The breakfast club is a film about a group of five individuals that is forced to spend a
saturday together for detention. Each member of detention finds themselves in different
roles amongst the group. In this group there is one who is an autocrat, an abdicrat, an
under social member, a personal member and an over personal member. As the roles are
played out the group goes through Tuckmans group development stages as they face
affective conflict. As the conflict is unveiled the groups listening skills went from
defensive and disruptive listening to comprehensive listening. Ultimately the individuals
enter into detention as individuals from diverse backgrounds and then left as The Breakfast
Club.
To begin, the individuals and their role in the group. Starting with the strongest member,
the criminal John Bender is the autocrat of the group. He has no problem utilizing criticism
to take control and dominate the group. This role made him out to be the aggressor of the
group without him being the autocrat the movie would’ve simply portrayed a group of
people in detention. Then there is the athlete, Andrew he is the abdicate of the group. He
wants the leadership role however he submits to Bender and takes on more of a follower
role in the group even though he in the beginning tries to stand up to Bender. His role gave
the movie conflict amongst the group. Of course Claire and Bender had their conflicts but
not that of the two men trying to get the role of the leader. The under social member is the
basket-case Allison. She remains a loner in the movie for a long time, it is till she begins to
speak you realize she is just in need of attention. Her being an introvert could’ve
potentially hindered her from being apart of the group had she not began to open up.
Moving along there is the personal member, the princess Claire, she has no problem being
in the group or out of the group. She is popular and everyone tends to like her so fitting in
is not a problem for her. She is the first to accept Bender when he put down his guard and
showed true emotion. Unlike Claire there is Brian the brain he’s the over personal member.
Brian over shares with the group, even if they story isn’t true for example when he talks
about losing his virginity to a canadian and with Claire. Brian simply wants to fit in with
