Mr. Vernon's Use Of Verbal Communication In The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is set in 1984 and following five high school teenagers that attend Shermer High School that are serving Saturday detention. Each student is from a different high school clique, and while spending time together that soon realize that they are all more than their various stereotypes. The five students include the popular girl Claire Standish, the sports jock Andrew Clark, the nerd Brian Johnson, the outcast Allison Reynolds and the trouble maker John Bender. They all meet in the high school library and are ordered not to speak or move from their seats by the power hungry principal, Richard Vernon. They are made to stay for over 8 hours and during the time they are assigned by Mr.Vernon to write a 1,000 word essay

Verbal communication involves using speech to communicate with others. As the students gather in the library Mr. Vernon, struts slowly into the detention room with cockiness in his step. Mr. Vernon communicates few words to intimidate and harass them in an effort to reinforce their reasons of attendance. From the use of hate speech to the rules of language,the Breakfast club covers some of the main principles of verbal communication. By communicating with an offensive attitude to the students in detention, Mr. Vernon exemplified his understanding of regulatory rules, because the students were in detention, Mr. Vernon is shown to be sure that what he is saying is appropriate according to when, where, and with whom he is exclaiming offensiveness. Nonverbal communication is shown when Bender puts his feet on top of his desk while Mr. Vernon is in the middle of explaining the assignment for the day. This nonverbal body motion is referred to as kinesics, and it shows a great deal about how one is perceived. In this case Bender can be alleged as someone who doesn’t care; complemented by his baggy clothes and long unkept hair. A use of hate speech can also be recognized when Mr. Vernon is exiting the detention room, John Bender calls him a “Brownie Hound”. Although this is not a derogatory term like other hate language, it is still used by Bender to degrade and dehumanize Mr. Vernon. This shows that John Bender has a bit of a hard-edged personality and doesn’t silently succumb to what he believes to be