Julia Penrose

Comm. 1050
Prof. Merkel
10/7/2015
Reel/Media Paper
I decided to choose Social Penetration Theory to analyze the film The Breakfast Club. This is
one of my favorite theories,
Social Penetration Theory:
The Breakfast Club is the perfect movie to show the social penetration theorys onion layers
unravel. The outermost onion being a superficial communicative level, and then theres the core,
which shows a persons absolute true self that they often only show to those they feel truly
comfortable around. In the beginning of the film, 5 students at Shermer High School in Illinois
must go to a 9 hour Saturday detention. Its unknown why they are there at the beginning, and
none of them appear to have anything in common. They each have a stereotype applied to them.
Claire, being the popular princess, Bender aka John, is the rebel, Allison, the basket case,
Andrew, the jock, and Brian, the nerd.
The first person to speak up is Bender, who has absolutely no problem sharing various forms of
self-disclosure from the very beginning of the film, however, the depth of penetration is only at
his superficial and personal layer of the onion, which he shares his superficial, hateful feelings
about other people, for example when Andrew tells him to quiet down he says,Hey Sporto,
whatd you do to get in here, forget to wash your jock? he uses stereotype insults to try to be
invasive towards others, to perhaps make himself feel better when clearly he has some skeletons
in his closet. When Claire defends Andrew after Benders insult, Bender says childishly, So are
you two boyfriend and girlfriend? This right here shows his attraction to Claire, and that he is

also jealous of Andrew because he does not share the law of reciprocity with Claire as Andrew
does, as from the beginning they both have are a little more intimate than superficial relationship
than the rest of the kids are with each other. Now they dont share an actual form of intimacy, but
based on similar friend groups, and popularity level at their school, on the onion model, theyre
somewhere between the superficial and intimate layers.
Andrew becomes a fun target for Bender since he refuses to be harassed or to let others get
harassed. He even mutters, You might as well not even exist at this school. Its clear that this
visibly hurts Benders feelings, but due to Benders personality structure he wont admit it, and
keeps using superficial insults to attack Andrew thus creating an equally negative social
exchange between the two as Bender and the Principal has. Claire says you know why guys like
you knock everything? Its because youre afraid. Claire shows some stereotype-breaking
intelligence at this point in the film, that may slightly throw some of her princess persona and
makes Bender even more attracted to her, because likely, she unintentionally reached to the very
core of who he is with her comment. Bender then plays antics to upset the principal and amuse
the rest of the kids, in hopes of gaining some type of respect, their negative authoritariansuperiority relationship also foreshadows his eventual self-disclosure of his relationship with
father. The first word uttered by Allison is, HA! after Claire reveals her personal layer, her
feelings about her parents ignoring her. Allison did this because she relates to Claire that they
have an imperfect home life but doesnt really have the proper social skills to say something else
about it.
Claire and Bender start to begin an indirect, and odd level of intimacy, in which Bender uses
sexual innuendos to try and figure out whether Claire is a virgin, and uses sexual lingo in hopes

that hell eventually sleep with her, she of course is angry at him for saying these things but her
body language throughout the film so far shows a definite attraction to Bender.
Ethical Egoism is prominent throughout the characters in the film, Brians starts to unravel
when the kids find out his father is a janitor at the school, and he embarrassing admits that the
man is father. His pain becomes maximized and his pleasure minimized, and makes the audience
start to question more about what kind of relationship Brian might have with his father and why
he is so strongly involved in academics and academic clubs when he comes from a not so
prestigious family.
Theres finally a mild breakthrough in the film when the whole group become a little more
intimate with each other, for example, whistle in unison or work together to prevent anyone from
getting caught by the principal, because hes one person they all cant stand, this is an example of
a comparison level in the Social Penetration theory.
Further into the film Allison starts to speak more and the first person she fully talks to is
Andrew, who she seems to have an interest in, and they start to begin their level of reciprocity,
she is avid in figuring out why hes in detention but the truth will not come out until later in the
film. The film has a great way of using dramatic music to convey when each character reveals
deeper layers or truths to themselves. One of the most dramatic uses of music is when Bender
finally admits what his home life is like, violent, and emotionally abusive. He gets so worked up
after finally coming clean, and Andrew not believing him, he shows his cigar burn from his
father, His ultimate level of self-disclosure is at its peak in this scene, to the point where he
throws books, almost on the verge of tears, and sulks alone and that of course, he didnt want to
expose due to his tough guy attitude, but his tough guy exterior falls apart when the principal
forces him into the closet and threatens him one-on-one in which Claires revelation about him is

true, at his core, he is afraid. Afraid of being threatened, afraid of turning into the horrible person
is father is.
Towards the last thirty minutes of the film the rest of the group reveals their core, the principal
finally opens up to the janitor, who makes him realize that he might not truly be the man that
everyone respects at his job, and even starts to feel a revulsion towards his position. After the
kids start to smoke Benders weed, they all start to truly bond. Allison starts to open up, but then
retreats back into a shell when Brian insults her, this reveal makes Andrew even more interested
in her. He asks her if its her parents that are causing her grief, and they share that unsatisfying
factor that lies in their core, however it is also revealed that she is a compulsive liar and is only at
detention because she had nothing better to do. Andrew then reveals that Allison was true when
she said he cant think for himself. Its all because of my old man he breaks down in tears and
admits to harassing a kid to impress his father whom he ultimately hates as much as Bender hates
his own father. They finally achieve a level of reciprocity.
Going back again on Ethical Egoism, at the end of the film it appears that Claire has the
strongest sense of it because of her popularity, but then she eventually emotional breaks down
and accuses everyone else of having the same traits, that they would shrug each other off if they
ran into each other again the halls on the following Monday. Claire says Brian doesnt
understand popularity pressure, but then he reveals his core, that he cant have an F and his
parents cant have it, that sort of pressure made him nearly attempt suicide. After all their cores
are revealed, it all boils down to one thing. Their parents are what believe the root of all their
fucked up problems, this may be true. They then all share a level of reciprocity, a positive
outcome, and are fully able to achieve self-disclosure. Thus, in all of this happening, intimate
relationships end up occurring. That between Claire and Bender, and one between Allison and

Andrew. Thus the movie ends on a positive note, each of them getting something out of detention
that day, the ability to reveal their true selves.
The Breakfast Club may be a little extreme when applying the Social Penetration Theory
because its not often that a group of 5 teenagers from all types of cliques have the ability to
reach into each others core layers and achieve positive relationships. Especially the romantic
ones between Claire and Bender. They had a very low level of reciprocity throughout the film,
with instances of high reciprocity, however the constant heated arguments they had would in real
life, not build a core-reaching, intimate relationship within 8 hours. The intimate relationship
between Andrew and Allison did seem more plausible, because Andrew deep down was a caring
individual and as was she, but their personality structures ultimately were a lot different from one
another. As a whole this film did an entertaining analysis of social penetration theory, and to this
day is considered a great film about breaking stereotypes, the pressures of being a teenager, and
how being forced into certain situations can bond unlikely people together.