Topic > The Problems of Social Inequality in "The Breakfast Club"

The film Breakfast Club revolves around a group of five kids stuck in Saturday detention. Each with their own unique personality and unusual reasons for being detained. Initially, the group doesn't mix due to their different personalities, not to mention having to deal with Mr. Vernon breathing down their necks. The group is given an essay to write and told to stay in the library from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. With nothing to do, the group slowly warms up to each other; mainly because of one of the boys who constantly teased, taunted and dragged everyone into his antics. Towards the end of the film they all start to open up to each other. At the end of the film they all become friends and their story ends here. The main characters include; Andrew Clark who is a jock, Brian Johnson who is a nerd, John Bender who is a rebel, Claire Standish who is a princess, Allison Reynold who is a loner and finally Richard Vernon who is the teacher. I decided to write about The Breakfast Club because it contains many great examples to explain what leads to social inequality and the many issues that social inequality raises. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The main message of the film was to find out “who you are.” Over the course of the film we slowly begin to understand each character, learning who they are and what makes them unique. The second concept of the film would be cultural diversity and how society influences young people. Specifically subcultures and countercultures. The director did a great job helping each character fit into a specific subculture and giving them a personality that reflected their subculture's stereotype. The Breakfast Club gives the audience the perspective of a typical 1980s high school society, with the typical subculture and anti-culture groups thriving in its society. In addition to giving lessons about the subculture and how people belonging to those cultures behave, the film gives a hint about the family structure of that time period and the effect of primary groups. Each child in the group had some family problem and felt pressure from their parents. This pressure causes every child to behave the way they do. Andrew Clark is a college wrestler and is currently trying to get a scholarship. Everything he does is to impress his father, but nothing seems to be good enough for him. His father always told stories about how he misbehaved in school and how "cool" he was. Andrew took it upon himself to follow in his father's bad footsteps and ended up bullying a child in the locker room. Andrew gets angry at the group and confesses that he never wanted to act like a kid, in fact he felt extremely guilty for his actions and regretted what he had done. On top of that, his father always pushes Andrew to win no matter what, and gets angry when Andrew doesn't meet his expectations. Brian Johnson is a typical nerd. Member of countless academic clubs and maintains above-average grade point average. His parents don't fight or argue, but they put enormous pressure on Brian to keep up his grades. This had such a severe effect on Bryan that when he failed a project in the shop, he contemplated suicide. John Bender comes from an abusive family. From the reconstruction of a normal day for John at the Bender house, we can see that his father is very physically and verbally abusive. The two exchanged swear words and argued. John went so far as to show off a cigar burn his father gave him on his forearm. TheJohn's behavior is a byproduct of his father's behavior. John rebels and takes action because it's all he knows how to do. Allison Reynolds is a quiet outsider who only begins to speak towards the last quarter of the film. His family problem is simple; they ignore it. The isolation she is exposed to at home also translates to school, making her become the person she IS. Claire Standish's family situation is very different from everyone else's. Her family is rich and she seems to be happy with her relationship with her family. We then discover that she feels overwhelmed by expectations of being perfect. Throughout the film, she is called a plum, which would be linked to her family's wealth and the assumption that she looks down on people because of her financial position. Vernon is the teacher in charge of supervising the group of boys while they serve their punishment. From the beginning, Mr. Vernon is portrayed as a strict teacher and asserts his dominance over the boys by accusing Bender in front of everyone for the way he behaves and dresses. Mr. Vernon is very concerned with how people see him (respectful and powerful) and hates being made fun of. Mr. Vernon has been placed in the rigid role of teacher and fully embraces it. From a micro perspective, we can assume that Mr. Vernon had a serious impact on the group's life in negative and positive ways. The negative impact; It appears that most of the group have never had anything to do with Mr. Vernon before the event in the film, but it is obvious that Bender has some familiarity with Mr. Vernon. Throughout the film Bender is despised by Mr. Vernon. He is insulted and is used as an example to the rest of the group to work hard in school so they don't end up like Bender, a useless piece of trash who will never do anything with his life. If we have to guess, we can say that due to the abuse Bender suffered during high school, he may simply fall into the category he continues to be placed in. This places a burden on society and makes welfare increasingly a demand. The positive impact; in some strange way, by forcing the group to think about "who you are", it made them interact with each other and truly understand who they really are. In doing so, it gave them the ability to interact with other groups in society and taught them to seek help for their problems from a third-party perspective. The sociological concepts shown in the film are; Feminist Perspective: Our education and peer socialization play a role in the feminist perspective. Throughout the film, Claire is degraded by John, his view of her is that she is inferior and is only good because of her good looks. His actions show that he has little respect for women. As the film draws to a close, despite everyone's views of Claire's overly indulgent ways, John begins to respect her and doesn't treat her like she's a piece of meat. Functionalist Perspective: The functionalist can be observed in how Sabbath detention serves the community both manifestly and latently. The manifest function is in punishing students for misbehaving in school, while the latent function is in how students become friends and band together to oppose Vernon. Conflict Perspective: The conflict perspective is demonstrated in how conflict between group members in the beginning serves them positively in the end. This is because even though they are all different and come from different groups and backgrounds, they are also very similar. Ultimately, they are able to offer different perspectives on situations and share feelings and stories that ultimately help each other deal with their individual problems. Symbolic Perspective: The symbolic perspective is seen through the essay..