Warning: this post contains movie spoilers. But who hasn’t seen The Breakfast Club?
If a person is watching The Breakfast Club for the first time and was asked to point out the introvert from the group, they would instantly pick the Basket Case. She dresses in dark clothing from the neck down, her black hair hides most of her face, she keeps her distance from people, and she rarely speaks. The others in detention instantly view her as a freak because she is different.
When we see her for the first time stepping out of her family’s sedan in the drop-off lot, and then is about to say goodbye to the driver who abruptly drives off leaving her alone and looking like an abandoned child, our minds have decided—she is dark, lonely, and miserable. But after following her actions throughout the film, we discover that Allison the Basket Case is an extraordinary human being with special talents who is a key component in freeing the minds of his detention peers.
The Introvert Waits and Observes
The most obvious introvert trait seen in Allison is her quiet nature. Introverts rarely open up to strangers and they are less likely to talk when forced to join small groups. They prefer to listen as they gather energy and information before they participate in the discussion.
When Allison enters the library to join her detention cohorts, she hurriedly maneuvers her way to the back row of chairs and around the large, dark gray statue. She sits and faces west appearing troubled. She seems oblivious to the snickers made by Brian, Andrew, and Claire, who were staring at her the entire time. No one, including the audience, knows what to expect from her. She is colorless, inanimate, and disinterested.
Perhaps her mind is fixated on trouble at home. Or perhaps she is nervous being in a room with strangers. Or perhaps this is part of her disguise to fool them into believing she is inferior. Whatever the reason, she has already established everyone’s view of her as the introverted basket case.
During the film’s first half, she sits at the back of the library listening to conversations and observing everyone’s actions. In her spare time, she partakes in odd practices, such as raucously biting her fingernails and making a sugar and cereal sandwich, hold the milk. We even glimpse at her artistic side as she pencil-sketches a snow-covered landscape and shakes dandruff from her hair to imitate snow falling.
Bender the Criminal is the loudest and most animated in the room. He provokes everyone multiple times throughout the day, except for Allison. One would think she would be a favored target because she is quiet, but Bender keeps his distance because she is still a mystery to him. The others are easy to manipulate just by understanding their obvious labels. This allows him to expose their weaknesses, which gives him the leverage to become the dominant force in the room. As for Allison, she is quiet, strange, and harmless, and therefore does not pose a threat. Harassing her will not gain any satisfaction.
The Introvert Unleashes
The Athlete, the Princess, the Brain, and the Criminal have concluded that they can say whatever they want without the Basket Case forming judgment or reacting physically. Unknowingly to them, they have entered a vulnerable state where Allison—if she chooses to— can attack their mental defenses using her keen observation skills. They will soon understand the proverb: It is the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
The first attack is on Andrew the Athlete. He and Allison are walking together in the hallway to pick up some beverages from the cafeteria. To break the silence, Andrew asks her, what is your poison, a kind of question a teen may ask an introvert to “get a rise” out of them. She plays along with his game and soon the conversation leads to him asking what she did to get detention. Allison aggressively redirects the question back to him, and he complies.
“I’m here today because my coach and my father don’t want me to blow my ride. You see I get treated differently because Coach thinks I’m a winner, and so does my old man. I’m not a winner because I wanna be one, I’m a winner ’cause I got strength and speed, kinda like a racehorse, it’s about how involved I am in what’s happening to me.”
These were a lot of words that did not seem to serve any purpose, except for self-gloating. Allison immediately sees through his lies and demands that he tell the truth. Because he never expected the crazy, quiet girl to display assertiveness, he accepts defeat by abandoning the subject. Later in the film when the gang is sharing a group discussion, Claire asks him what his problems are, and Allison answers for him saying, “He can’t stand up for himself,” a sign she received during their conversation in the hallway. The admission pushes Andrew to confide his reason for his detention sentencing and his emotional struggles with his father.
The second attack is on Claire the Princess. While the gang is enjoying their high from Bender’s marijuana. Allison proclaims that she has had sex with multiple partners, which no one believes at first. But the more she spoke, the more convincing she became, which soon led her to coerce Claire into revealing if she ever had sex. With the group pressuring her to answer, Claire gives in and shouts, “NO! I NEVER DID IT!” Allison then admits that she is not a nymphomaniac but a compulsive liar. She set a trap for Claire suggesting that admitting to not being a virgin makes her a slut, and admitting to being a virgin makes her a prude. A double-edged sword. Whichever response Claire makes will have negative repercussions on her social status. Bender may have pressured the loudest, but Allison’s smooth, straightforward dialect overpowered the Criminal’s loud, menacing words.
These attacks on the mental defenses of Andrew and Claire may seem cruel, but they were necessary to unload the heavy anguish that was swelling their souls. Brian and Bender are spared from a direct assault by Allison, but their lives were changed as well during their “after-pot” gathering.
Brian was inspired to tearfully unleash his problems after Andrew’s confession. His shocking reveal of the reason for his detention sentencing caused the gang to realize that his seemingly perfect life was not a bed of roses.
Because of Bender’s "bad boy" persona, he is not expected to weep in front of the group. Instead, he absorbs the emotions of his peers which enables him to develop sympathy toward them. And again, if it were not for Allison breaking the armor of the Princess and the Athlete, Bender would not have been able to see the humanity within the two people he provoked the hardest.
Some would argue that it was the effects of the weed that brought the five stereotypes together. The herb is known to cause a person to unleash their emotions, but it takes an instigator to deliver that powerful push. Incidentally, the instigator, Allison, was the only teen who did not get high.
The Introvert Shines
You never know what you can expect from a basket case. As a species, we humans tend to think the worse about something we don't understand. That is why there are movies like The Breakfast Club to show the many different personalities walking among us. Allison may be a thief and a liar, but if we all shared the same personalities, we would be living in a very boring world.
The Breakfast Club (1984), Rated R
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Director: John Hughes
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