Analyze Claire in The Breakfast Club.

Directed by
John Hughes, The Breakfast Club opened February, 1985 and tells the story
of five dissimilar high school students who find themselves together in detention on a Saturday
morning. The story demonstrates that the students have far more in common than their social
roles would suggest. Each student personifies a particular social group:

• Andrew Clark (Emilio Estevez) is the jock.
• Brian
  Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) is the brain.
• John Bender (Judd Nelson) is
  the criminal.
• Claire Standish (Molly Ringwald) is the princess.


• Allison Reynold (Ally Sheedy) is the basket case.

Claire Standish is the stereotypical rich girl/princess. When we see her for
the first time, she is being dropped off in a BMW. Her clothes are expensive and she
conspicuously sports diamond earrings. Claire is eager to flaunt her social position, "Do
you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this
school."

As the film progresses, we see surprising sides to Claire's
personality. When Bender is tearing up library books he says,"[literature] is so much fun
to read like, Moe-lay." To which Claire replies, Moliere, using the correct
pronunciation. Perhaps Claire is not as vacuous as she seems if she is familiar with French
literature. The exchange implies that Claire may bury her intellectual gifts to fit
in.

As the kids confess their burdens and shortcomings, Claire says, "I
hate it. I hate having to go along with everything my friends say." Far from having her
world together, Claire is a victim of insecurity and peer pressure.

Finally,
as the kids begin to show solidarity, Claire does Allison's make up and confesses, "You
know, I have just as, many feelings as you do and it hurts so much when someone steps all over
them." Though at completely different ends of the social spectrum, Claire and Allison see
that they have both been hurt and are closer as a result.

By the end, Claire
has become a more nuanced and sympathetic character. She shows the audience the perils of
popularity, and she learns to value the people she disdained at the beginning of the
movie.