Andrew Dillard

English 103
Media Analysis Essay
The Breakfast Club
You see us, as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient
definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.
Correct? (dailyscript.com) Today well be closely looking at the movie The Breakfast
Club directed by John Hughes. The cultural idea of this movie is that everyone in High
School fits into a specific sect. In this analysis of The Breakfast Club I will be identifying
these sects and stereotypes and will be analyzing how theyre portrayed in the movie.
Along with analyzing the characters I will also be examining how the media brainwashes
our society into thinking how teenagers should behave and act.
Before the analysis we must first look at what The Breakfast Club is, and thats a
movie. Like all films it has a plot. This movie takes place at Shermer High School,
Illinois. It opens with each character making their way to Saturday detention. First we
have Claire, the princess asking her dad why he couldnt have gotten her out of detention.
Then theres Brian, the brain. His mother insists he finds a way to study while hes in
detention. Next we have Andrew, the athlete. His father sympathizes with him telling him
that he also got into trouble in High School and sends Andrew on his way to detention.
Then you see Bender, the criminal. As he walks across the parking lot a car almost hits
him because hes not paying attention to his surroundings. Lastly we have Allison, the
basket case. She gets out of the back seat of her parents car and as she goes back to tell
her parent something the car speeds off. The entire movie takes place in the High School

during detention. As the movie goes on each character develops and follows the traits of
their specified stereotype. While at the beginning of the movie all the characters are
separated by their different sects, they slowly learn that theyre all similar in one way or
another and by the end of the movie they can all identify with one another. A major scene
in the movie that shows that is the scene where theyre all sitting in a circle in the library
opening up to each other and learning that even though they all may be different they
share more similarities than they think. The end of the movie shows all the of characters
heading their own separate ways, knowing that no matter what they have each other.
All movies also have a target audience, while mostly every gender, age group, and
ethnicity can enjoy this film; its intended audience is the same of those of the characters
in the movie, High School teenagers. This can be shown through the setting of the movie,
an actual High School, the movie is placed in a fictional High School called Shermer
High School, however it was actually filmed at Glenbrook North High School located in
Northbrook, Illinois. (imdb.com) Another way we can assure the target audience of The
Breakfast Club is High School teenagers is because of the characters themselves, all of
the main characters in the movie are teenagers except for the teacher running detention
Mr. Vernon. Vernon is portrayed as an unfair and cruel teacher like most High School
students view their teachers, furthering the fact that the intended audience is High School
teenagers.
Now that we know the intended audience of The Breakfast Club we must look at
the cultural construction of the movie. Before that can be discovered we must understand
what a cultural construction is. According to Oregonstate.edu a cultural construct is the
idea that the characteristics people attribute to such social categories as gender, illness,

death, status of women, and status of men is culturally defined. (Oregonstate.edu) This
is relevant because our culture as Americans have constructed how teenagers are
supposed to act and how theyre supposed to be viewed. In terms of todays culture,
teenagers are either supposed to be; smart, pretty and stupid, athletic and masculine, a
burn out, or a social outcast. Thats how the movie portrays teenagers, and thats also
how society wants us to view teenagers.
Even though this film was released in 1985 these stereotypes are still relevant in
Americas High Schools today. I know this from first hand account, I graduated High
School in June of 2014 and while I may not be a sociologist it doesnt take one to realize
these stereotypes are still very relevant in todays day and age. The popular girls are all
considered very attractive and normally act less intelligent than they actually are. Jocks
focus on masculinity to gain popularity and acceptance from their peers. The brains or
geeks only focus on academics and are viewed as not having much of a social life. The
criminals or burn outs dont care about academics or societal traits and usually spend
their time doing drugs, rebelling against authority, and generally causing havoc. Lastly,
the basket cases or social outcasts generally stray from social norms and are looked
at as weird or different. These modernized views of stereotypes that exist in todays
High Schools that are the same with The Breakfast Clubs stereotypes exist in the movie
Mean Girls, which was released 19 years later in 2004. Where you sit in the cafeteria is
crucial because you got everybody there. You got your freshmen, ROT-C guys, preps,
J.V. jocks, Asian nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity jocks, Unfriendly black hotties, Girls who
eat their feelings, Girls who don't eat anything, Desperate wannabes, Burnouts, Sexuallyactive band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of the

Plastics.(filmsite.org) Now while a few groups were added on that werent represented
in The Breakfast Club, similar stereotypical groups were mentioned in a movie that was
released 19 years later. This is significant because it shows that the thoughts on teenage
gender roles, societal traits, sexuality, intelligence, and drugs, havent changed since the
1980s. If anything theyve gotten worse because in 2004s Mean Girls even more
stereotypes like girls who eat their feelings and unfriendly black hotties are now
identifiable stereotypes. All of these stereotypes that are portrayed in the media is what
constructs our understanding of how teenagers are supposed to act and behave. Whether
its a movie that was released in 1985 or 2004, commercials, billboards, magazines,
television, these ideas of how teenagers are supposed to act are influencing and actually
dictating how they behave and present themselves in real life.
The seemingly simple movie The Breakfast Club about a group of teenagers that
join each other on a Saturday for detention is much more than that. It shows that even
though the media may try to dictate how teenagers are supposed to act, and through
advertisements, theres always a way to relate to one another and that teenagers can break
stereotypes and come together as a generation (no matter the time period) to support one
another. It teaches us that the jock and the princess dont always end up together, that the
basket case may not be so weird or different if you give them a chance and talk to
them. The brain isnt always just a bookworm and you shouldnt go out of your way to
put them down through bullying. The movie shows us that through communication with
one another teenagers can always break out of the mold of a stereotype and make a
difference. The most influential scene in the movie is when all the stereotypes are sitting
around in a circle talking with one another, making each other break that mold. They

make the princess confess shes a virgin, that the jock doesnt want to be viewed as just a
machine that wins everything, that the brain was fed up with being held at such high
standards, that the basket case isnt different, in fact she can relate to everyone around
her, and finally that the criminal isnt a criminal at all, the criminal may be the most
down to earth person you may ever meet in your life. The final scene of the movie is
showing us just that. Those stereotypes can be broken and through that, anything is
possible. The jock can end up with a basket case, the brain can make friends and have a
social life, and the criminal can find his princess. Thats how the movie ends, before they
all head their separate ways, the characters who normally dont end up together, do.
Proving that this movie is supposed to break down teenage stereotypes. Then they all go
their own ways knowing that they have each other in their lives, and sometimes, and few
people is all you need.
The most important lesson we can learn from The Breakfast Club is that you can
fight against the brainwashing world of the media. The cultural idea that everyone in
High School fits into a specific sect can be broken. Stereotypes only exist in our culture
because we allow them to, but cultural construction can also be broken, the only thing to
do now is to break them down yourself and start to evaluate what it means to be a person
in this day and age. Dont let advertisements and the media control you as a person, dont
let the media dictate how you see your life, go out and experience it with your own eyes.
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss
it. " You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient
definitions. 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... (Brians monologue from The Breakfast Club) (www.dailyscript.com)

Works Cited
"A." Definitions of Nthropological Terms. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
"Best Film Speeches and Monologues." Best Film Speeches and Monologues. N.p., n.d. Web.
13 Nov. 2014.
"The Breakfast Club." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
"The Breakfast Club Script by John Hughes." The Breakfast Club Script by John Hughes. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.