Adolescence Development: The Breakfast Club - Movie Review Example

Essay: The Breakfast Club (1985) This remarkable film released in 1985 showcases brilliantly the workings of the minds of adolescents: the peer pressure, the stereotypes, the insecurities. The realization that no matter what happens during the detention: however much they bond; they shall return tomorrow their previous lives was and remains to date, the highlight of the film. The entire movie is ingenious because it holds no promise to the future; it was all about the present moment; in this case the detention. The brilliance of course lies in the realization they later have that they might come to school tomorrow pretending all this never happened. I shall discuss the film and adolescents’ behavior with the help of this film and eight terms from the list that had been provided. Cliques: Groups of people with whom one tends to communicate more regularly and powerfully. The Breakfast club is an extraordinary movie about five high school students, all from separate cliques who spend one Saturday in detention together and end up pouring their hearts out to each other. We have the typical high school cliques in this film: the prom queen/cheerleader/prettiest and most popular, the criminal delinquent, the jock/athlete, the nerd/brain/ and the helpless one that acts like a deranged person. Roles: The roles that we play are basically our behavior that is moulded into a specific form by the society and environment we live in. Erving Goffman believed that each person has two selfs, one is his true self (the person backstage) that only manifests when the person is alone, and the other self (the actor on sage) manifests itself whenever there is an audience, no matter even if that is one person. We therefore behave how we think others (society) expect us to behave. Social status and position may define our roles. Just as they did in the film where it as the cliques they had fallen in which defined their behavior and specified the social roles each adolescent had to play. “Mr. Vernon...You see us as you want to see us…..But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain… …and an athlete… …and a basket case… …a princess…and a criminal” (Hughes, 1985). Personal Fables: In psychology, there exists a cognitive distortion in adolescents that we call personal fables. In this they hold the belief that it they are the centre of everyone’s attention and concern.  The perfect example of this from the movie would be of Claire, our resident princess. While the case of personal fable as not too severe, in Claire it was obvious in the entire film that Claire thought she was unique and utterly different from others. However, Claire was also vulnerable, which is the opposite characteristic of personal fable. Conformity: This is the social influence that makes us change our behavior, our habits and routines so that we may be able to mimic and thus become part of a (any) specific group. This usually results from either social pressure by said group or actual physical pressure, maybe in the form of a threat. When we give in to group pressures, we conform to them. This practice of conformity is extremely common in teenagers, especially high school children. The social pressures of ‘fitting in’ the already established cliques, stereotypes, or groups is too great and many of the teenager succumb to it. It was why all of these five students in the movie had limited themselves to particular behaviors. They had conformed to the high school setting. However, they realize by the end of the film that even though they were;"criminal" John Bender, "athlete" Andrew Clark, "brain" Brian Johnson, "basket case" Allison Reynolds, and "princess" Claire, they were much more than what they had conformed to. They had everything and nothing in them at the same time; there was no need for limits. Controversial, Rejected, Neglected Adolescents: There have been researches conducted from a very long time that prove that parent’s relationship status, stable or unstable household environment, students sex, ethnicity, family structure, guides and determines students’ behaviour in schools and in life. It guides how well one does in school, if one is socially responsible or perhaps, aggressive or withdraws from every emotional situation. The last two are often affected by rejected peer status amongst adolescents. This film is a prime example of what controversial, rejected, and neglected adolescents behave like because of such factors. They find out that Allison is a compulsive liar, Andrew loathes his domineering father, John has an abusive father, Brian wanted to commit suicide because of a bad grade he received, and Claire is still a virgin. Their behavior in school and their conformity to already defined social roles and cliques is in large part a consequence of these things. Pro-social Behavior: Behaviour done that benefits others, as individuals or as society, is called pro - social behaviour. If one helps others, shares or volunteers, it will be called pro social behavior. These actions can be either motivated by feelings of empathy and a general regard for the feelings of others, or for selfish and egoistic feelings. This behavior was not an evident factor in the movie. The students were not shown as particularly pro – socialists in the generic sense of the term. However, what the director did show was John Bender’s act of sacrificing himself to protect the others. He knew these people would never again spare a glance to him when morning arrived. He understood that the detention was a onetime occasion. And yet, when Mr. Vernon was upon them, it was he who ran to divert Mr. Vernon and give his fellow students time to return to the detention cell i.e. the library. Criminally delinquent behavior was normal to him, even expected of him and not of others. So he took the fall to save others. This can, in the particular context of the movie be termed as pro – social behavior. Pluralistic Society: This is a society that accepts people of all kinds; be it different ethnicities, religions, race. It’s the sort of society America is, the sort of society most countries strive to attain. If we bring it down to an institutional level, high schools cannot be termed as a pluralistic society. There are pre-defined rules that all students must meet to survive the ‘high school experience’. However, in that library with the five students, what started out as a typical diversified society ended up being a pluralistic one. They all accepted each other as they were, and the differences that were part of them were accepted by each and everyone; thus, a pluralistic society in the small world of the library, Assimilation: When persons of multiple backgrounds become part of, or see themselves as under one larger concept of identity, i.e. instead of seeing themselves as part of their individual or extended family, they see themselves as a vital part of the national family. This means that one’s language, culture and habits start resembling those of the larger national family. Brian, John Bender, Claire, Allison, and Andrew, all assimilated under one identity. They all did not want to be as their parents were, and they all respected the problems each faced. During the course of detention, they found common ground to stand upon, and thus assimilated. Even though it appears as if it was for only that detention, the assimilation was the behavior that was guided by the knowledge that they all had the pain, but of different kinds. Works Cited Hughes, J. (Director). (1985). The Breakfast Club [Motion Picture]. S., F. B., & Meier, S. (2004). Pro-Social Behavior, Reciprocity or Both? . Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 54. , 65-88. . Read More