Stereotypes In John Hughes Film The Breakfast Club

“And these children that you spit on, as they try to change their worlds, are immune to your consultations. They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.” Music legend David Bowie says this line in his song “Changes.” The line is applicable to the characters in John Hughes’ film The Breakfast Club because each of the five characters have their own lifestyles, pursuits or lack of, and difficulties that they face. Their lives are easily glossed over by outside contributing factors that limit them to change their worlds, when it’s them who has the best perspective on what they are going through in their lives. The character of Brian Johnson, also known as the nerd or geek, is involved in many academic clubs with very good grades. From the

Who are you? Who are you?” The question had been circulating Brian’s brain from the moment Vernon assigned the essay to explain to him who they think they are. Throughout the film, each of the characters discover who they really are underneath their stereotypes. He still was considered the odd man out, and didn’t end up with a girl, but instead ended up with writing the essay. The other students slightly took advantage of him, but his mind was trained to perform well in any academic situation, that he didn’t notice or mind. With nine hours to write the essay, he learned a lot about the other students and showed it on the paper. They had a lot more in common that they initially thought, and they were able to relate to one another’s experiences. Brian recognized this during writing the essay. He wrote for Vernon, “you see us as you want to see us- in the simplest terms in 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 this morning. We were brainwashed.” In this writing it reveals more about Brain that it does the other students, even though he wrote it for all of them. It shows what he thinks of Vernon’s ideas of them, it doesn’t reveal the other student’s thoughts or inputs. Even Brian agrees that the way he saw the other kids in detention was the way they lived up to their stereotypical identifications. Then Brian goes on to say that they were

The bottom line of Hughes The Breakfast Club was for these individuals to discover themselves in a way they never really had before. They learned about themselves by comparing their lives and situations to someone who they appeared to have no similar interests with. “They try to change their their worlds, are immune to your consultations. They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.” The students have the capability to decide their lives for themselves, but struggle with figuring how to do so with the pressure of the parents and their stereotypes, only they are able to change their path, they are the only ones who know exactly what is going on within their