Film: The Breakfast Club

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The movie The Breakfast Club was released in 1985, and is based on a group of five high school students from stereotypical cliques; the popular, jock, nerd and the outcasts, who all wind up stuck together for Saturday detention. Throughout the movie many themes present themselves such as teenage rebellion, peer pressure and family issues as the students get to know each other. The most prominent theme throughout the movie is the student’s placement in the social structure of the school. From the very different reasons why they are in detention to the way that they are all treated differently by the principle, their social placement is evident. In the movie, the principle asks the students to each write a 1,000 word essay on who they think they are as a person. By the end of the day, they decided instead of each writing their own paper they would have Brian, the nerd of the group to do it for all of them. In the essay, he stated, “We think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.” This quote is significant because even though they spent the entire day getting to know each other, they all know that they’ll still be labeled as how everyone else sees them. Also, they realized they were comfortable in the social statuses they are in and rely heavily on these labels to make it through high school because to get others to see them differently they would have to get to know everyone who has labeled them previously. This can be related to the socioeconomic structure of America because many people are defined solely by their placement in social classes and they rely on their status for many situations in life. The... ... middle of paper ... ... class will rely on their label in these structures because they don’t want to act differently than what they know, or because that is what is expected of them from people of a different status. The statement Brian made about being seen in the most convenient ways is displayed everywhere, because if people weren’t labeled easily then others would have to take the time to get to know a person like how the students did during Saturday detention. All in all, the students in The Breakfast Club as well as people in the real world use their own placement in social structures as well as others as a crutch to avoid certain situations. Works Cited Fussel, Paul. "People Like Us: Social Class in America." PBS. PBS, Web. 14 Mar 2014. . Hughes, John, dir. The Breakfast Club. Universal Pictures, 1985. Film. 4 Mar 2014.

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