Contextual Influences on Text Interpretation: A Study on 'The Breakfast Club'

How is the meaning of your text informed by broader contextual factors such as institution, cultural and historical context?

The Breakfast Club (John Hughes, 1985) is a film in which focuses on the stereotypes of teenagers within high school and the difficulties that are faced during this period of their lives. The film is based on a group of five young adults who have never met before, and are in Saturday detentions for varied reasons. They are asked to write a thousand word essay in which they have to describe who they think they are, but instead refuse to do so. Due to this, they get bored and it allows for them to bond and share experiences, beliefs and values. From this, they discover that although they are all different on the outside

Throughout the film, they are forced to form bonds as a group in order to pass the time and kill boredom. Through this, they breakdown their cultural differences in order to find out more about each other. This leads to them discussing each of their issues, which mostly surround insecurity within education, family life and personal life. All of which they all have in common. The cultures they are currently in are what is breaking them down the most, and led them to end up in Saturday detention. An example of this is with Claire, as she skipped class in order to go shopping. This would be something that would happen regularly amongst her group of people, and she would have been judged if she had refused to go. In turn, trying to fit in with the clique led her to a Saturday Detention like the other

Although the age of the film made it difficult to find appropriate sources due to the lack of media, doesn’t make the film any less important. Its ability to portray issues that young adults with go through in such a positive way will make them all more comfortable with the problems they will face during one of the toughest time in their lives. It strongly depicts the ideas of stereotypes and finalises the film by suggesting that each clique has aspects of all the others within it. By doing this through cultural, historical and institutional contexts allows for this film to be one in which will leave a mark on the life of many people of whatever age, race or demographic. Whether it’s John Hughes directing style, the way he uses themes throughout similar films, or the fact that he doesn’t stay within the normal boundaries means that the film will be