Breakfast Club Heroism

“It is now seven-oh-six. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here” Vernon announces. The 80’s classic, The Breakfast Club, focuses on five students; Bender, Claire, Andrew, Brian and Allison who are in detention on a Saturday. Bender is an adolescent with an aggressive attitude whose goal is to be understood and have people see who he really is. Vernon, the detention monitor, hates Bender due to his refusal to listen, attitude and disrespect for him. Andrew, another student in detention, loathes Bender because he bullies him about being a wrestler and dislikes the way Bender treats Claire. This film connects to Linda Seger’s “The Hero Myth” which outlines the steps generally followed in hero stories. Because Bender begins the movie disrespecting his classmates, is despised by Vernon and Andrew, and pushes the class to interact which creates a bond between them, Bender fulfills Seger’s claims that the character “begins as a non-hero”, encounters

In the end, Bender shows acceptance on a couple different levels. He becomes more comfortable in his own skin as well as with the other people around him. Bender makes fun of Claire constantly throughout the movie, but when she enters the closet door and kisses him, this all changes. Bender asks “Why’d you do that?” His response was not ignorant nor impolite which is surprising considering his disrespectful behavior towards Claire throughout the film. Earlier in the movie, when Claire places her lipstick between her breasts and applies it to her lips, Bender is displeased. But, when Claire and Bender are in the closet together, she asks “Were you really disgusted about what I did with my lipstick?” and Bender replies “Truth?...No…” Bender fulfills being changed at the end of the film by accepting who Claire really is and once and for all being