Examining Youth Culture: John Bender

If you were to ask me how my teenage years have gone to this point, you would get a very short answer: a rollercoaster. Nine times out of ten, any teenager would give you an answer somewhat similar to this. Throughout the long history of cinema, coming-of-age movies have always given a near accurate portrayal of life through the eyes of teenagers. This is readily apparent when viewing John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, and really paying close attention to the characters within. At the start of the movie, a monologue is presented to the audience, in which five different types of teens are mentioned. The letter, written and narrated by Brian Johnson, states that “You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal.” (00h:02m:45s-00h:03m:10s) While all five of these traits play a major part in the movie, one in particular stood out to me the entire time. That being the “criminal”, John Bender.

In a way, every young man has a little bit of John Benderish attitude within them. Every teen’s overall goal is to somehow feel better about themselves in any way possible. Whether it be through engaging in risky behaviors, belittling their peers, or standing up to figures of authority, teenagers will do whatever is necessary to make themselves who they want to be. John Bender displays all of these to a tee. Early in the movie, we see him arriving at detention on his own, unlike everyone else who gets a ride from their parents. He then proceeds to kick Brian out of his seat without even saying a word, showing that just because of his demeanor, he is intimidating. (00h:04m:30s-00h:05m:40s) He is a free man, and doesn’t care what the people around him feel because he is achieving his own satisfaction. For the entire first quarter of the film, this attitude doesn’t change. Bender is brash, arrogant, obnoxious and belittling to everyone around him, students and faculty alike. He doesn’t care all that much about having to be in detention, and knows that he can do whatever he feels because nothing is going to change. He will still be there for the whole day, and he will keep finding ways to come back every weekend because it is the one place he feels free. This is further elaborated on later on, when he gives the other students a look into his life at home. In a mockery of a conversation between his parents, Bender puts on display just how cruel his father is to he and his mother, which heavily influences his attitude towards those around him. He then goes on an aggressive tirade showing his frustration towards the world. (00h:41m:15s-00h:43m:00s)

Throughout the story, John Bender brings three themes of teenage years into perspective. He very much shows the desire for freedom and the desire for attention, and it is his obnoxious, talkative attitude that kicks the third theme into gear, which is unity among teens. While all teens are for the most part anxious around their peers, and most of the time belong to different cliques, eventually they will all find commonalities amongst themselves and come together as one. This starts to happen just past halfway through the movie, and continues all the way through to the end. The five students smoke, listen to music, and talk about their lives outside of school and by the end of the film, they all seem to become friends, if only for the day. This all happens because of Bender’s willingness to be talkative even though Vernon tells them not to be. We are once again shown that Bender is free and doesn’t care about what others think, and it’s because of him that the students find common ground within their lives. I consider this to be very accurate to modern day teenage society, as I just recently experienced this. On my senior class trip this past spring, it seemed as though everybody was friends with each other. This continued all the way through to graduation, and I find it interesting that even the most different of people could get along so easily after mostly keeping to our own groups for the past four years. This experience, combined with the viewing of this movie has made me realize that social status is simply a made up thing, and doesn’t actually matter at all in life.

The soundtrack of The Breakfast Club helps the audience to get a greater look into the mind of John Bender. At a few points in the movie, songs will play that are relevant to the situation that is happening at that point. For example, when Bender has his breakdown when thinking about his parents mentioned earlier, a hardcore, metal-esque song plays in the background, but it almost drowns out his voice. This is used to show how Bender feels towards his father’s abusiveness, and how it shapes him as a person. It also shows how although he tries to fight it, his father’s abusive nature always prevails in his mind. A soundtrack can be used in this way to show the true feelings a character is experiencing.

While every movie has a soundtrack, some of the most interesting ones are those of coming-of-age movies. They always seem to fully convey the experience of living life as a teenager. In the way that every movie has its own soundtrack, I believe that everyone’s personal life has one too. For this post, I have created a soundtrack that I believe sums up the teenage years, and I have included songs that are relevant to the time period that John Bender grew up. It includes mostly songs from the 1980s, so they are relevant to the timeline of the movie.

“Fight For Your Right” - Beastie Boys

This song is a representation of the typical rebellious nature of teens. At some point, every teenager deals with frustration caused by their parents, and they have a desire to stand up to authority and have fun. I can imagine this song going through Bender’s head whenever he antagonizes Richard Vernon.

“Cum on Feel the Noize” - Quiet Riot

This song accurately describes the wild nature of teens and how they will do things out of their comfort zone in order to enjoy life. This song relates to Bender because he fully embodies the rebellious and wild aspect of teen life.

“New Magic Wand” - Tyler, The Creator

This song is about his love interest for someone that is already in a relationship, and what is going through his head when thinking about them. The beat of this song is very overwhelming and heavy, and somewhat relates to the stress going on in a teen’s head. This can relate to Bender because his head is full of stress mostly caused by his father.

“Working for the Weekend” - Loverboy

This song relates to me heavily because every weekend I work both days, leaving me little time to accomplish anything else. On many weekends, my friends would have parties that I would not be able to get to until I was done at my job. This also relates to Bender because instead of being off doing other things, he spends his weekends at the school in detention.

“Kickstart My Heart” - Motley Crue

This song is yet another nod to the rebellious nature of not only teens, but everyone as a whole. As I said earlier, everyone has a bit of John Bender within them, and for many it comes out during the teenage years.

“I Wanna Rock” - Twisted Sister

The music video for this song is very applicable to The Breakfast Club, with a group of students revolting against their teacher when he yells at them for having fun. Bender acts this way towards Vernon numerous times throughout the film, and it accurately describes how most teens act in the presence of authority.

“Children Of The Sea” - Black Sabbath

This song starts out soft, but quickly gets very intense, which shows how a teen can have changes in their mood when told they can or cannot do something. When the adults around you don’t believe in you, it can create aggression, which is the case for Bender.

“Under the Bridge” - Red Hot Chili Peppers

This song shows the softer side of a teenager’s life. While teens are in many ways wild and chaotic, they can also feel hopeless and depressed at times. This is very applicable to not only Bender, but to myself as well.

“Smokin’ In The Boys Room” - Motley Crue

This song expresses frustration towards school and finding ways to look cool and relieve stress. Bender is shown to possess marijuana in his locker, so I can imagine him listening to this song as he escapes reality for a bit.

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” - Twisted Sister

Once again, Twisted Sister does a great job of encapsulating a teen’s frustration with figures of authority. In this instance, the music video shows a kid being harassed by his father for the way he looks and the music he listens to. The kid fights back at the father, and Bender often fights back to his father when they argue as well.

Works Cited

Hughes, John, et al. The Breakfast Club. Universal Pictures, 1985.

“Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take it (Extended Version) (Official Music Video)”, Youtube, uploaded by Twisted Sister, 3 Aug. 2010 https://youtu.be/V9AbeALNVkk

“Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock (Official Music Video)”, Youtube, uploaded by Twisted Sister, 3 Aug. 2010 https://youtu.be/SRwrg0db_zY

Introductory Blog Post

Hi! My name is Jacob, but most people just call me Jake. I graduated from Port Jervis High School this past June, and am looking forward to what the future holds for me. I am majoring in communication, and after college I hope to go into sports journalism/broadcasting. Obviously, you can tell that I have a heavy interest in sports, specifically baseball and football. I am a HUGE fan of the New York Yankees, and I also enjoy watching the New York Giants football team. Recently, I finished watching Better Call Saul, the spin-off of Breaking Bad, which I also enjoyed. I also have a couple of personal favorite movies that I have watched many times such as Uncut Gems, Pulp Fiction, and The Wolf of Wall Street. I am not really big into books, and I can't say I have voluntarily read one in the past few years. In terms of video games, my interest has also dwindled for them as well. I used to be able to play certain games nonstop all day, however now I rarely ever find the time, or I am just too bored to even make an attempt. However, when I did play video games, my favorites were Minecraft and Red Dead Redemption 2. I am not a very creative person artistically, however I do consider myself to be a decent cook. I enjoy making different dishes for my family dinners, and I take pride in making a good meal from scratch. I am a particularly big fan of seafood, which is mind-blowing to me because when I was younger, I was scared to even look at shrimp. Now, however, if I had to pick my final meal on Earth, it would definitely be some type of shrimp. Whether it be fried, boiled, or skewered, shrimp is always my go to food choice at any restaurant. Some of my other hobbies include being in nature, listening to music, sleeping, and hanging out with friends just doing anything to pass time. With regards to music, my taste is all over the place. I enjoy listening to rock, rap, pop and even country occasionally. I try to search through older music and find new things to listen to just about every day. Some of my favorite artists/bands are Tyler, The Creator, Kanye West, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Honorable mentions go to Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Eminem, Dr. Dre, and many others from the 90's. I love 90's music because it is what I grew up on. My parents would always listen to music from their teenage years, and it stuck with my from a very early age. I believe I have said everything I could possibly say about myself, so in closing I would like to express how excited I am to be at OCCC and to be apart of this class. I hope that this semester brings some interesting material and memorable moments in movies that I have never watched before.