The Breakfast Club Film Review

The Breakfast Club Film Review

We are given many opportunities to evaluate others as individuals. We interpret people by our own perceptions due to our past experiences and in many ways it defines every aspect of what we see in this world. The five different individuals in the movie ‘The Breakfast Club’ spent eight inseparable hours on a Saturday morning detention learning a very valuable lesson on self-awareness and self-disclosure. John Bender, Claire Standish, Brian Johnson, Andy Clark, and Allison Reynolds all walked into their high school library not knowing what they would say to each other and how it would impact their idea on who they were.

Each one of these characters are defined a certain identity, or other words their self-concept. According to the book, self-concept is a relatively stable set of perceptions a person holds of himself or herself. (West & Turner, 2011, pp. 58-59) Claire was the ‘Princess’, she had a high self esteem, and was assertive. She was also highly emotional and uses her popularity and richness to hide her lack of abilities. Andrew was the ‘Jock’. He was an athlete, who was assertive, confident and had high self esteem. He sees himself as a tough guy and someone to be respected and/or feared especially amongst his fellow classmates. Allison was considered the ‘Basket Case’. Allison showed that she was obviously insecure, seating herself facing away from the rest of the room and clearly had low self-esteem about herself. Allison obviously lacked the respect of others, for she had no friends whatsoever prior to her time spent in this detention. Brian was the ‘Brain’ of the group. Even though he was highly intelligent, he was another case of insecurity. The influence of self-concept was strong with Brian for he doesn’t actually know who he is. There is clear evidence of this idea when he quietly asks to himself, who do I think I am? Who are you? This statement refers to the essay assignment they are all given by their...