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The Breakfast Club Movie Analysis Sarah Joseph April 8th, 2018 CHD3243 Contexts for Adolescent Development

We think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are, what do you care? (The Breakfast Club, 1985). Who am I? This is a common question many teenagers ask themselves throughout the period of adolescence. Adolescence can be defined as as extent of time in the life course between when puberty starts, and adulthood begins. Development and growth are key aspects of adolescence that are inevitable and beneficial to the changes that are made. The movie “The Breakfast Club” shows essential elements in development of the adolescence that are common to most and educate all ages on what transformations appear during this stage. In the movie, we hone in on the lives of five characters that are high school students who are all attending detention on a Saturday for various reasons. In the beginning of the movie, we see each character as a depiction of a member who is part of a certain high school clique or group. For instance, in the movies opening quote, Brian (the Brain of the group) states “You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.” (The Breakfast Club, 1985). As the movie ends, we are left with an understanding that each character shared traits from every group, and not just one. We see many examples of the development of friendships, romantic relationships, and relationships with family. We also see changes in physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development. Ultimately, this movie depicted clear forms of how adolescents are affected by their life choices and changes. Physical development in adolescence are the most visually obvious changes that take place after puberty. As the adolescent body begins to mature, physical changes appear to both male and female. Some of the changes include physical growth in height and weight, the appearance of body hair, changes in body image, and the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics. All the characters in the movie exhibit multiple examples of normative physical

development however, there are specific points in the movie that address these examples more promptly than others. Firstly, Andrew Clarke is seemingly considered to be the athlete in the movie. Andrew is on the wrestling team and his Father pushes him to be a winner. Due to the amount of physical activity that Andrew takes part in on a regular basis, he is considerably strong. In one scene, Principal Vernon asks Andrew specifically to help him lift a heavy steel magazine rack to keep a door open. Each character fits a body type that is either ectomorphic, endomorphic, or mesomorphic. Brian (the brainy one) is ectomorphic as he is tall and lanky and lacks muscle. On the other hand, Andrews body type is mesomorphic and his physique is very muscular and toned. Secondly, Claire (who is considered the princess, or popular girl of the group) experiences difficulties in her body image. Claire is not endomorphic as she is quite thin, however, John makes a comment regarding her weight that made her obviously uncomfortable. He states that some people are born to be fat, and that there are others who are fat that were once thin. He continues by miming what a fat person looks like after stating that Claire is “pushing maximum density”. This is an offensive comment to Claire as most girls prefer to be ectomorphic. Her body image affects her self-esteem as she becomes angry and gives John the middle finger and continues to be seemingly upset. It should be noted that body image is directly linked with how teenagers (especially girls) see themselves. “Body image is an important aspect of self-representation and self-evaluation during adolescence.” (Jones, 2001). Claire’s action of giving John the middle finger was induced by his comment that affected her self-esteem. Lastly, secondary sexual characteristics are a large factor in normative physical development. There is a scene in the movie that depicts Claire applying her lipstick by putting it in between her cleavage and bringing her face to it. During adolescence, females develop breasts

after puberty begins. Claire wouldn’t have been able to complete her trick without maturation which is also a key phase of physical development. John also exhibited a result of sexual maturation which is preoccupation with sex. He shows his preoccupation by interrogating Claire about her virginity as well as inappropriately touching Claire under the table in which he was hiding. We could tell it was inappropriate by the punches and slaps she gives him and he exits from under the table. Moving on from normative physical development, there are many opportunities in movie for us to view normative cognitive development. For instance, risky decision making is associated with cognitive development and there were so many times in the movie where every character made risky decisions. They all decide to go to Johns locker to retrieve marijuana. After getting it, they run throughout the halls to hide from Principal Vernon. After Andrew makes the wrong decision on which hall to go down and they almost get caught, John decides to go on his own to the gymnasium where he loudly runs up and down the halls to get to. He uses this method to distract the principal from catching the others yet his decisions land him in a room all on his own in a near physical fight with the principal. Another normative change in cognitive development is shown using Piaget’s formal operational stage where combinational thinking is used quite frequently throughout the movie. My favorite moment of the movie is when Brian asks the group “Come Monday, what happens?” He is referring to the future of his newly formed friendships and considering the facts of them being popular and in different groups as well as the idea of him possibly being apart of them and their groups. Lastly, another normative depiction of cognitive development is when the role of knowledge is used in information processing. For instance, knowing facts helped the teens of the

breakfast club make better decisions regarding the future. When they were all sitting down talking about how they don’t want to be like their parents, they focused on all the things they could do versus couldn’t do. They wanted to learn from their past mistakes as well just like when Andrew thought about his decision in taping Larry’s buns together was wrong, even though he did it to prove he was tough to his Dad. He knows going forward, that since doing that got him into detention, he wouldn’t do it again. Moving on to normative social/emotional development, the movie offers quite a bit of insight that ties into this growth. To start off, unfortunately bullying is a part of nearly every high school experience. From little comments about hair or weight to physical aggression, bullying can affect social and emotional development. In the movie, we see John as a huge bully to nearly everyone in the room. This is likely due to the aggression his father lets out on him, being both physical (cigar burn on his arm) to emotional (calling him stupid and worthless). John bullies Claire by making comments about her weight and bullies Brian by telling him he is his parents wet dream and calling him a dweeb. Another example of social/emotional development is the developmental changes in friendships. In adolescence, teens friendships turn from superficial to meaningful. By the end of the movie, after learning more about Allison (the basket case of the group), we see Claire want to form a meaningful friendship with her. While Claire is applying makeup to her new friend, Allison asks why she is doing it and Claire says, “because you’re letting me”. This goes to show that Claire cares about Allison and wants to bond with her. Claire sees how Allison was treated by her family and wants her to not feel ignored but rather supported and cared for. Lastly, we know that adolescence seek social acceptance whether it’s from being attractive, fashionable, known, or by being active in groups. Claire is the perfect example of a

popular teen. She’s beautiful, known by her peers, and wealthy. John makes a comment about her earrings being real diamonds and it emotionally hurts Claire as she empathetically sees that John comes from a poor family. By the end of the movie, she is not only dating John but give him her earring which he places in his own ear. The association of relationships including family, peer, and romantic relationships affect adolescent development. In this movie, the parents of all the teens had some serious issues that affected their teens. From Johns dad having horrible aggression in which he takes on his son, to Brian’s parents expectations of him being a scholar and Andrews father pushing him to always be a winner, it is easy to see how parents immensely effect their children. Teens need connection, meaning warm and close bonds with their parents. In Allison’s case, she wasn’t getting any of those attributes from her parents thus leading her to being so bored she came to detention. Secondly, peer relationships are a large part of development. Teens feel the need for approval from there peers. This was shown when John asks Brian if he is a virgin and him lying and saying he is. He wanted John to approve of him. This also happened when Allison lied and said she slept with a lot of people to get Claire to admit she was a virgin. Lastly, romantic relationships are part of adolescent development. By the end of the movie, we see two romantic relationships that have formed. Claire and Bender, total opposites grow close after opening up to each other. Andrew and Allison start dating after Andrew gets to know Allison and sees how beautiful her face is (after she takes off all the black makeup and pushes her hair back). There are also a few nonnormative development events that take place in the movie. One is the emotional and physical abuse John receives from his Dad. Burning your son was a cigar is

nonnormative. Also, John being called stupid, and worthless is nonnormative. It should also be noted that physical abuse can lead to a decrease in ambitions and self-esteem “Personality development after child abuse was studied in 39 children who had, on average, been admitted to hospital five and a half years previously. In contrast to a control group, the abused children had fewer friends, lower ambitions, and lower self esteem.” (Oates, 1984). Another nonnormative event is when we found out Brian kept a flare gun in his locker because he wanted to commit suicide after failing his shop class. Suicide is nonnormative and Brian should seek psychological help, so his intentions don’t persist. The last nonnormative event is when John pulls out a knife to scare off Andrew from hurting him physically. This can be considered nonnormative as most teens don’t use weapons to threaten other teens. They normally try to ruin their reputation or tease them by other means. In conclusion, “The Breakfast Club” was a great depiction on normative adolescent development and helpful to watch to better understand how teens life choices and changes affect them. This movie enhances knowledge of adolescent transformation and educates others on common occurrences that take place between puberty and adulthood. Ultimately, we can see adolescent changes that take place physically, emotionally, socially, nonnormatively, and cognitively as well as change that occur through families, peers, and romantic relationships.

References:

Hughes, J. (1985). The Breakfast Club. Hollywood: Universal Pictures. Jones, D. C. (2001). Social Comparison and Body Image: Attractiveness Comparisons to Models and Peers Among Adolescent Girls and Boys. Sex Roles, 45(9/10), 645-664. doi:10.1023/a:1014815725852 Oates, R. K. (1984). Personality development after physical abuse. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 59(2), 147-150. doi:10.1136/adc.59.2.147...