The Breakfast Club depicts the separation of social groups in a high school environment through the use of stereotypes. On various occasions their characters stereotypes are even talked about between the characters themselves. The characters are shown acting in a way that their social groups are expected to behave. This is shown through the types of food they eat, their visual appearance and the way each character is seated in the library.
One example of the way the film depicts social groups is by the types of food each character eats. Claire who is seen as a typical rich, popular daughter brings sushi for lunch. This is seen by the other characters as a foreign dish that shows that she thinks she is special and better than the other students. Andrew who is seen as the jock brings enough food for lunch to feed a whole family. He brings several sandwiches, fruit, a large bag of chips, cookies and juice. This is seen by the other characters as out of the ordinary as there is so much food for him to eat. Alison who is seen as the outcast brings bread, chips and candy to create a sandwich. This is seen by the other characters as strange and inhumanly. They would not consider this food as lunch. Brian who is seen as the geek brings homemade soup, apple juice and a sandwich with the crusts cut off. This is seen by the other characters as a regular lunch, except for Bender who sees Brian as little mummy’s boy because she prepared his lunch. Bender who is seen as the rebel doesn’t bring lunch and relies on Brian to provide him with lunch. This is seen by the other characters as typical high school bully behaviour. Each character judges the food that is eaten by the other characters. This divides each character into their social group.
Another way the film depicts the social groups is by each characters visual appearance. Claire comes to detention wearing girly clothing. She has on a pink shirt, brown bomber jacket, a long brown dress and brown knee high boots. Her fingernails are painted a burgundy colour and she has neat hair that she spent time to prepare in the morning. Andrew comes to detention wearing denim jeans, white trainers, a singlet top and a varsity sports jacket. His hair is neat and combed. Alison comes to detention wearing a long black jacket, a black and white scarf, a black skirt, grey tights and black and white converse. The little makeup she is wearing is black and her hair is untidy. Brian comes to detention wearing brown pants, a green knitted jumper and blue and yellow sneakers and his hair is tidy. Bender comes to detention wearing a large grey over coat, a denim jacket, a flannelette shirt, black pants, black boots and black fingerless gloves. His hair is loose but tidy. Each character has a completely different appearance to one another which reflect their stereotypical characters.
Lastly the film also depicts the social groups by the way they are all seated at detention. They are also spread out and sitting away from each other making all of them look alienated. An example of how separated the social group is shown when Alison sits with her back facing the other characters. Almost all the characters are sitting in a different position within each row which again shows that they are all different.
All the characters in this film have unalike visual appearances, habits, opinions and characteristics that separate them in to different social groups. By the end of the film they realise that they all feel the same even though they are all different.
Year 9 English @ Bossley Park High 