Stereotypes In The Breakfast Club

“The Breakfast Club”, released in 1985, is a film full of up and down emotions and the development of a bond between different cliques in a highschool. The director, John Hughes, does a great job of showing the many different struggles of what it is to be a teen through different types of people. “The Breakfast Club” shows the psychological theme of identity, development, and not feeling understood by others. Five very different types of high school students are placed in the library on a Saturday for detention, they all must serve. There is John, the “criminal”, Claire, the “princess”, Andy, the “athlete”, Allison, the “basket case”, and Brian, the “brains”, each character is a different typical high school stereotype. At the beginning of

They talk about how they all have issues with their parents at home, some more than others. The group begins to be so authentic with one another, they cover the range of emotions. One second they may be laughing, the next crying, and the next a feeling of discomfort. They each also reveal the pressure they feel to act the way they do and they further realize how alike they are even though they may not look like it on the outside. Brian, the “brains”, is asked the reason he got detained because he is a good kid. He says the principal had found a gun in his locker that he was trying to kill himself because he might get a B in one of his classes. Before this point in the movie, Brian seemed like the most perfect one there, but after confessing he had suicidal thoughts the others see he is not perfect either. They begin to talk about whether they will still be friends after that day. They all want to say yes, but they know they probably will not speak because of the pressure they feel from the other people they hang out with. They fear their friends may think they are weird for hanging out with someone who looks so