The Breakfast Club Age of Adolescence - Essay Example

?May 9, The Breakfast Club – age of Adolescence Adolescence is the most turbulent period any normal human being may have experienced. It is a time when a child starts discovering itself and is confused about the physical and emotional changes that are taking place within his body. This period of about three to five years which begins with puberty and ends with sexual maturity is a tough time for both - the child and the parents. The movie, ‘The Breakfast Club’, describes this time in a child’s life by depicting five characters, all of the adolescent age. This paper describes the movie and its characters in the light of various researches and studies done in the field. Puberty or adolescence refers to the years of rapid physical growth and sexual maturation that end childhood, eventually producing a person of adult size, shape, and sexual potential. The forces of puberty are unleashed by a cascade of hormones that produce external signs and such internal changes such as heightened emotions and sexual desires that many adolescents experience. The process normally starts between ages 8 and 14 (Berger, 407). During this time, an adolescent is in a frame of mind of discovery. Discovery begins with the body and the child’s sexuality. In this, the child recognises the primary and secondary sex characteristics that he or she develops. The body characteristics that are directly related to fertility are called the primary sex characteristics which involve growth of the ovaries and uterus in females, and of the penis and testes in males. The bodily features such as body shape where males tends to grow taller than females and become wider at the shoulders, while girls develop breasts and a wider pelvis are included among the secondary sex characteristics (Berger, 422). These sex characteristics that develop in both the sexes encourage experimentation with oneself as also with the opposite gender. It results in activities such as fantasizing, flirting, hand-holding, staring, displaying, and touching which are all done in particular ways to reflect gender, availability and culture (Berger, 423). Those involved in relationships may also lose their virginity in the act of exploring. In the year 2007, 50 percent of boys and 46 percent of girls from among U.S. eleventh graders were reported to have had sexual intercourse (Berger, 424). This topic is also being discussed in the movie when Bender interrogates Claire about her losing her virginity. Based on one’s peer group, it may a cool or a not-so-cool thing to lose one’s virginity. In Claire’s case, her peer group found it cool and hence she was not bold enough to confess she was a virgin to the other four in the detention. Same is the case with Brian. The way an adolescent thinks is different from other stages in his or her life. In adolescence, a child tends to ask questions like who am I, where am I going in life etc. According to Erik Erikson, a famous psychologist and psychoanalyst, this is the fifth stage in psychosocial development known as ‘Fidelity’. This is a battle between identity and role confusion more commonly known as the ‘Identity Crisis’. In the movie, Richard Vernon, the principal of Shermer High, tries to fix this most common problem in adolescents by asking the students who have been given detention to write an essay about who they are. However, during the course of the day whilst sharing their life experiences and their problems with each other, each of them realise what their identity was at that point of time and it is beautifully described by Bender towards the end of the movie where he leaves a note for the principal, in which he writes that ‘each one of us is a brain (Brian), and an athlete (Andy), and a basket case (Ally), a princess (Claire) and a criminal (Bender)’. Identity crisis can be solved if the parents give enough room for the child to explore themselves about life rather than flood them with their own opinions and views. It is important for the parents not to over guide their children in which case they tend to make them more dependent. An adolescent experiences sudden emotions of sadness and anger. These emotions are widely displayed in the movie especially through the characters of Bender and Claire. A sad teenager is more likely to use illegal drugs before the age of 15 and is also more vulnerable to depression, unwanted pregnancy and suicide. An angry adolescent is at a higher risk of dropping out of school, being arrested and dying accidentally (Berger, 492). These emotions are mostly out of the control of the child and hence he or she must be trained well at home regarding the same. Environments must be such that they do not encourage the development of such negative emotions. Low self esteem results out of competence with other individuals who excel in a particular field. Brian is depicted as someone who dislikes himself comparing himself to others. He didn’t want Claire to know he was a virgin because he thought it was not cool. This competence can be in various fields such as language, math, sports and physical appearances (Berger, 493). This can lead to trying new things which one has never done before. In the movie, when Bender removes a packet of cigarettes to smoke, all the others follow him and smoke with him. They tried to do something Bender did as many of them looked up to him as he had the audacity to take on the principal and back answer him. According to a report, most U.S. adolescents try illicit drugs (60 percent), although few of them become chronic users (Berger, 512). The major role to be played in an adolescent’s life is by his or her parents. If we see the movie, most of them are facing problems with their parents. All of them dislike their parents for some reason or the other. Ally does not like her parents because they ignore her all the time; hence she is detained because she has ‘nothing better to do’. Brian, the brain, has a troubled home life because his parents want him to do very well academically, so much so that when he gets an ‘F’ on a project, he attempts to commit suicide. Bender has serious problems with his father who wants him to excel but criticises and abuses him severely. Andy, the athlete, has a similar kind of father as Bender. His father was a former high school football player and hence he wants his son also to do well and be number one at all times. Claire thinks her parents use her as a bargaining chip so that they can get back at each other whenever they fight. Thus, the love and attention of the parents towards their child is extremely important. They must feel wanted, loved and must not be forced to fulfil their dreams but rather the dreams the children have made for themselves. They must be encouraged to do the things they like. Also the environment created at home between the father and the mother must be calm. Children of divorced parents tend to be more aggressive and depressed in their lives. If parents ignore their children, those children prefer to stay alone and do not socialise much in their latter lives. Parents must be taught how to handle conflicts with their children. Disputes are common at a time when the adolescent’s drive for independence clashes with the parents’ customary control. The specifics depend on many factors such as the adolescent’s age, gender and culture. Closeness impacts the parent-child relationship which is based on four specific aspects: communication, support, connectedness and control (Berger, 478-479). If we look closely at the characters of the film, all these seem to be missing. Peer pressure too is an important aspect of an adolescent’s life. In the film, we see that when all the characters interrogate Claire about her virginity, she is forced to confess in the end about the truth. Also, when asked about whether they would be friends after spending the Saturday together, Claire points out that most of them would just say a ‘Hi’ and walk away because they wouldn’t want to know that they are friends with such people. This peer pressure can force adolescents to do something that is not natural to them. Summing up, an adolescent’s life is a challenge to both the individual and the parents. Communication seems to be the most important thing where the adolescent gets a chance to open up his or her heart to either a close friend or parent. This gives the confidence that someone is there to understand what they going through and to guide them through the many first-time experiences they are having with regards to emotions, sexuality and relationships with others. What we can learn from the movie is that everyone has an identity of his or her own and one must be proud of it and make the best of it. We must strive to make the best of what we have and teach our children to do the same. Works Cited Berger, Kathleen Stassen. The Developing Person – Through Childhood and Adolescence. 8th ed. New York: Worth, 2009. Print. The Breakfast Club. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, and Paul Gleason. Universal, 1985. DVD. Erikson, Erik H. Identity, Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton, 1968. Print. Read More