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The pressures of being a teenager
Society expectations for teenagers
The pressures of being a teenager
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Director John Hughes does it again. In Sixteen Candles, he captures the essence of high school from the views of the nerds to the jocks. Depicted in the daily lives of the main characters, he shows even back in 1984, there is a division by popularity and grade. The struggles and pressures students faced are the same as what students are faced with in today’s high schools. This movie relates to teens year after year, generation after generation. Just as the author William Zinsser states in College Pressures, “They are too young to be prisoners of their parents’ dreams and their classmates’ fears” (385). Hughes is able to capture this through the eyes of high school students and the pressures they feel. High school sophomore, Samantha Baker woke up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, hoping for an overnight transformation. While on the phone with her best friend, she stares at herself in the mirror, praying she had grown a few inches and a set of boobs. Much to avail, she has not and her day goes on just like every other one. She has the added pressure of being a bridesmaid for her older sister Ginny’s wedding, the next day. After being felt up by Grandmother Baker, Samantha deals with the ridicule and torment of her annoying little brother and takes the bus to school. During her study hall class she takes a silly quiz another friend had given her. The quiz ends up in the hands of her crush, Jake Ryan! The anxiety sets in. Jake Ryan, the wealthy, handsome, senior, stud, is living the dream, at his suburban high school. He is dating the prom queen, Caroline Mulford. Together they are the power couple that everyone wants to be and is envious of. But, Jack feels the pressure to continue to d... ... middle of paper ... ...sure of having a perfect wedding. They are all dealing with different types of pressure. Economic pressure sees to affect only a few of the characters in the movie. But they all struggle with self-induced pressure and mainly peer pressure. Hughes is able to capture the emotions and feeling of the students and what they deal with during their high school years. That is why this movie spans the test of time. Everyone has been one of these characters during their teen years. Whether you were the Farmer Ted or the Jake Ryan, the Caroline or the Samantha Baker, we all have had to deal with the pressures of high school and John Hughes did a fantastic job illustrating all the sides of high school students. Works Cited Zinsser, William. “College Pressure.” The Norton Reader. 13th ed. Ed. Linda H. Peterson. New York: Norton, 2013. 380-388. Print
Tyler, a resident of Lancaster, Washington, lives with his hippie mother, Jasmine, and two siblings, Daisy and Mark. In search for excitement, he plans to take a summer vacation backpacking through Europe. Before his trip, he had a very comfortable relationship with Anna-Louise, a down to earth and very reserved girl attending the same college. However, in Europe, Tyler meets a French girl named Stephanie, who is very exotic and exciting to him and was the complete opposite of Anna-Louise. When Stephanie comes to visit Tyler in Lancaster, Anna-Louise learns of the brief affair Tyler and Stephanie had in Europe. Tyler then ends his relationship with Anna-Louise and moves to California with Stephanie.
After reading the directions and topic for this paper, I was extremely eager to get started. Adolescence is a stage of life that is very critical for a person. Speaking from my own experience, I know that the teenage years are a difficult part of life and during these years, one experiences a rollercoaster of different emotions, obstacles, and decision-making. Aside from the topic of Adolescence, I was glad that I could choose which movie I wanted to watch, and that was an easy decision. I decided to watch Sixteen Candles. The last time I watched this movie was when I received the DVD as a gift, which was when I turned sixteen. Watching the movie then, I obviously did not realize that most of the problems and events that occurred in the movie
The film opens with Sam on the phone with her best girlfriend Randy. She is examining herself in her full length mirror and is totally horrified to find that her body didn’t’ magically transform overnight. She was hoping to wake up with a body just like Caroline’s. Caroline is the head cheerleader, prom queen, and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan. Sam is hopelessly “in love” with Jake and is convinced that he won’t know she exists until she is more developed, more mature, more like Caroline. Little does she know, Jake does notice her. He is intrigued by a certain mispassed note containing some very personal information about Sam’s sex life (or lack of
Ava is a senior who is new to the school. With being new to the school, Ava wants to just get through the year with no drama. She is an unwilling participant in the Prom Bowl as the “Wild Card”. While not as skinny as the other girls in school, Ava doesn’t care about the social dynamics of the girls. The other main character is Mark Palmer, a typical senior football player. As the quarterback for the team, Mark is trying to earn scholarships for college. The character Mark has never had a long-lasting relationship in high school. Mark tries to save Ava from being involved in the Prom
Coming to college as an adult, we have many expectations and preconceptions of what college will or will not be. The expectations we have can influence our college life for the better or the worse. My experience since starting college has been an interesting one. People have misconceptions about college because they do not know what to expect. After doing some research, I have concluded that there are three major factors that are often misunderstood about college life. The first is the financial aspect of college. Second, is the relationship between the professors and students. Third is time management. These three factors play an important role in why people are afraid to go down the path to college.
Students entering college for the first time become concerned with their college life. The students are on their own once they enter college. There are no parents or guardians telling them when to do homework, when to go to bed, or how to eat healthy. These students are now responsible for how they are going to succeed in school and meet their own needs. From the beginning, these students wonder what their experience is going to be like and are they going to handle the demands of college?
He works a great deal of the time, and when he comes home, he likes to eat and go to bed. Connie has a girlfriend who she enjoys going to the mall with. While at the mall, the girls like to meet boys and watch movies. It is a place where the girls can express themselves in a way different from the ways in which they portray themselves at home. The story's climax begins the day after one of Connie's trips to the mall.
Miss Desjardin, still incensed over the locker room incident and ashamed at her initial disgust with Carrie, wants all the girls who made fun of Carrie suspended and banned from attending the school prom, but the principal instead punishes the girls by giving them several detentions. When Chris, after an altercation with Miss Desjardin, refuses to appear for the detention, she is suspended and barred from the prom and tries to get her fat...
Charlie engages with Sam and Patrick’s group of friends and begins experiencing a new life. During the course of the school year, Charlie has his first date and first kiss, he deals with bullying and begins to experiment wi...
The door opens and a concerned-looking Zeke darts to her side. “He’s not worth it,” Zeke murmurs into fifteen-year-old Evanna’s hair, her sobs quieting down a little. Another image pops out at Evanna, as a shard of glass is blown at her cheek: Evanna is at her school prom this time, surrounded by her friends and classmates. She sees herself dancing with Ryder Hemmington, the boy she wasted half her high school life with.
Pressure is one of the most profound and evident social problems that integrates a bond between each character. While they believe themselves to be alone in their struggles, separated by a belief that the other is too privileged, or too impoverished to understand the problems of the former, they all deal with the same issues though they may present themselves in a distinct manner for each and every one of us. John Hughes uses the concept of pressure be it from our parents or our peers to help the viewer see the connections in society because pressure is a daily quandary that each and every living person faces on a daily basis. In the Breakfast Club, Claire is faced with peer pressure, placed upon her by friends that she consorts with daily. She is skeptical that anyone else can feel the way she feels, especially outsiders such are the people she's been trapped with for this Saturday morning. Even so, every person who John Hughes placed in the film served a purpose, and each of the students had pressure to deal with of some sort. Brian; the pressure to be perfect, to please his parents and to lead a successful life. Andy; to please his father, by becoming the perfect athlete and being a “man.” John; to survive an abusive relationship with his parents, teachers, and classmates, in order to make his way into adulthood. The Breakfast Club isn't about the characters alone, it's about human-kind, we're all alike, connected in our troubles, and our
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
Stress is an important problem faced by many college students, especially first year students, and it can have a large impact on college freshmen. For example, according to Hirsch and Keniston (1970), about half of first year students do not graduate from college due to dropping out (p. 1-20). Also, David Leonhardt (2009) agrees that the United States excels at putting “teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree” (p. 1). In addition, the level of stress seems to increase each year. For instance, the National Health Ministries (2006) claim that many college students have become “more overwhelmed and stressed” than the student generation of the last fifteen years (p. 2).
Almost everyone in America today has seen one of John Hughes’ iconic 1980’s teen movies. From Pretty in Pink, to Ferris Buellers Day Off, these iconic 80’s hits are still viewed as pop culture even two decades after their release. None of John Hughes movies has had as great an impact on society in America as The Breakfast Club. The 1980’s in America were filled with nuclear threats from the Cold War, President Reagan’s war on drugs and an increasing gap in wealth distribution. Even with America experiencing these heightened tensions, American teenagers were able to be more carefree, in a large part due to the draft being over, and worry about “teenage” problems. The Breakfast Club was able to capture this newfound freedom among teenagers as well as the feelings of anxiety, fear, and drama that came with high school. The film showed that one’s parents don’t determine your life, that breaking out of a label is possible, and that the emotions and issues that take place during this period of life aren’t any less important than the ones you face later on. The Breakfast Club by John Hughes was so impactful on 1980’s American culture because it gave hope for social class mobility, fought against the conservative politics of the era, and was one of the first movies to be shot from an accurate teenage perspective.
Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31