“The Breakfast Club” Movie Analysis

John Bender is my favourite character from "The Breakfast Club" movie. The two dilemmas that John Bender’s deals with in the movie are his relationship with his parents and sexual activity. In The Breakfast Club, John Bender’s character come off as cocky, rude and always quick to throw a verbal jab at anyone who comes at him. However, a closer look at the character shows that he may have deep issues when it comes to his parents, especially his dad. Bender’s mood switches and he blurts out all forms of obscenities when Andrew asks him about his family. He describes them using words like "Stupid", "goddamned" and "free loading son-of-a-bitch". His reaction tells us that he has a troubled home life and even though he acts like a jerk, this really bothers him. When he shows his friend the burn mark in his arm caused by his dad, we see why he holds so much anger towards his family. It is here that it becomes clear that Bender’s character could be living in a dysfunctional home, which could explain why he acts out and has an erratic personality.

The topic of sexual activity and sexuality in Bender’ is overt as he exhibits signs of being homophobic. This is seen when he makes homophobic remarks about his teacher, Mr Vernom’s dress code, insinuating that he dresses like a gay person. This statement is rude but gives us a glimpse into how Bender thinks about homosexuality. Bender is crude and aggressive and shows signs of bullying when he makes jokes about sexually assaulting Claire to his friend Brian. His nonchalant statement about impregnating the "prom queen" tells us that Bender has no respect for matters of sex and treats them as casual occurrences, this is at least the case in how he talks. The movie is still relevant today and can easily resonate with high school or college students all over America and even across the globe. This movie tackles issues of identity, sexuality, drugs, teenage sex, peer-group relations and issues of bullying. Like it happens in high school or college, students from different walks of life are coming into a school system to not only find an education but to discover who they are. In the case of "The Breakfast Club", the different students, ranging from a queen/ princess, a high school jock or an athlete, a nerd, a criminal and a rebel all come together as friends to realise that they may have different backgrounds, but their struggles give them a common ground. Since these are the years that are fundamental to the rest of their adult lives they have to face challenges and issues that contend with their moral values and beliefs while also learning to express who they are as individuals. These dilemmas or struggles are universal and most high school students go through them.

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