Preview

Stereotypes In 'The Breakfast Club'

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1504 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Stereotypes In 'The Breakfast Club'
I was in eighth grade the first time I watched The Breakfast Club. My cousins and I had gone to our local video store and were trying to pick something out. I was looking at Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, anything that had strong special effects and a huge plot. My cousins on the other hand went to look at the classics. That is when they found it, The Breakfast Club. I was skeptical at first, due to the age and how simple it looked, but they ended up convincing me. We went back to my house and piled onto the couch under a mountain of blankets and with what seemed like gallons of popcorn. We pressed play and I soon fell in love with the simplistic story line and humor behind this movie. Lately, I have began to notice that people today only seem interested in movies with extreme special effects and large action filled plots. Although these movies are good, sometimes it is better to sit back relax and watch something simpler. The Breakfast Club is a movie with a simple plot that will not only grasp the audiences attention, but also make the audience think with the message it portrays. The …show more content…
The first point I came across during my research was that the stereotypes of the teens were too obvious. This comment caught my eye in this article, “While meticulously drawn, the film's characters are so stereotypically representative that only the lamest of moviegoers will not determine their respective backgrounds and problems long before the plodding movie does.”(Duane). I was interested in this statement because of the underlining message in this movie. This message was, to break down high school stereotypes. The most though out way to do this is to overdramatize the characters. This makes it easier to distinguish each stereotype from the next. Being able to guess the characters issues or choices, was just an easier way to portray their stereotype. This enhanced the film’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Breakfast Club is a quintessential teen movie. Director John Hughes really knew what he was doing when he wrote his teen movies. Set during one Saturday detention, The Breakfast Club is a movie about five different kids from five different social groups becoming friends and finding out they're not so different after all. The five main characters are Claire the princess, Andy the jock, Allison the basket case, Brian the nerd, and Bender the criminal. Though at first the five characters argue, they pour their hearts out to each other and realize that they aren’t So different after all.…

    • 100 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the film, Crash, how the characters connect to our identity unit along the lines of Ethnic Notations that we have been working on it includes racism, prejudice, stereotype, bias, social status, and so forth. For example, in Crash is similar to What Would You Do? along the lines of the interracial couple situation.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the 2004 film Crash, writer and director Paul Haggis presents a complex story that intertwines characters of differentiating races, ethnicities, cultures, genders, and socio-economic backgrounds. It explores the controversial topics of stereotypical racial clashes and cultural diversity in the American society. The plot takes the viewer on a 36 hour, voyeuristic journey into the lives of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops, and criminals, both upper and lower class. Haggis showcases characters that cross paths revealing the various complexities of the prejudices and racisms that are ingrained in interrelationships.…

    • 1822 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The movie that this book no doubt reminds me of is the Breakfast Club. In each there are five completely different characters who get paired up unknowingly. In the movie the characters meet in detention. In the book the characters are paired up during freshman orientation. Some of the characters even bear resemblance to characters in the movie. Whitney strongly reminds me of the pampered Claire, while Jake reminds me of the jock Andrew. Mia bears slight resemblance to the outcast Allison, and Gregor reminds me of the nerd Brian. However, the delinquent John and the famous Zoe show no relation.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The film “The Breakfast Club” directed by John Hughes is a compelling film that illustrates the inner working of the teenage mind-set. A film quite literally opens your eyes to how teenagers work within different stereotypes. John Hughes is able to show how although each character may give the impression that everything is “OK” but really, on the inside their whole life is just constant stress. This stress, which numerous things, including their parents and peers brought on, effected them in a way in which throughout the film, we as the audience have more insight into their lives as teenagers. Many of the characters in this film are easily relatable; however, Hughes has been able to show the differences within the inner workings of their…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As one of my group members had stated, “the time in which this novel was written was judgmental and allowed no deviation from societal norms.” One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey was written around the late 1950’s, so the society within the novel has not gone through the “Hippie and Counterculture Movement” or the “Civil Rights Movement” of the 1960’s. In this book, I noticed that there are a plethora of instances in which someone who slightly differs from what society thinks as “ordinary”, they were completely shamed. Harding is a character that people special to me can relate to; Harding is a gay man and this is shown through his dainty, delicate hands and gestures. During this time, since the LGBTQ community was almost nonexistent, being of a sexual orientation that is not heterosexual was horrendous.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Swing Kids Movie Analysis

    • 911 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The 1993 drama “Swing Kids” starring Robert Sean Leonard and Christian Bale is overall a very good movie. The film is set in Nazi ruled Germany in the year 1939 and tells the incredible story of three boys and their love and fight for swing music. Swing Kids is a remarkable display of directing and acting talent. Thomas Carter's eye for camera technique lends the feeling of actually being alongside the characters throughout their struggle. From the moment the movie began with a remarkable dance sequence, to possibly one of the most dramatic and heart wrenching final scenes in movie history, I was unable to take my eyes away from the screen. The emotions that Swing Kids delivers to the viewers range from happiness and excitement, to anger and sadness. I highly encourage all that have a passion for good film to sit back, relax, and enjoy “Swing Kids”. I give Swing Kids two thumbs up, and a 9/10.…

    • 911 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee there are many different themes such as: stereotyping, justice, racial relationships, family and parent- child relationships. In my opinion the most important of these is stereotyping.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the beginning of human existence, people have always been discriminative towards one another solely based on race. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee in the 1960’s, though the setting is based in the 1930’s.The novel challenges the false idea of the stereotypical African-American human being, as was typical in the 1930’s. It has been said that this novel portrays African-Americans as submissive, simple, and ignorant folk who need whites to protect them. To Kill a Mockingbird contains several black characters who are the complete opposite of these qualities. Tom Robinson is very polite and gentle, not docile, and Calpurnia is not simple minded, she is well educated. Considering these characters display a change in their stereotype, this novel is a powerful statement against racism.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every child goes through the struggle of finding themselves. The Breakfast Club has so many examples of all kinds of high schoolers trying to find their identity. Right in the beginning of the movie, when they walk into Saturday school, the teacher told them that during their time there they had to write about paper about who…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many corporations have established childrens clubs as a form of communication and build friendships with other children their age. Childrens clubs permit advertise to members individually and club members may receive direct mailing such as membership cards, birthday cards, holiday greetings. Moreover, members can participate in contests, receive coupons and items such as posters and discounts for items with the club's logo.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Smooth Talk

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ideas for the story lines of many motion pictures get their inspiration from other works of writing often. Books are usually a main source of inspiration for movies, for instance, the movie Smooth Talk was based off of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?. Most of the time however, you hear that the movie did not give justice to the book. Smooth Talk is an exception to this common conception. By keeping the main thematic issues of teenage ignorance and arrogance, and same symbiotic relevance throughout the movie gives the movie the same impact as the book, even though it has additional occurrences.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Movies are a special tool that can keep one company when they are in a moody situation. It is a contrivance that is being used almost all over the world by different types of people for a particular purpose. There are diverse film genres like comedy, action, family, musical, and romance that are being produced each year in the twenty-first century but however, the twentieth century has contributed various types of classic films such as King Kong, Annie Hall, which can never be forgotten. One of most memorable, teenage romantic films of all time would have to go to Rebel without a Cause because it tells how the present day teenage love life is like, “a romance set among teenagers seeking satisfaction outside the traditional systems, misunderstood by their parents, misunderstanding and mistrusting of their parents' values” (Tomlinson par2). A movie that includes a variety of elements deserves being…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the movie, the breakfast club five completely different, even though they all have struggled at home. A high school student is like an onion the layers reveal more there are some which the students keep hidden amongst them. For example, the criminal has an abusive household, which is how he became a rebel. Home can be where the danger is and how the trouble can begin. Creating anger and rage within eventually it will come out thus all the bad behavior. For Princess, she was spoiled by her two parents who would get back at each other by using her. She hasn’t fallen into some of the common student pitfalls and feels pressure from her friends.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. The character Allison Reynolds in the film The Breakfast Club exhibits Piaget’s formal operational thinking. The formal operational begins at the age of 12 and continues into adulthood, this stage also involves abstract thinking and moral reasoning. Teenagers are able to understand concepts and ideas on a more thought provoking level, with an emotional connection. Allison exhibits abstract thinking as an artist throughout the film. Although she is depicted as being strange and different, she is truly an abstract thinker. For example, when she draws a picture of an outdoor landscape during detention, she scratches her head to create dandruff to represent snow. Yes it is pretty disgusting, it is a good example of abstract thinking. A person in concrete operational thinking would have simply drawn snow in the picture, instead of creating it as Allison did. Allison also exhibited formal operational thinking during the scene when the students were smoking pot. Allison is the only student who is not seen smoking marijuana, which shows that she was strong in her morals and was able to make the formal operational decision to not participate although the other students were smoking. And lastly Allison uses the fabricated story of her shrink to manipulate Claire into saying that she is a virgin in front of the group.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics