Breakfast Club Film Review and Analysis

Adolescence is an especially critical development stage for any individual. At this stage, individuals not only experience biological changes, but also become more aware of gender roles and expectations and experience cognitive development. Also, individuals at the adolescent stage are influenced by various socialization agents, such as family and school. As depicted in the film The Breakfast Club,[footnoteRef:1] adolescents go through critical changes in this stage of their life. This paper highlights the developmental markers observed in the film, especially with respect to gender, biology, and cognition. The paper also highlights various socialization agents (specifically school and family) and how they impact the individual. [1: The Breakfast Club (1985)]

The Breakfast Club features five teenagers detained all day at Shermer High School. A number of developmental markers are evident in the film. One of the markers is gender. Gender essentially refers to the social classification of male and female. As adolescents grow, they gain familiarity with gender norms, roles, and expectations. They become more aware of what it means to be a male or a female as well as the behavioral and psychological differences between males and females. For instance, boys realize that the ability to provide, protect, and procreate is what defines a man, while girls realize that a woman is defined by factors such as sexuality, physical appearance, and occupational roles. In The Breakfast Club, the element of gender is crucial as the story revolves around three boys and two girls. Claire is depicted as a beautiful, virgin girl, while Allison comes out as a quite, introverted girl. Claire constantly faces pressure from her colleagues to be a certain way in terms of her sexual life. She eventually kisses Bender, intending to break the perception that she is a virgin. For the males, the occasional confrontations between Bender, Brian, and Andrew connote the social expectation that males should be masculine.

Another developmental marker evident in the film is biology. At puberty, individuals undergo rapid changes in their anatomy, physiology, and physical appearance. Some of the changes include growth of pubic hair, production of sperms, and deepening of voice in boys, and production of eggs and growth of breaths in girls. Many of these characteristics are visible in the five teenagers featured in the film. For instance, Bender has a deep voice, while Claire’s and Allison’s breasts can be seen protruding underneath their blouses. The boys seem to be sexually aroused by the girls, with Andrew eventually having a romantic interest in Allison. Puberty is also associated with delinquent behaviors. The teenagers have been detained because of their delinquency. Delinquency is also seen in the course of detention, particularly in Bender. Throughout the film, Bender comes out as rebellious. Bender also retrieves marijuana from his locker, which he smokes together with his colleagues. This further depicts delinquency.
The aspect of cognition is also evident in the film. Cognition basically encompasses thinking processes, problem solving, as well as memory capacity and attention. Significant changes in cognition are experienced in adolescence. At this stage, individuals start to become more aware of their thinking processes and to think critically and scientifically. In the film, assistant principal Richard Vernon instructs the students to write a 1,000-word essay describing who they think they are. The essay is meant to test the students’ ability to think and reason. There are apparent cognitive differences between the students. For instance, Brian is portrayed as intellectual, while his colleagues are seen to struggle with writing the essay.

The environment in which individuals grow affects their social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development. This comes out clearly in the film. In the course of the film, the students open up to each other about their struggles: Allison reveals that she lies compulsively; Andrew reveals that he is unable to think for himself; Bender talks about his abusive background; Brian narrates his intension to commit suicide due to his poor academic performance; and Claire feels that her friends constantly pressurizes her to be what she does not want to. Claire’s and Brian’s narrations are especially ideal examples of how socialization agents impact an individual. Brian wants to commit suicide because he cannot cope with his bad grades. This shows the pressure the education system imposes on students. Brian feels that he can never amount to anything due to his poor grades. That is probably why he sees suicide as the only solution to his feelings. On the other hand, Claire grapples with meeting societal expectations with respect to her sexual life. She ends up kissing Bender so that she stops appearing like a virgin.

All the students reveal their difficult relationships with their parents: Allison is ignored by her parents due to their own relationship problems; Andrew is persistently criticized by his father due to his passion for wrestling; Bender is verbally and physically abused by his father; Brian is constantly pressurized by her parents to attain higher grades in school; and Claire is frequently used by her parents as a means to reconcile with one another after an argument. These narrations point to the influence of family background on an individual. The influence can be particularly significant for adolescents. Owing to developmental changes at adolescence, conflict between parents and adolescents is not uncommon. As narrated by the students in the film, their parents are not giving them the support and encouragement they need. For some people like Brian, the lack of parental support and encouragement results in suicidal ideation.


Bibliography
The Breakfast Club (1985)