Sophs--Breakfast, Anyone? More Stock Characters!

THIS POST IS NOT A JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT, BUT IT WILL HELP YOU TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF THE STOCK CHARACTER.

First listen to the video with the sound muted. As each character appears, try to identify the teenage movie stock character. This won't be too difficult, despite the somewhat laughable fashions of the 80s. The sad truth is that everyday we will also stereotype so quickly, often just based on the way someone dresses, walks, or talks.

The Breakfast Club, a 1985 John Hughes written and directed film, first builds up its characters' stereotypes and then shatters them to pieces. We, like the characters within the movie, see how all of these contrasting "types" are really more similar than they are different. And it only took two hours of being locked into a room for a Saturday morning detention. Could life be so easy?

My capsule review of the movie? The critic in me, no longer a teen or even a young hip teacher, says that much of the movie dialogue today sounds so unreal, so exaggerated, so silly. And yes, the repeated use of the F word bothers me (I'll never get used to hearing teenagers curse). However, I have to admit that it (the dialogue) and the rest of the movie are never boring. Even in the preachy long monologues (and there are many), Hughes' characters make us care about them.

The lesson is this: stock characters are OK in literature and film, but stereotyping in real life is dead wrong, and probably responsible for creating every hateful ideology known to mankind. Watch the PG version of the film to learn that a man (or woman) shouldn't be judged by his clothes or the company that he keeps.