How We Need Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and The Breakfast Club by John Hughes Explore The Nature of Parenting

The nature of parenting is explored in both The Breakfast Club directed by John Hughes and also We Need To Talk About Kevin written by Lionel Shriver, focusing on how parenting affects the mental health of a child. Throughout both texts audiences are shown children with serious issues. The author and director explain through there texts whether these issues were because of how they were raised or whether they were born with the issues explored in the text. A series of themes including family, nature vs nurture and dissatisfaction as well as techniques such as camera angles and contrast are used to explore the nature of parenting.

A large dynamic in both texts is family, The Breakfast Club being published in the 90’s was a clear nod towards all the different perfect family sitcoms that had been realised throughout the 90’s including TV sires like Full House and Family Matters. So Breakfast Club was a very different step as it showed a much darker side to the family dynamic and showing the issues teen face with their parents. This allows the context of this film to contrast with other TV shows and movies at that time as The Breakfast Club seemed to show only the dark side of family and never the enjoyable parts of the family dynamic which was the complete opposite of what films and TV series were doing during the 90’s. No one gets along with their parents in The Breakfast Club. Bender's father abuses him, even burning him with a cigar at one point. The other kids' parents aren't physically abusive, but they don't understand their kids and try to force them into things they'd rather avoid. It's a pretty bleak depiction of family life. Brian and Andrew both suffer from different kinds of pressure — academic and athletic — while Allison and Bender both deal with apparent neglect. And Claire shares something that they all have: Their parents don't treat them like people, but as a means to an end. So Instead this group of teenagers make a family amongst themselves during there one day of dentition together.

We Need to talk about Kevin also destroys the serotype of a traditional American family, which is a mother, a father, 2.5 children and maybe a pet and a picket fence. We Need To Talk About Kevin takes these stereotypes and flips them on their head. Kevin Khatchadourian tries to prove that having a traditional family that looks "wholesome" on the outside can still be terrible on the inside. Kevin tries to divide his parents, and he reduces the number of children from 2 to approximately 1.93 when he causes his little sister to lose an eyeball. We are show a much more dire family in we need to talk about Kevin mainly due to a distant mother, a controlling and enabling father as well as a manipulative son. Showing that family issues can arise no matter how perfect your family looks from the outside.

Both authors try hard to debunk the myth of the stereotypical loving dynamic family, by showing more real problems a lot of family face, they both strive for realism and to show a less manufactured family you see on most sitcoms. Throughout We Need to Talk about Kevin and the Breakfast Club the theme of nature vs nurture is very dominant and displays it’s self often. The Breakfast club shows this theme through the children’s perspective, this allows for the main cast of characters to show how their parents have sculptured there personality’s. This is told through the five children that lead the film, their names being John Bender, Andrew Clarke, Allison Reynolds, Claire Standish and Brian Johnson.

We Need To Talk About Kevin displays the theme through the Parent of the child. Eva Khatchadourian being the mother of Kevin Khatchadourian. Both the film and Book show the difficulties of parenting and it’s affects it can have on children. A prime example of this is a scene in the Breakfast, after the group have come down from a high from not only drugs but also dancing we are shown a much darker scene. Brian Johnson referred to as the nerd of the group asks “what is gonna happen to us on Monday” referring to the fact that there not really friends outside of detention. After being told that there was no way they could have a friendship after the detention the scene turns sour and sad.

The first technique used in this scene is a close up of Brian where we are shown a tear running down his face as he sobs. The second technique is the use of Non- Diegetic music is played as Brian says this sentence “I’m here because Mr Ryan found a Gun in my locker”, the music is soft and is clearly placed in this scene to revoke a sad reaction from the audience. Brian examples the pressure placed on him by his parents and that he was given a failing grade in woodwork and explains that the gun was going to be used to take his own life. The scene shows the failure of parenting, Brian feelings as if his life was over simply because he was not given an A in one of his classes which shows the audience that Brian feels that grades determine his worth to his parents and that without his good grades he is nothing. This is a clear display of nurture and the way his parents have brought him up. Brian has been brought up knowing that he isn’t gifted in other areas like sport or looks so he believes the one thing he is great at, which is studying and getting good grades is everything. So an F making Brian fall into a state of low self-esteem “I see me, But I don’t like what I see” and all things is because Brian’s parents though they were doing the right thing but making him work hard to succeeded in life but instead there pressure was too much and almost made him give up on life.

We Need to Talk about Kevin explains and shows the theme through the eyes of the parents specifically through the mother Eva Khatchadourian perspective. From the start we are told that Eva really never wanted a child and is almost forced into having one as the only real reasons for having a child are selfish and unpleasant “To have something else to talk about", "It might be fun to start a collection". From the beginning of the book we are shown how strong and independent Eva truly is but when their first child Kevin arrives she finds him much too hard to cope with. Throughout the novel we are told about how Kevin is always out to get Eva and that he is such an evil child but these words should always be taken with a pinch of salt seeing as we are never told Kevin’s point of view. Eva tries to show throughout the novel that Kevin was effected by nature and was always a horrible person set on ruining Eva’s life but the bias of Eva is quite strong throughout the book and it is hinted at that Kevin always felt angry because of the disregarded feelings he had because of his distant mother. But a big issue throughout the novel is also the parenting style of the father Franklin Plaskett, when Kevin is born Franklin becomes not only a horrible father but also a horrible husband. Throughout the book Eva comes to him about the issues she is facing with Kevin and yet Franklin always seems to take Kevin’s side. Franklin becomes a horrible enabler to Kevin allowing him to do anything without punishment. This allows for Franklin to create a rift between Eva and the rest of her family, and for this reason, Eva ends up harbouring resentment toward him. At one point, when Franklin decides not to punish Kevin, Eva remarks, "You sure didn't burn out that fast when you were mad at me”. It's as if Eva and Kevin are siblings, not mother and son, and Eva is bitter that Kevin gets favourable treatment. This is a great use of contrast as Kevin is heavily effect by two polar opposite parent styles, Eva being much too distant and not allowing for any bad behaviour and franklin enabling his Kevin to continue this behaviour with no punishment. Because Franklin treats his wife like a child, he is both a terrible husband and a bad father. With all these examples you can clearly debate whether nature or nurture effected Kevin throughout his life and turned him into a mass murderer but the enabling of his father and the distant interactions with his mother clearly show a disconnect between the child and his parents. Shriver tends to conclude that both nature and nurture have large effects on a child’s upbringing, where Hughes strongly hints at the idea that we are heavily influenced by the nurture side of the parenting but can ultimately change the way we brought up as children.

Dissatisfaction plays a big part in both texts. All the characters are ultimately unhappy with their situations in life. This dissatisfaction is heavily affected by the nature of parenting displayed by their parental guardians. The Breakfast Club shows each character with a different issue whether it be abusive family members, lousy parents or distant parents that don’t understand the harsh reality of teenager life. Although each character has their own issues they all share a dissatisfaction of life that is inherited by their parents. This dissatisfaction effects each member of the Khatchadourian family other than the younger sister who blinded by a child’s innocence. Both texts show how the parent’s dissatisfaction is inherited by their children.

This is very apparent in The Breakfast club, Andrew Clark also known as the stereotypical Jock is placed into detention due to the influence of his father. After bullying another child he explains that he did it to impress his father, “I did it for my old man”, “I tortured this poor kid because I wanted him to think I was cool, he’s always going off about when he was in school, all the wild things he used to do”. These powerful lines show the need for a child to impress and hope for recognition form their father. It also shows how disappointed the father is with his current life and how he is always looking back into his past and trying to relive his glory days of high school through his son. Throughout this scene the camera smoothly moves from one side of his face to his other even at one point being blocked off by a pillar this is used to show the real disappointed face from every side and angle. The camera uses a shallow depth of field affect to insure that you focus completely on the monologue of his family issue, we also find that the lighting is very plan it isn’t bright almost showing how un satisfying this scene is as the character of Andrew Clark displays the pressure and sadness of him trying to fulfil his father’s dream of reliving his high school days.

Now comparing this to We Need To Talk About Kevin, the novel is able to show some underlining similarities, such as a unhappy parents and a damaged teenager as a result of that. Kevin learns at a young age that he despises the world. “I have never met anyone […] who found his existence more of a burden or indignity”. Shriver allows Eva to write letters to her dead father as a plot device to show not only foreshadowing but also the ways she felt during the time and the issues she was facing. Dissatisfaction is shown in a number of ways, Hughes go for a much more upbeat conclusion to this fact by allowing for the group of teenagers to end up defeating this dissatisfaction by joining together as friends. This is quite the opposite with Shriver as she shows that this dissatisfaction can ruin people’s lives and end in tragedy. Hughes and Shriver similarly present a commentary on the effects of the nature of parenting and its effects on children.

However both texts show the effects of parenting through a different perspective, Hughes shows the psychological damage of inefficient parenting through the more innocent eyes of teenagers, whereas Shriver explains and creates the view point of a struggling parent and their unstable relationship with their son. Yet they have different approaches of showing the nature of parenting they both make the audience identify with a similar cause, that being the true difficulties of parenting and they physiological problems that can come from nurture.