with this line 'When you grow up, your heart bites the dust.' said by the character Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club. The movie caught the high schooler through the tension of an age, digging into topics, for example, stereotyping, the disgrace of psychological maladjustment and tormenting.

The Breakfast Club is a movie about 5 different teenagers who attend a detention on a Saturday with people who they would not normally associate with and for a short period become friends with.

These 5 teenagers are all an example of high school stereotypes which shows through characters attitudes to each other and how they portray themselves.

Clothing is used to portray stereotypes as well. For examples; Andrew (the Athlete) wears a jacket which clearly identifies it as something to do with sport (known as a Letter Jacket) and shows he is part of a special group that not everyone can belong to being the wrestling team. Bender wears ripped jeans and a denim jacket showing he’s a tough person and Claire comes from a wealthy family hence dresses very well.

Stereotypes use a variety of techniques to convey a message about a person in a simple quick way, using what the characters wear, their appearances,how they speak and their personality. Stereotypes are an effective way to portray characters so the audience can relate to, it enables people who watch them to form an opinion of the characters and their beliefs just from seeing them before they may have even spoken and sometimes just from the way they walk and are spoken to by other people. Moreover, people will often have an initial view of the character in which as the character changes in an arc, it will both surprise and pleases the audience.

'Muscle head', 'prep', 'hoodlum', 'failure', 'nerd', 'criminal', ' mainstream', are only a couple of nicknames of young people that are utilized ordinarily by people who judge them without looking shallow. In the matter of stereotyping, some may see it similar to the base of a character in the perspective on society.

The young people in the motion picture were all from various gatherings. One was a muscle head, one was a geek, one was a rich young lady from the high society, one was a poor person from the lower class, and one was kind of a goth, emotional, elective sort in all dark. They all were diverse kinds of children, and they all had stereotyped one another. As the motion picture goes on, you discover what their lives are truly similar to. They understand that the generalizations they put on one another were not in every case genuine.

References

Michael Friedman, Ph.D. “The Most Important Message of the The Breakfast Club Is a Lie.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Apr. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-friedman-phd/the-most-important-message-of-the-breakfast-club-is-a-lie_b_6716016.html.

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Shmoop Editorial Team. “Characterization in The Breakfast Club.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/the-breakfast-club/characterization.html.

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“Essay on Social Cliques in The Breakfast Club by Eric Berne.” Essay on Contrasting Ralph and Jack in Lord of the Flies | Bartleby, www.bartleby.com/essay/Social-Cliques-in-The-Breakfast-Club-by-PK3KZSYVC.

“Language, Identity, and Culture in the U.S. Experi.” Morgan Brenner, u.osu.edu/eng2367/2015/09/05/the-breakfast-club-2/comment-page-1/.

Bozdech, Betsy. “Watch Out! Classic Movies with Old-Fashioned Gender Roles.” Common Sense Media: Ratings, Reviews, and Advice, Common Sense Media, 26 Dec. 2016, www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/watch-out-classic-movies-with-old-fashioned-gender-roles.

“Gender and Intellectual Ability Stereotypes in Films.” Seven Things I Learned about the Transition from Communism | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal, voxeu.org/article/gender-and-intellectual-ability-stereotypes-films.

“Social Identity in the Breakfast Club Essay Examples.” Essay on Contrasting Ralph and Jack in Lord of the Flies | Bartleby, www.bartleby.com/essay/Social-Identity-in-the-Breakfast-Club-FKFL5FJTC.

“The Prolongation of Work • F17.1.” Philosophy for the Many, sites.williams.edu/f18-engl117-01/uncategorized/the-breakfast-clubs-stereotypes/.

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Answers Ltd. “Analysis Of The Breakfast Club English Literature Essay.” UKEssays, UK Essays, 25 Feb. 2019, www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/analysis-of-the-breakfast-club-english-literature-essay.php.

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Breakfast Club: An Identity Crisis Or A Stereotype Mess. (2021, July 01). GradesFixer. Retrieved November 19, 2024, from https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/breakfast-club-an-identity-crisis-or-a-stereotype-mess/
“Breakfast Club: An Identity Crisis Or A Stereotype Mess.” GradesFixer, 01 Jul. 2021, gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/breakfast-club-an-identity-crisis-or-a-stereotype-mess/
Breakfast Club: An Identity Crisis Or A Stereotype Mess. [online]. Available at: <https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/breakfast-club-an-identity-crisis-or-a-stereotype-mess/> [Accessed 19 Nov. 2024].
Breakfast Club: An Identity Crisis Or A Stereotype Mess [Internet]. GradesFixer. 2021 Jul 01 [cited 2024 Nov 19]. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/breakfast-club-an-identity-crisis-or-a-stereotype-mess/
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