The Breakfast Club Characters: Exploring Identity and Socialization

On a sunny Saturday morning, five very different adolescents came together to serve a Saturday detention at Shermer High School in the movie The Breakfast Club. Forced to sit for eight hours with students whom they normally did not associate, they would soon make a discovery themselves

Whether it is intentional or not, families mold their children into reflections of themselves. Society encourages us as adolescents and people to cut free from the past, to define our own selves, to choose the groups with which we wish to identify (Bellah, 154). Adolescents are first exposed to this socialization at home, but it is enhanced by school through peer pressure experienced in every social circle as well as in sports, clubs, and other communities. Socialization creates identity as its natural product (Selznick 197). It is thus, through a students affiliation, or lack there of, with clubs, sports, etc, that he becomes labeled as a preppy, a jock, a nerd, a burner, and so on, thereby gaining some sort of initial identity outside the home. The psychological development of adolescents is shaped by contemporary societal conditions (Mitterauer 18) such as those created by a students affiliations or isolations.

Adolescence is a period of preparation and self-definition (Hine, 11). Adolescents are able to grow in the settings of a community because communities are based on a framework of shared beliefs, interests, and commitments [that] unites a set of varied [people] (Selznick 195). The members of the breakfast club are much varied, yet they are able to come together in order to discover themselves. The Breakfast Club finds its characters immersed in the state of middle adolescence. The students are introspective but at the same time morbidly preoccupied with what others think of them (Harter 122). They attribute characteristics not as their own, but as to where they were derived (Harter). In The Breakfast Club, John Bender and Brian Johnson portray adolescents who are at the opposite ends of the identity spectrum, yet they are both coming to terms with being adolescents.

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Brian Johnson is the stereotypical nerd. His family has socialized him into accepting nothing less than straight A's. They value education very highly, which is apparent by their license plate of EMC 2 (for Einsteins E=MC2). His identity status is that of Foreclosure. He is well organized, goal-directed, neat, clean well behaved, (Marcia 155) a straight A student, and belongs to academic clubs. He has a very high sense of morals and is generally obedient and conforming. Most importantly, he is strongly committed to the values set forth by his parents. He identifies them as being the goals of his parents, but accepts them as his own, thus he is trapped in middle adolescence. Brian believes strongly in the promise described by Balkan; if a younger person does all the things he is supposed to do during his adolescence, he will then realize successin his adulthood (Balkan, 12).

The promise forces Brian to torn between trying to fit in and staying committed to the values he has adopted from his parents. Through introspection he has discovered that he does not like what he sees in himself, yet he is not ready to do any exploration to change this. He freaks out when Bender hands him the marijuana to hold on to, because until that point the most rebellious thing he had done were to possess a fake identification in order to vote and bring a flare gun to school.

Brian tries to impress Bender in an attempt for acceptance by claiming he is not a virgin, somehow making him more of a man, by identifying with sexuality. When this attempt fails, Brian later makes another attempt at acceptance by smoking marijuana with everyone. Despite these deviations, by the end of the movie, Brian has maintained virtually unquestioned, the values and occupational directions set forth by his parents (Marcia, 155). For Brian, parental love is narrowed to a reward for doing well (Bellah, 60) in school, because if he is smart and nice and doesnt do things properly, he believes he will not be loved (Bellah, 60).

In sharp contrast, John Bender is that antithesis of Brian. He is a burner, a deviant, a bad apple, but despite all of these labels, Bender is able to break the boundaries created by stereotypes. Bender is more physically developed than the others. More importantly, he views himself as more developed and is therefore more likely than others to be sexually active, to drink, and to engage in risky behavior (Hine 16). His identity status is that of Moratorium. He is intense, sometimes active and lively [and he vacillates] between rebellion and conformity (Marcia 156). He is defined by his exploratory process, by looking at and experimenting with alternative directions and beliefs, like those of smoking marijuana and dressing in a non-conformist way. Through his exploration he shocks the other students and exposes them to their own insecurities.

The assistant principal inhibits Benders sense of community within the school. It is through the interactions with him that Bender is driven further into his independence. When the assistant principal taunts Bender and tells him to take a swing, Bender doesnt. He becomes scared and yet he still is the bigger person in the situation. Because Bender is a son, failed by a father who had faltered in the world, he [has] effectively left home he is in a sense already independent (Bellah, 61). He has learned to take care of himself, because when things are bad, you take care of yourself, you dont ask things of other people, (Bellah, 57).

The assistant principals use of aggression to portray authority only reaffirms Benders notion that he must be independent to survive. He feels empty and his desire to reconnect with others [is] inhibited by the emptiness of unencumbered self (Bellah 152). To become fulfilled Bender creates a sense of community among the detained students. He appears to not have allowed anyone close to him and acts out in anger as a result of the repressed anger towards his father for beating him. It is only in his revelation of the beatings that the group as a whole becomes closer, because the other students see that even the tough guy has feelings. He exposes the common bond of dislike for ones parents

Both Brian and Bender are at detention as a result of trying to maintain their image to the school and family communities. The result of this Saturday detention is insight. By comparing and contrasting others to themselves, both Brian and Bender are more sympathetic to others differences. Bender, through his rebellious acts, was a better teacher to the students than the institution. By revealing himself, he taught the princess, the jock, the basket case, and the brain who they were, but more importantly, he taught them who they werent. It was Benders acceleration in classes like shop that showed Brian that being smart isnt always about knowing the books. It is in this way that the students developed because identity is a developmental achievement (Marcia 152). Both students realize that people will always see them as they want to see them (Breakfast Club), they will always be labeled as something, but it is who they are to themselves that matters most.

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