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Adolescence In The Breakfast Club

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Adolescence: A Look at Adolescence in the Movie The Breakfast Club The 1985 movie written and directed by John Hughes, called The Breakfast Club looks at five very different students who are coming into adolescence and becoming their own people. The main characters are Claire Standish, the princess; Andrew Clarke, the jock; Brian Johnson, the brain; Allison Reynolds, the basket case; John Bender, the criminal, and Richard Vernon the principle. This movie shows five young adolescent people trying to figure out who they are in high school. Which can be very difficult with peers and the awkwardness of being a teenager. The first part of this movie opens to each of the characters being dropped off by their parents. When Claire’s …show more content…

Hormones play a huge role in adolescence. Everything is changing and they are hard to control. Anna referred to this as the impulse of the id impulse. While Anna Freud mostly dealt with troubled teens, a lot of her theories do apply to normal adolescences as well. Other adults can play an important role in adolescence as well. Whether Principal Vernon realized it or not he probably did have an influence on John Bender. Down grading him and always singling him out was not the best way to get John to try and straighten out and make better choices. Peers also have a big impact on adolescence. Peers help adolescents get through puberty. While most adults fear peer pressure, it has been noted that most peers help adolescents make better choices instead of poor ones. (K.S. Berger, 2014) Peers had a huge role in The Breakfast Club, when Brian asked what would happen Monday and if they would all still be friends Claire broke his heart by saying she probably wouldn’t acknowledge him more or less. The reason Claire made this statement is because she was afraid of what her friends would say or how they would perceive her being friends with Brian. Andrew and John had similar …show more content…

It was a fairly accurate depiction even of today’s adolescence and how difficult it is. This movie shows egocentrism, puberty/hormones, the effects of peers, and the struggles of school all in about an hour and forty five minutes. It’s no wonder it is a cult classic. By the end you can see where the hormones kick in with John and Claire. Also, you see it with Allison and Andrew while poor Brian is kind of forgotten. Possibly because he’s a “nerd” so they felt like he needed to stay in that persona. These kids seemed to pretty much figure themselves out by the end of the movie and who they want to be as people. This is not always as easy as the movies make it seems. It takes people into adulthood to figure out what they’re doing. I’m almost thirty and I still am confused about things in my life. While I believe some of the things that I have learned from the Developing Person and some of the theories of Anna Freud; I do not think that anyone really ever has things figured out. Which is why this movie touches so many people the way it does. Life is ever changing and you are always discovering something new about

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