Breakfast Club Stereotypes

Lost and Found

From the moment we start school, we are told to act a specific way, be a certain person, and do certain things to pave a path for who we are to become. In some cases, the way we act, the things we do, and the people we surround ourselves with during our school years cause us to be placed into a certain stereotype. The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes, Don’t You Forget About Me, written by Keith Forsey and Barbie Doll, written by Marge Piercy all give extremist views on the dangers of stereotypes. In The Breakfast Club, Andy, Allison, Bender, Brian, and Claire spend a whole day together projecting their own selves only to decide to leave each other behind for their own cliques. Don’t You Forget About Me is a mantra, telling

listeners that not everyone they meet is being their true selves. Barbie Doll breaks apart an individual and sends her spiraling into becoming somebody she knows she isn’t.

In analyzing the dangers of stereotypes, it’s good to get an idea of what each of these three pieces of literature is about. The Breakfast Club follows five kids, Claire Standish, Brian Johnson, Allison Reynolds, Andrew Clark and John Bender, who are from different cliques in their school; they all end up in Saturday school for different reasons. In the beginning of the movie the five of them are strangers, unfamiliar with each other due to their niche in school. Each character is a manifestation of the basic school stereotypes: “the jock,” “the brain,” “the princess.” “the basket case” and “the criminal” (Hughes, “The Breakfast Club”). They’re all given an assignment for the day by their principal, Mr. Vernon, which is to write a one thousand word paper that explains “who [they] think they are” (Hughes, “The Breakfast Club”). The five spend the good first half of the movie bickering and bugging each other about where they fit in at school, Bender doing most of the pestering. Claire gets into talking about her parents, which causes a chain reaction of relation and understanding between the five, causing them to open up about their shaky family lives and their true selves.

All five of the characters suffer from an identity crisis at some point of the movie.

Claire says during one scene in the film how she is “so popular… everybody loves me at this school” (Ringwald, “The Breakfast Club”); she goes on to mention how she hates following what her popular friends do and say. Brian explains his parents’ fury over the F he has in his woodshop class. The beginning of the film shows us Brian’s mother, who tells him that he should find a way to study while he’s in detention. Andy references his father’s need for him to be a winner on his high school wrestling team, and that his victories are all his dad cares about. Andy goes onto say how he wishes his knee would give, and quotes, “I wouldn’t be able to wrestle anymore. And then [my father] would forget all about me” (Estevez, “The Breakfast Club”). The tone in Andy’s voice is sincere, as if he really wants this to happen so he won’t be his father’s puppet anymore; his identity crisis would be resolved, and he could go be his own person and not worry about his school

status.

The only two characters who don’t find a resolution to their crises are Bender and Allison, but each of them have a change of heart when they find themselves attracted to their exact opposites. Bender, the criminal, ends up with the princess, Claire; Allison, the basket case, is with the jock, Andy. The ending of the movie is one of the most compelling of any of its time. Andy gives Allison his varsity patch and Claire gives Bender one of her diamond earrings; watching this scene, one can assume that they will never speak again, and are falling back into their respective stereotypes. The kiss shared between each couple can be viewed as a first and last kiss. After a solid seven hours and fifty-six minutes of discovering each other for who they really are, they accept their fates and are condemned to fit back into their place in school society.

One of the driving factors that really made The Breakfast Club as popular as it was, was the accompanying music. Many artists pour their heart and souls into the music that they make, but one song that really focuses on identity like The Breakfast Club is the beginning and ending song of the movie, Don’t You Forget About Me, by Simple Minds. This song was one of the many that were specifically written for the movie by Keith Forsey, musical producer for the film. This is the song most associated with the film. This song holds a sort of double meaning, expressing the happy, relatable feelings of the kids in the film as they discover each other in new light, while maintaining the sadness the end of the film portrays. The song’s third and fourth lines go “Tell me your troubles and doubts// Giving me everything inside and out” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”), representing the five’s time in the library, where they grew beyond the stereotypes they were placed into based on their friends, and got to know each other for themselves. The lyric “Slow change may pull us apart” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”) can be seen as a sort of fear that eventually, people may fall back into their own stereotypes, which is the bitter end the five come to.
The chorus is a repetition of the same verse, “Don’t you forget about me,” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”) which is seen as a plea to not forget a true identity.

The bridge, “Will you recognize me// Call my name or walk on by me?” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”) is related to the movie directly. This particular lyric in the song addresses a scene in the movie where Brian asks the group what will happen the following Monday after Saturday detention, and if they will still be friends. Claire berates him for bringing up the question, and tells him that as much as they say how they’re going to want to be friends after detention, their stereotypes won’t allow it. The ending of the movie coincides with the ending lyrics of the song, which consists of the chorus and the repetition of the lyric “As you walk on by// Will you call my name?” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”). Allison and Bender are each given a memento from their significant other; as each item is given, the lyric played is that of the chorus to the song, like a final goodbye to the true person they got to know. They won’t be able to speak to each other again due to expectations and standards set by their own

group.

Claire’s struggle throughout the movie was whether or not she was going to become friends with the four others she got to know in the library, or to remain with her group of friends. Claire’s stereotyped group were the princesses; this was a group of girls who swore that looking your best was an intended outcome of life. Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll gives readers a heavy view on this issue, the issue being the pressure to be perfect. The poem follows the course of a newborn girl who is given a doll that follows society’s expectations for women. Women are expected to cook and clean, and be beautiful all the time, much like a Barbie doll can teach girls. Barbie dolls have little waists, child-bearing hips, a full bust, a full face of makeup and a fashionable wardrobe. The title is synonymous to the girl spoken about in the poem, who tries everything to become perfect.

In the second stanza of the poem, Piercy writes how this girl was “healthy, tested intelligent// possessed strong arms and back” and had an “abundant sex drive” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). Girls in modern society aren’t supposed to be strong or smart. We are supposed to submit to our male counterparts, be homemakers, secretaries and be loyal, nothing like the smart, promiscuous girl in Barbie Doll. Piercy makes note of how her peers didn’t pay attention to the good qualities of the girl, but instead saw “a fat nose on thick legs” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). Instead of praising her for her good qualities, they judged her for her body and face, her flaws. Piercy continues with things that society is telling this girl to do, such as to “play coy,” “come on hearty,” and “exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). This girl is told ways to fix herself and improve her image. This is much like the concerns of Claire from The Breakfast Club who was looked up to by other girls at her school. Claire always looked for ways to improve herself, as it was expected of her from her parents and friends. She voiced her opinion, saying how much she hated the position she was in, but wouldn’t leave her friends because there wasn’t another group that would take her in.

The girl in Piercy’s poem ends up like Claire, who gives up her true self to follow what her friends expect of her, and “[cuts] off her nose and her legs, offering them up” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). Much like Claire, this girl spoken of in Barbie Doll conforms to what society expects. Unlike Claire, the girl in the poem dies. She is described as laying in her casket “with the undertakers cosmetics painted on…dressed in a pink and white nightie” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). This girl tried so hard to be what she was not, she ultimately died in the process, both literally and figuratively; she lost her life and her true self in the process of trying to be the perfect girl. Her peers, instead of mourning her, embrace her and comment on how pretty she is. Piercy ends the poem with “To every woman a happy ending” (Piercy, “Barbie Doll”). The girl has done it, has finally become what was expected of her, but her goal was reached by her untimely death.

Stereotypes can be extremely detrimental to youth in modern society. They cause us as young adults to have a serious identity crisis; do we stick with what we know and are familiar with, or do we leave everything behind and start anew, making our own futures based on what we truly want out of life? The Breakfast Club gave an example of conforming. The characters went against what their hearts wanted and instead, they chose to enjoy each other’s company for the day, only to retreat back to their own territories come Monday. Don’t You Forget About Me was the accompanying song to the movie, and portrayed the sadness of each character at the end of the movie. They knew that what they really wanted could never happen due to their expectations within their own cliques, but begged one another, “Don’t you forget about me” (Forsey, “Don’t Forget Me”). Barbie Doll gave us a sad view on what can happen when one is pushed too far to become something they aren’t for the sake of bettering themselves. The girl dies at the end of the poem, but ultimately reached her goal of being beautiful. These three pieces of literature speak directly to a teenaged audience: break free of the standards you’re forced to live up to, and find out what you are capable of becoming.