“The Breakfast Club: Claire the Princess” Essay

Many people get sucked into the role or stereotypes that others impose on them but here’s to show that some people aren’t as always who they seem to be. One of the students in the film, “The Breakfast Club” shows a perfect example of stereotypes.

This girl happens to be very popular and gets almost everything she wants, she’s living on a perfect life. She’s the “Princess”, the one that always has to look her best to impress everybody and to gain all the attention from everyone. Clair is her name and you will soon see that she’s not actually the “Princess” that she appears to be in the eyes of many.

Other people see Clare as an actual princess. She gets what she wants, she wears nice things, she’s pretty, smart, rich and popular. People think that Claire has the perfect life and that she has nothing to deal with. But the truth is Claire is only doing this because she doesn’t want other people to know her secrets; she’s hiding behind an image of a Princess so nobody can ever see who she really is. Also, she thinks that if everyone just stays with their cliques everything would be fine and everyone would be happy.Claire doesn’t want to be looked down on because popularity is everything to her, that’s why she has to live up to her “role” in their school. Claire perceives herself as always being pressured to do things she doesn’t want to do.

She doesn’t always agree to what her friends want but she still goes with it because she knows that when she won’t follow what they’re doing, her friends wouldn’t accept her and her popularity-status will eventually going to be downgraded. Popularity to her is so much harder than it seems; she thinks no one can relate to how she feels and that everyone expects more of her.Claire does see herself as others see her; as a princess because she knows that she is popular and that she does get spoiled by her parents a lot. Sometimes she doesn’t see herself like how others do but that’s only because they don’t look at her situation from her point of view. At times, Claire thinks she’s miserable because maybe she doesn’t get what she wants or she’s being pushed around. But she needs to learn that she doesn’t have to go through everything alone. Claire is afraid that others would not accept the “real” her because then she would have the possibility of being less popular and her friends might even leave her.

In the movie Brian asks everyone if on Monday he would be able to come up to each of them and be able to actually hang out with them. Claire disagrees and says that if Brian does, her friends and others wouldn’t allow it and look at Claire in a different way, it just wouldn’t be right. Popular kids would stay with the popular kids, the jocks would stay with the jocks, and the nerds would stay with the nerds and so forth. Claire doesn’t want anyone to think less of her because in the movie, she didn’t even want to admit that she was still a virgin.Claire needs to realize who her real friends are and who aren’t, and that she shouldn’t be friends with the people who can’t even accept the real her. There is a point in the film where Claire makes a breakthrough. Claire sees that everyone is already being themselves and she realizes that the rest of the “club” will accept her for being her and so she shows her real self. This all happened when the “club” was sitting down in a circle on the carpet after they have smoked.

Everyone was showing their true identity and even sharing their stories, except for Claire.The rest of the club kept pressuring her into saying if she was a virgin or not until finally Allison tricked her into saying she was. There was a bit arguing and swearing from that point but Claire did become more comfortable with the “club” and so she began to share her secrets and revealed who Claire really is. Claire has changed throughout the movie.

Before, she was the girl every boy wanted to date, the girl every other girl wanted to be, but nobody really knew her. She was just popular and maybe people even thought she was snotty or too full of herself.Claire was the kind of girl that only cared about popularity, what to wear the next day; she only cared about how she will look like when others see her.

Now, Claire has changed and she had revealed her true identity. She isn’t really a snob, she’s really sensitive, kind, smart, caring, helpful and much more. Before, Claire really cared about what others thought of her, but now she doesn’t care as much. The other characters do accept this change and they actually encouraged it. They like the new Claire better because before, she was doing things she didn’t agree to but kept it to herself.She was pressured a lot by her ‘friends’ and her parents.

The other characters accept who Claire really is because they understand how it feels to be pressured into doing things and to keep hiding away your true identity. After the detention, I think Claire will most likely stand up to her friends and her parents. She has been pressured by them many times and it’s time for her to say something about it. Also, I think Claire won’t have her mind focused on popularity as much but mostly on being herself.

She may hang out with John, Andrew, Brian and Allison at school sometimes but that might be pushing it.Even if Claire doesn’t, she definitely will make some changes into her daily life and be who she really is. I hope that Claire would open her mind about things and be who she really is. Claire, indeed, has changed in a positive way throughout the movie. Clare has figured out that she doesn’t need to cover up who she is just to please someone, she should be pleasing herself. She now knows that having real friends who aren’t as popular but still like you for you is way better than having fake popular friends who pressure you into doing things you don’t agree to and that don’t know the real you.

Claire did change by being herself but she’s still sticking with her fake popular friends because she doesn’t want to lose her popularity by hanging with the other characters. Popularity is something Claire still needs to figure out. Even if she knows that popularity isn’t everything, she still doesn’t want to risk it. As a result, Claire understands that she needs to be with the people who appreciate her real self and she has found those people but she still needs to work on being the change.