Comparison Of The Narrative Styles In The Films Breakfast Club And Clueless
The Breakfast club and Clueless are movies that used many similar narrative styles to illiterate different social, cultural, economic and industrial factors that were happening at that current time. Through each character's stories, we are exposed to the different factors that affected many teens during that time and beyond. Using multiple narrative forms shown by each of the characters in both The Breakfast Club and Clueless, and how different things and circumstances that teenagers have gone through, between the early to mid80s and early to mid90s.
The breakfast Club and Clueless use similar narrative styles to compose and articulate a compelling and well thought out narrative for its audience. By using multiple storylines and voiceovers the audiences get an insight into the psychological state each character is in and how they feel about their current situations both in the high school scene, personally and in a family sense. The different narratives in The Breakfast Club are told individually by the different characters, Claire Standish, Andrew Clark, John Bender, Brian Johnson, and Allison Reynolds. The audience is introduced to the stereotypical character personalities early on, with Claire being deemed as the Princess, Andrew the Athlete, John as The Criminal, Brian the brain and Alison the Basket case. Each character clashes with one another at some point throughout the movie due to their character arcs. This is shown throughout the early interactions between John Bender and Claire Standish’s fight, where they clash and argue about the different struggles, they have gone through in their own high school experience.
The narrative style of The Breakfast Club is a common style that is seen throughout classical Hollywood teen movies, where a group of teens come together in an unusual circumstance and bond over the situation they are currently in together or based on similar experiences they have had in their lives. In the Breakfast Club, we see the 5 characters bond over personal turmoil and family issues they have faced throughout their life. The movie shows this by stylizing and over-exaggerating the conflicts of a parent-child relationship through the character’s personal stories of their experience. Through the turmoil and the suppressing relationship that Andrew Clark has with his father about how he could ruin his wrestling scholarship if he keeps going down a defiant path, to the abusive home nature John Bender endures by having, his father’s cigarettes being put out on his arm, to the disconnect Allison shows towards the group. Which they soon come to find out the neglect and abuse she faces in her home life by her parents. The Breakfast Club is a movie that uses first-person narrative forms to articulate a compelling story for its viewers. Many movies before and after its time have done the same job to a very high standard. Much in a similar way Clueless also uses a first-person narrative form to tell a somewhat heartfelt high school story in a comedic and quirky way.
Clueless by Amy Heckerling and The Breakfast Club, both use similar narrative styles that focus on the personal problems that characters have within the high school scene. The narrative style specifically follows the life of Cher and her quest to find love for herself and her friends. The style the movie mainly uses is a first-person narrative style. Seeing the world through the eyes of Cher and the events as she sees them. The audience sees the triumph and problems as how Cher goes through them. Exposing the audiences of the troubles a female teenage character goes through, from the high school scene of trying to find the perfect partner to the more serious events such as the unwanted advancements of young men towards women, sexual harassment and self-perception of the person they are. Clueless is a first-person narrative that focusses on the self-perception that Cher has of herself and her desire to change that way she sees herself and the way other people think of her. Throughout the movie we see Cher come to terms with her previous actions and her desire to be able to be a good human being and her desire to be able to help people in an unusual way.
Both narrative styles of Clueless and The Breakfast Club are very similar as they talk about issues that teenagers faced during their high school days. Clueless takes a much more light-hearted and funnier approach talking about love and making fun of certain stereotypical high school characters in order to engage the audience in a much light-hearted way. Whereas The Breakfast Club breaks down character personalities in and dives deeper into the psychological states of the students to bring issues and ideas to the surface and address them in a somewhat confronting and heartfelt way so that an audience has a way of connecting to the issues and ideas that the movie is talking about.
The 5 characters also have a distant relationship with the authority figure of the principal, Mr. Richard Vernon and due to the characters' hatred of parental and authority figures, they choose to go down a defiant and stubborn path. Thomas Leitch suggests that exaggerated teenage problems and trauma are the result of terrible nurturing by parents and parental figures. “Hughes’ teen film also dramatizes the problems of teenage sympathy by ascribing responsibilities for teenage traumas to inadequate parenting and parental figures.’ The World According to Teenpix, Leitch, Thomas M Literature/Film Quarterly; 1992; 20, 1; Performing Arts Periodicals Database. The movie was extremely popular during the time of its release and beyond as the movie talked about the specific topics that affected much of the audience and the time, that being teenagers that felt like they personally associated with the character stereotypes. The movie talked about sensitive topics that every teenager had, which gave the audience a sense of connection towards the movie and the relevant content, talking about sex, drugs, fitting in, peer pressure, forging a sense of identity and friendship and comradery. The movie was made so popular as it correctly tapped into the psychology of the teenage high school mindset of the conventional stereotypical characters of that genre, making it very relatable to a lot of different kinds of students, throughout America and beyond. Through the rise of The Breakfast, many other movies were made that hade generational impacts on people and teenagers that watch it at that time. Clueless created an everlasting impression on a generation that was directly impacted by the social hierarchy made within the high school grounds
Through the first-person narrative style of Clueless, the audience is shown the personal view of how Cher sees the world. Through the eyes of Cher, a sixteen-year-old upper-class girl who tries to do her part in making the world a better place in an unusual way the audience is exposed to her thought process of how she views the world and specifically her understanding of love.
The movie’s main plot of matchmaking stems from the cultural factors during the time of 1980 to the early 1990s, and as a result of it formulating the behaviour of Cher and her friends. During this time many blind dating shows had come up between the time of 1980 and 2000. ‘The Dating Game’ from 1989 to 1999 and ‘Love Connection’ which aired between 1983 and 1994. Dating shows like these caused young women of that era especially young teens led to be believed that finding the right boyfriend or girlfriend for someone was a good deed and a job well done. Shows like these bring in contestants that are single and try to match one another in hopes of finding love and living happily ever after. By using her social status of her father within the world and her popularity within the school, Cher becomes the school matchmaker trying to find love for 2 of her school teachers, Mr. Hall and Ms. Geist. The 2 teachers end up getting together and dating, which then given Cher the confidence that she is indeed a great matchmaker causing her to then find herself a new ‘project' in finding Tai a quiet girl a boyfriend.
The narrative of the story follows Cher and her best friend Dionne on a quest to find a boyfriend for her friend Tai. Tai is firstly matched together with Elton. A handsome, rich boy who is single and looking for love as well. The 2 hit it off together for a bit but as time goes on Elton abruptly breaks ups with Tai leaving her devastated. When confronted by Cher on behalf of her friend Tai about his reasonings for dumping Tai, Elton throws the high status of his father to get out of giving a reason. The actions of Elton shows the cultural ideology of men in relationships of how they do not have to give a reasonable response or an explanation of them leaving and when confronted by a strong female character they come up with illegitimate excuse to get out of truly explaining their actions to people. These actions by both Cher and Elton show that the narrative of Clueless follows classical Hollywood narrative of a love story where the hot boy breaks the ‘ugly’ or ‘weird’ girls heart forcing her to breakdown emotionally as a result of it only to then find herself consulting with another boy who is on the same social status as themselves to then find something common with that character to which then leads them finding love and eventually being together as a couple towards the end of the movie and thereafter.
Clueless and The Breakfast Club use narrative styles to address issues and ideas that are associated with being a teenager and a high school life. By adopting similar narrative styles both movies can tell compelling stories of the difficulties and positives of high school life. Addressing serious social issues in ways that inform the audience about serious effects and pressures that are put on high school by society and norms on students to act, live and communicate in a certain way towards political, cultural and social norms.
