Watching “The Breakfast Club” sparks the question of which character to identify most with: the athlete, the criminal, the brain, the princess or the nobody.

The athlete is a competitive and popular jock; the criminal is a rebel who doesn’t care about anything or anyone; the brain is a nerd who strives for perfection and doesn’t have a social life; the princess is the popular prom queen who is loved by everyone, and the nobody is a loner, secretive and mysterious.

“The Breakfast Club” debuted nearly 40 years ago. If you love a fast-paced story that comes full circle, this is the movie for you! It shows five stereotypical high school students who have nothing in common and how they become friends, discovering each other’s secrets during a Saturday detention.

At the beginning of detention, they are given a writing assignment: an essay answering the question of who they really are. No one writes it; and instead, they spend their time dancing, fighting, singing, harassing each other, and telling stories.

The appeal of the movie is in the rapid character development. As the teenagers’ willingness to talk to each other grows, so does their trust in each other.

“The Breakfast Club” is a classic because it’s a coming-of-age movie that shows the struggles of the transition between adolescent and adult. The fact that the characters are all struggling with their identities and are able to understand themselves better when they connect with each other. But, they still find joy in their differences. This celebration of teenage friendships offers hope to viewers grappling with their own self-doubt and insecurities.

The point of the movie is not to identify with one specific character, but to notice the different sides of everyone. This movie exaggerates different personalities, and shows the connection between archetypes by the characters’ struggles. It highlights the fact that people can’t be known by one facet of their personality and that, despite seeming one-sided at times, even teenagers can’t be put into a box.
By the end of the day, their views on each other change completely. The characters no longer view each other as labels, archetypes, or clichés, but rather as three-dimensional people in their own right.

As they write the “who-are-you” essay together, they answer the question of who they really are by saying they each are an athlete, criminal, brain, princess and nobody.