Social Identity in the Breakfast Club :: Movie Film Breakfast Club Identities Essays

Social Identity in the Breakfast Club Breakfast Club film contained a wide variety of behavior and stereotypes. Each person had their on personality and taste at the beginning of the film. I believe that communication played the biggest part in the movie. It shows the way that people from totally different backgrounds can communicate and even agree on issues. The various types of communication and behaviors within the film will be discussed. Key terms will be pointed out and highlighted, as well as described in relation to the examples extracted from the film. To begin with the film started out with a communication climate that was both tense and without verbal communication. This was mainly due to the variance in membership constructs of the characters involved. The character's included the brain Brian, Andrew the athlete, the criminal Bender, the princess Claire, and the basket case Allison. There was a great deal of interesting nonverbal communication taking place between these people. Their reactions and responses to each other demonstrated perceptual errors, which would be shown as the story progressed. The gender conflict styles also played a role. The girls both tended to listen, rather than hold the attention of the others. This was especially true in Allison's case, whom never spoke. Allison was introduced in the movie as the basket case. Allison showed that she was obviously insecure, seating herself facing away from the rest of the room (avoidance). She would not speak out. She was non-assertive, when asked what she wanted she would not respond (impervious response). She would only sit and smile to herself. You could categorize her in to the passive aggressive label perfectly. She didn't like herself (low self-esteem), or others. She was both futile and helpless. The only way she displayed her anger was by giving a whimper. She obviously had a lot of pent up feeling, for she reveals a lot later in the movie through self-disclosure. Allison obviously lacked the respect of others, for she had no friends whatsoever prior to her time spent in this detention. She also has nervous ticks, such chewing her nails, and played with her hair. Brian was another case of insecurity. The influence of self-concept was strong with Brian Johnson for he had no sense of self. He could not meet the standards of his desired self and was therefore unhappy with himself as a person.