Diya Shah

PSYC202
Prof. Garima Rajan
30th November, 2021

Assignment 2

Movie Analysis - The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is a 1985 pop culture classic. Directed by John Hughes, this movie
became a right of passage for anyone who grew up right from when it was released until
the present day. The Breakfast Club is a movie that follows the story of five students
from five different social circles as they are sentenced to Saturday detention in school
together. Each of the characters represents a different stereotype as defined by their high
school clique. Over the years, this movie become widely recognized for its social
relevance in youth culture as it recognized themes such as stereotyping, interpersonal
relationships, and peer as well as parental pressure. The central message of the film is
relevant not only for adolescents or teenagers who the movie revolves around but for
viewers of any age. It offers a symbolic representation of friendships across peer groups,
one’s own personal and social identity and opens the viewers to discover the tensions of
our inner psychology.

The entire storyline of The Breakfast Club is full of depictions of judgment and
prejudices. Each of the five characters- Brian ‘The Brain’, Claire ‘The Princess’, Bender,
‘The Criminal’ Andrew ‘The Athlete’ and Allison ‘The Basket Case’ through which the
story is told are assigned their own set of characteristics and distinct psychological issues
they’re dealing with internally. From the beginning through the end, we see each of them
make judgments of each other and come to realize which ones are true and which stand to
be corrected. The very different social groups they come from make them think they’re
either above or below the rest. This Saturday morning can be compared to a maze
wherein the participants are placed together randomly to strategize and figure a way out,
together or by themselves. This setting mimics that of wartime where people who go
through a traumatic event together form lifelong bonds and friendships simply because of
the shared event even if they have nothing in common.

The first of the five characters, Brain is the brain of the group. Brian was smart,
empathetic, a little socially awkward, and a classic case of an overachiever.. Bender
jokingly describes his as “a parent’s dream” still getting packed lunch from his mother.
While Brain seems to have the perfect grades and perfect home life, he is extremely
self-conscious and self-critical of himself. He is subjected to verbal by others regularly.
Unable to say ‘no’ to others to avoid confrontation and further bullying he succumbs to
peer pressure and ultimately writes one essay that they were asked to work on throughout
detention for the entire group. But why was he in detention in the first place? As it’s later
revealed at the end of the film, the flare gun he had brought to school discharged in his
locker before he could use it to kill himself. Why did he want to kill himself? Brian had
just got his first-ever ‘F’ in shop class. Illustrating the concept of Cognitive Dissonance
wherein his self-perceived intelligence and grades did not match. The theory of cognitive
dissonance by Festinger states that an underlying psychological tension is created when
an individual's behavior is inconsistent with his or her thoughts and beliefs. Being
intellectually superior and receiving such a low grade caused great discomfort to Brain.
His self perceived intellectual self and failing a class created intense tension within
himself. This resulted in him experiencing suicidal thoughts in an attempt to perform
actions inconsistent with his usual behavior to in fact deal with such a discrepancy.

John Bender, as mentioned before was ‘the criminal’. He was rude and constantly
mocked the entire group. He is depicted as a stereotypical delinquent with a bad attitude,
always acting out and mocking others. There is a scene in the movie as I have referenced
before where he mocks Brain’s nutritious meal made by his mother and starts mimicking
the perfect life he must have. It’s very evident that John in a way envy’s what he assumes
Brain has, a stable and loving home. John had an alcoholic father and his behavior is that
of a stereotypical troubled young man who acts out to get some attention. The Social
Learning Theory given by Albert Bandura explains his behavior. This theory considers
how both cognitive and environmental factors interact to influence human behavior.
Children are surrounded by various influences, parental influence being the strongest
among others like family, friends, and characters they see on T.V shows. and Children
pay attention to these models and imitate this behavior at a later time. John’s childhood
consisted of him observing his alcoholic father and his trouble-causing behavior,
substance abuse tendencies (smoking marijuana), and general disregard for rules. There’s
a scene in the movie where Andrew Clark “the athlete’ wrestles him to the ground to
stick up for Brain and Clair and John retaliated by pulling out his switchblade.

Another parent-child relationship that we see has influenced a character is that of Allison
‘the basket case’. The lack of parental authority in her life, having no support in her
formative years to observe and learn from has left her feeling lost and confused about
who she is. She is thus very complex in the way she presents herself. She wears all black,
carries a bag full of things she has acquired from different places and people. It seems as
if she doesn’t know what her identity is in the world and thus tries to adopt and acquire
things that belong to others to make sense of herself. Throughout the movie, she has the
most consistent and true representation of her character where she just is simply trying to
find where she belongs. This also leaves her vulnerable to conforming to the norms. In a
scene from the movie. She allows Claire to give her a complete makeover from her very
grunge and sorrowful look to that of a much brighter and approachable character. As
much as she wants to stand out, she also has a dire desire to fit in and feel included. Her
attitude towards the makeover clearly exhibits conformity and how someone from a
lower clique would change or alter who they are to feel more included with the popular
kids. The Breakfast Club has very accurately portrayed the concept of conformity
throughout various scenes in the movie.

Allison ‘The Princess and Prom Queen’ is shown as the perfect rich girl who feels like
she is entitled to everything and has the world at her disposal. She is evidently on the
other side of the table where the cool kids sit. She thinks she is superior to the rest. She
has this intrinsic need to be the best, be it academically or socially. Moreover, this
superiority complex and being part of the popular bunch also dictates her social
interaction which is limited to others belonging to the same social category. Her character
in the movie has a strong ingroup bias where she practices favoritism towards the group
that she identifies with, in this case, is Andrew. A jock and the other ‘cool’ kid. More
than her own personal identity she is more inclined towards maintaining her social
identity and thus manages her appearance, her interactions, and behavior to keep it
secure. Social Identity Theory proposed by Tajfel and Turner describes this as a condition
where one’s social identity becomes more important than an individual's own identity.
This also dictates how they behave in a group setting. The theory is built on three main
concepts: social categorization (the popular kids and the outcasts), social identification
(belonging to the popular segment), and social comparison (desire to be better than the
others and having an elevated opinion of herself). The social identity theory also explains
how individual wishes to maintain a positive social identity by maintaining a favorable
standing of their social group over the other out-groups. This theory offers an accurate
explanation to Allison’s behavior. The last character to be referenced, Andrew Clark “The
Athlete’ belonged to the popular clique in school and the only other individual Allison
was open to interacting with. He was the most popular jock in school and like Allison
simply believed he was just better than the others. His way of expressing this was by
Social Dominance and his assertion of this was the very reason why he was in detention.
He was sentenced for the same for bullying a nerdy kid in the hallways. While he knew
his actions were wrong and hurtful, he was also under intense pressure from his father to
not be a ‘loser’. No matter his intentions, he felt the need to assert dominance and
conform to the behavior of the popular and powerful jock.

To conclude, the breakfast club is not just another pop culture iconic. The message of the
movie runs much deeper than that of a high school drama. Social concepts like
conformity, self-identity, social identity, cognitive dissonance to name a few have been
effectively portrayed and illustrated. The roles played by each of the characters can be
observed in our lives where all of us belong to different social cliques and stages of life.
It talks about the human condition universally in various different settings be it school or
the workplace. There are always competing social groups that seem to view the other as
the outsider. Our social identity is the culmination of a variety of influences that we have
been exposed to from the very day we were born. These factors embody themselves in
each of us in different ways and make it seem like we’re too different but is that really the
case? The breakfast club really shows us that ultimately no matter where we come from,
how different our backgrounds are, how varying our interests and likes are, we are all
humans. There is a lot we have in common if we just look past what is visible on the
surface.
 References

Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance | ScienceDirect . (2021). Retrieved 1

December 2021, from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123849250/encyclopedia-of-body-image-and-human-a
ppearance

The Breakfast Club (1985) - IMDb. (2021). Retrieved 1 December 2021, from
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

The Breakfast Club Script — Download and Breakdown. (2020). Retrieved 1 December 2021,
from https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/the-breakfast-club-script-pdf-screenplay-download/

Mcleod, S. (2021). Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory | Simply Psychology. Retrieved 1
December 2021, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Social Identity Theory and and Its Impact on Behavior. (2021). Retrieved 1 December 2021,
from https://www.thoughtco.com/social-identity-theory-4174315