The Breakfast Club Sociological Analysis

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JThe Breakfast Club is a classic stereotypical example of a teenagers basic struggles through high school. The film covers these issues from every social class and every position of the social structure of high school giving it a wide range of sociological outlook. You have a rebel, rich popular girl, nerd, "sporto", and a shy strange pariah. All of these classic examples of high school figures exist in virtually every high school in existence and there for leave for a great sociological study. The conclusion of the film brings the different social figures together forming a strong bond, and leading to the discovery that these teens aren't so different after all. Much of the information of the characters backgrounds were revealed through their dialogues, but the social classes are revealed from the start. Claire the rich popular girl rolls up to Saturday school in a BMW, Brian shows up in an older station wagon and Bender walks. This scene…show more content…
At first the different social classes don’t mesh, but through the breakdown of these barriers the students discover that they have much more similarities then differences. The group soon transfers from an introverted assembly of trouble makers to an extroverted group of friends. After such a transformation the functionalist view becomes clearer, showing that the teacher is there to control the group, and the school is in place not only to teach, but maintain order and safety. The Breakfast club shows us that everyone is viewed as different but also that everyone shares many similarities, and that social classes are not barriers , but simply status's in terms of financial wealth and social variation. Although the substance of marijuana is illegal and a damaging substance it is a tool used by the students to unconsciously bring themselves together and form a friendship bond that will more than likely keep them
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