In the movie The Breakfast Club, five students are kept together in the library to serve a Saturday detention. These five people are the most unlikely to be paired together. Claire, the “Princess” automatically flocks to someone who holds the same social standing as her, Andy, the “Sporto”. Meanwhile, Brian the “Brain” sits down and appears to be ready to do whatever task he is told. Alice, the “Basketcase” takes her seat in the very back, far away from everyone else. Then Bender, the “Criminal” forces Brian out of his seat and takes his place.
Just from their introduction, you can tell where these characters stand. Claire believes she needs to be with people of her stature, despite today being a punishment. Andy staying with Claire and being somewhat protective of her whenever Bender mouths off, shows that he believes he’s important and has a job to do.
Brian is fully accepting of his punishment and wants to make up for it by doing any work given. Bender shows his dominance by kicking Brian out of his seat, and Alice stays away from everyone by sitting in the back. They’re all given stereotypes in this movie, and they do a perfect job displaying them in the beginning.
Throughout the movie, however, things change. Originally, Claire looked down on Bender. She saw him as nothing but a criminal who did things because he could. Bender saw Claire as a princess who received everything she asked for. Thus created tension between them, seeing as they were opposites and had reasons to dislike each other. Andy barely saw Alice, if anything. She was the basketcase, a label given to her because of her odd behavior. Because of that, she had remained almost invisible to them–that is, until she’d do something odd enough to grab their attention.
Alice viewed Andy for what he truly was, however. She saw right through him, and throughout the movie she continuously told him that he was messed up because he couldn’t think for himself. This was one of the things that changed their relationship. Her ability to see what Andy truly was, despite everyone else, despite Claire, whom he thought was the most like him, shocked him and ultimately it brought the two closer together.
These two relationships between the four of them changed. Claire began to sympathize, or possibly pity Bender, when he’d lash out about his homelife. Then, when he’d challenge them to do something rebellious, Claire would be one of the first to join him, almost as if she wanted to prove herself to him, to prove that she didn’t fit the stereotype that he, and everyone else had placed on her.
Andy began to finally notice Alice, when the two of them were sent to retrieve drinks for lunch from the soda machine. They began to talk, and he was taken aback by how abruptly she began to question him. Things didn’t end so well between them then, however they get even closer when after Alice dumps her purse out, Andy persists that she tells him what her problems are, claiming that “she invited him into her problems.” Things get emotional as they both quietly disclose some of their problems, and they come to realize that they aren’t so different from each other after all.
After the moment in the movie of them sitting around and talking, and telling each other why they’re there, they all realize how alike they are to one another. The judgement they had of one another is a perfect example of dispositional attribution. Whenever Bender would act up, Claire would automatically associate his behavior simply because that was who he was; a criminal. Yet when Bender began to open up, she realized he was that way because of his home life, and other things she didn’t factor in at the time.
The whole group does this to one another, until they learn that there’s more to every one of them, rather than the stereotypes they had of each other. As soon as they had broken the stereotypes they had set on each other, their relationships changed, and Claire and Bender ended up together, while Alice and Andy did.
