Paper Assignment: Breakfast Club

Hughes, J. (Director). (1985). The Breakfast Club : Universal City Studios.

Paper: will submit a 4-5 page paper that answers and responds to the questions given on the movie Breakfast Club. The paper will be submitted to Turnitin.com. You will be graded on the content of your answer, the reasoning/argument you make between the theory and the facts of the case study as well as writing (grammar and punctuation). You will need to watch the movie and provide your own analysis (You may be able to get the movie at such places like iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, Red Box, etc.)

Description of Movie

The Breakfast Club takes place at an Illinois high school, where five dissimilar students are sentenced to spend a Saturday detention session together. In attendance is a "princess" (Ringwald), an "athlete" (Estevez), a brain" (Hall), a "criminal" (Nelson), and a "basket case" (Sheedy). These titles identify the roles the student play during the school week. Because of stereotypes and status levels associated with each role, the students want nothing to do with each other at the outset of the session. However, when confronted by the authoritarian detention teacher (Gleason) and by eight hours of time to kill, the students begin to interact. Through self-disclosure they learn that they are more similar than different. Each wrestles with self-acceptance; each longs for parental approval; each fights against peer pressure. They break through the role barriers and gain greater understanding and acceptance of each other and of themselves. They
ultimately develop a group identity and dub themselves, "The Breakfast Club."

Some Points to Address in Paper:

1. In the film 5 people come together to be apart of a group detention session. Discuss the group's developmental stages as stated in Chapter Two of the text. Be sure to address each developmental stage and refer to the scene in the movie that that the stage began and then moved to the next.

2. What factors contribute to the group's cohesiveness? Be sure to refer to Chapter 8 of your text and use specific scenes from the movie.

3. To what extent did members effectively understand, remember, interpret, evaluate, and respond to one another's statements and questions? Be sure to refer to Chapter 7 of your text and use specific scenes from the movie.

4. What group roles and related listening skills could group members have used to resolve the problem at hand and to come together as a group? Be sure to refer to Chapter 7 of your text and use specific scenes from the movie.

5. How did the diversity of the 5 students hinder their ability to come together as a group? Be sure to refer to Chapter 4 of your text and use specific scenes from the movie.

6. Talk about each of the roles the 5 students play in the movie, then address how these roles affected their attitudes and behavior as a member of the group detention session. Be sure to refer to Chapter 3 of your text and use specific scenes from the movie.