Interpersonal Communication

I remember watching “The Breakfast Club” years ago although it seems like it has been ages. As I watched again I thought about the many terms described throughout the chapters. Reading through the chapters assigned for module two I recognized more than just a couple of terms that relate to the movie such as personal appearance, stereotyping, and self disclosure.

From the beginning of the movie we are introduced to the characters, the beat up teacher, the brain, the jockey, the princess, the criminal, and the basket case. Chapter five in our book talks about “personal appearance” and defined as how you look in terms of physical appearance and clothing. The six characters in this movie all fit the description to the dot. The teacher The jockey athletic and in comfortable sporty clothing full of adrenaline. The brain wearing some more casual clothes than the rest, skinny, wears a watch, worries about not getting caught and finishing the essay. The princess who wears the more fashionable clothing and jewelry, rich and spoiled, world revolves around her drama queen mentality. The basket case who wears dark clothing, hides her face with her hair, very mysterious personality. Finally the criminal who wears whatever he feels like wearing, carries cigarettes and pocket knife, answers back to the teacher, and bullies the rest of the bunch.

As all the characters are united for detention on a Saturday, all in trouble for various reasons there is hardly any interaction among them. They all seem to have their own perceptions of one another even though they never speak to each other on a regular basis. “Stereotyping,” when you react to a person by assuming he or she is a representation of a generalization. The five students in trouble all represent different cliques found in a typical high school. They all assume they know exactly how a typical day in life is from one another. A great example is when the criminal acts a scene out of “the brains”