Fundamentally, The Breakfast Club talks about the difference between each high schooler's personality: the brain, the athlete, the basketcase, the princess, and the criminal. I believe that while these characteristics were dramatized for Hollywood and literary effect, they will still exist to some degree in high schools for eternities. No matter how inclusive an environment is, the brain, the athlete, the basketcase, the princess, and the criminal are separated by society. As discussed in the movie, they don’t attend the same clubs or events; the criminal and the basketcase don’t even attend clubs. Moreover, the different groups have prejudices about each other.
Fender, the criminal, assumes Bryan the Brain’s parents are perfect and that he has a perfect relationship with them. The rest of the kids assume Fender really doesn’t give a shit about anything and is going to end up living his life as a bum. They also have trouble believing anything he says is true. Moreover, stereotypes about the Princess channeled mainly via the most loud-spoken character Fender is that she is pampered and innocent. Not far behind is that all the athlete cares about is winning. The Athlete ends up stereotypically defending the Princess against Fender, the Criminal. The movie gives us a insight into a lot of athlete’s lives of having tough parents who are hard on them about their sport. The athlete and Fender soon realize they have a lot in common. Finally, we can clearly see how the basketcase or outcast is judged. No one understands her and all the kids are disgusted, but when the Princess magically waves her wand and puts some makeup on her, the athlete thinks she’s just stunning, and she starts to act a bit more social, too. She is judged by her looks and in every way that she is different. With all these stereotypes flying around the room, it’s no wonder these kids got into some trouble.
What the characters come to realize in the end is that they are all high schoolers with the same problems, and they are really a lot more interesting to each other than their normal friends, because they are different. The kids end up having conversations about life, getting high courtesy of Fender, making good friends, and falling in love. While this is all too cheesy, it is again over dramatized for effect and Hollywood. But just think, what would happen if these boundaries were broken more, and not just because of some bad deeds, fate, and a Saturday detention?
