The Breakfast Club Film Analysis

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There are several films that help society understand certain sociological issues in the world. The Breakfast Club, being one of those films, touches on issues such as social stigma, conformity, informal social control and obedience. The movie touches on these issues in many ways, with several scenes that can be used as great examples.
Social Stigma (1) is brought up several times throughout the movie. Social stigma is a label used to devalue members of certain social groups. These people are usually labeled for specific characteristics such as “short people”. In the beginning of the film, all of the students from the high school belong to a different clique. They know nothing about each other. They only know each other as a princess,
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Conformity is simply going along with peers, which are individuals of one’s own status who have no special right to direct one’s behavior. There is a scene in the movie where the group decides to go with Bender to his locker. Some of the group members feel like it is a bad idea, but they go along anyway just because everyone else is. There is another scene where Brian brings up the question of what’s going to happen with them on Monday. At that point, they consider themselves friends, but once Monday comes along, they’ll have to deal with the pressure of conforming to their social groups, or deviating away from the norms of their social groups by revealing themselves to be friends with members of a different …show more content…
Social control is the techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in a society. Informal social control is social control that is carried out casually by ordinary people. There is a scene where Bender keeps bugging Clair. Andrew steps in and negatively sanctions Bender. A sanction is a punishment or reward for either conforming to or deviating away from societies norms. In this case it would be an informal sanction because Andrew is an ordinary person and not a higher authority figure. If the principal came in and demanded he leave her alone or he would get another detention that would be a formal sanction because the principal is a higher authority figure. There is another scene where Bender goes to pull out a screw so the door to the library would shut. The rest of the group knew that it had to stay open and began sanctioning him negatively, stating that he shouldn’t do

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