The Breakfast Club film contained a Wide variety of communication. Within this essay, 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 communicationclimate that was both tense and without verbal communication. This was mainly due to the variance in membership Cconstructs 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 non verbal Communication taking place between these people. Theirreactions and responses to each other demonstrated perceptual errors, which would be shown as the story progressed. The gendercontlict styles also played a role. The giris both tended tolisten, rather than hold the atention of the others. This wasespecially true in Allison’s case, who 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 notspeak out. She was non assertive, when asked what she wanted shewould not respond (impervious response). She would only sit and smile to herself.
You could categorize her in to the passive aggressive labell perfectly. She didnt like herself (low sefesteem), or others. She was both futile and helpless. The onlyway she displayed her anger was by giving a whimper. She obviouslyhad a lot of pent up feeling. for she reveals a lot later in the movie through self disclosure. Allison obviously lacked therespect of others, for she had no friends whatsoever prior to hertime spent in this detention. she also used manipulators she chewed her nails, and played with her hair. Brian was another case of insecurity. The influence of selfconcept was strong With Brian Johnson for he had no sense of selt. He could not meet the standards of his desired self and wastherefore unhappy with himself as a person. He quivered at the non verbal communication projected by Benders’ glare. Brian used passive aggression and was non assertive. An example of these iswhere Bender starts acting up. Brian said weakly” think weshould just do our papers.” Any suggestion Brian made throughoutthe movie was met by disconfirming responses such as verbal abuse, impervious responses, or interruptions. Clair was the Prom Princess, she had a high self esteem, andwas assertive. As well she was highly emotional throughout thefilm. An example of her emotional language was her straightforward statement to Bender Thate you” This was after he hadbroken a promise not to laugh at her.
Clair also had the habit ofusing the defense mechanism of compensation. She made up for her lack of general skills and abilities by turning the discussion to how popular and rich she was. Andrew was the jock. He was an athlete who was assertive.confident, and had high self esteem. His problem was that hecouldnt think for himself, and was in that way passive. He showed aggressive behavior when Bender acted as if he was goingto urinate on the floor. Andrew turned and said “you whip it out your dead before the first drop hits, the floor. Two hits, mehitting you, you hitting the floor.” He again demonstrated direct aggression later on in the movie during another conflict with bender. He said “if we werent in school l’d waste you.” Andrew had made a perception error. He saw bender as a “bum”. He said tobender “only weed burners smoke dope”, which classified Bender asa drug using bum. Andrew was ignorant to the fact that Bender hadany feelings, as it drug users didnt have any. Later on Andrewreve aled his ability to be empathetic. He showed empathy when he put himself in the place of the nerd he taped. Andrew had taped upsome guys but. Afterward he thought about it. He put himself inthat kids place, and looked at the humiliation that the kid musthave had to face. Again Andrew showed his compassionate side withAllison. He asked her what was the matter With her. He used empathetic listening. She then revealed through self disclosure that her problem at home was that her parents ignored her. He could then relate to what she was going through.
Richard Vernon was in a constant communication and behavioral conflict with the students. This was especially true in the competitive relationship with Bender. Bender showed no respect for anyone, including this authoritative symbol, the principle. Theprinciple felt he had to raise his voice and shoW his power. Therewas a lose lose situation here with Bender. He used the power oflanguage with direct blunt statements Such as you will not, we are going to, describe to me who you think you are”. A great example or hiIs powerful language is “Dont mess witn the bull.you’ll get the horns. He had loW self esteem, he didnt think thekids realy respected him, and he felt that they had changed, to revolt against him. He revealed this when he talked to himself inthe mirror and also in his chat With the janitor. He made a perception error here by saying that the kids had changed and were all “pricks”. Bender obviously had a bad selt image. Bender would just hackanyone down with his active aggressive behavior and verbal abuse.
This included statements such as calling Brian a heomaxyzonedweeby”. He was obviously a defensive istener and an ambusher. He was also effective at using emblems such as his middle finger. He used a lot of evaluative language. His perception of Claire demonstrated this. “Such a pristine girl, Ill bet you’ve neverbeen laid.” He was always on her for being the spoiled princess. He had constant conflict in a win lose situation with Andrew. There was a struggle for control through both verbal and physicalaggression. Bender did however, show he was a leader. The othersseemed to have a hidden respect for him throughout the movie. They followed and did whatever he did. This led to smoking some pot. Here a great deal of tension, and the barriers of their membershi Shipconstructs s were To forgotten. In turn this led to a great deal of self disclosureThey had a group think. They all said that their s athome were unsatisfactory, and this was obviously creating debilitative emotions.
Andrew revealed that he was a winner because his father wanted him to be, not because he wanted to be. With help from Allison the fact that he couldn’t think for himselfwas revealed. Bender described his life at home with his father. He told of how he got a cigar burn on his arm for spilling paint in the garage. He also told about his “banner” christmas, where he receiveda carton of cigarettes and was told to “smoke up son”. Brian told about how his parents had such high expectations. Hesaid that he considered suicide because he simply could not deal with a failing grade. Allison said she was a nympho, she did this to trick Claire into admitting she was a virgin. Allison then saidthat she was just a compulsive liar. Claire gave a lot of non verbal cues, that she was not comfortable revealing that she was avirgin. She gave disconfirming messages such as “can’t you just leave me alone?” Another scene of disconfirmation was when Allisonasked if Brian and Andrew wanted to see what was in her bag. She was going disclose some of her secrets to them and they both quicky answered no. The interpersonal relationships developed steadily through the movie, although there was the occasional backward step. Thecharacters affinity increased. This was demonstrated through the confirming behavior. This included Claire putting her earring in Benders’ hand, and giving him a kiss. Allison being kissed byAndrew was an example of relationship’s development through the experimenting stage and of coming together.
