breakfast club essay conclusion

‘The Breakfast Club’ (Brian): “Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club”

THE BREAKFAST CLUB by John Hughes

From : Movie

Type : Dramatic

Character : Brian Johnson is funny, smart and "sort of a nerd"

Gender : Male

Age Range : Late Teens

Summary : Brian writes a letter to Mr. Vernon in the closing monologue of the film.

More: Watch the Movie

Click Here to Download the Monologue

Brian: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us… In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal… Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

More Monologues from ‘The Breakfast Club’

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Teenagers — The Breakfast Club: Short Psychoanalysis Of The Characters

The Breakfast Club: Short Psychoanalysis of The Characters

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Published: Apr 29, 2022

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Breakfast Club Essay

• January 24, 2023

Breakfast Club Essay Sample

Introduction

"The Breakfast Club" has weathered the test of time, and its themes are still relevant today. The video follows five high school kids from various cliques who spend a Saturday together in detention. The movie digs into the challenges kids encounter, such as the pressure to adhere to cultural standards and the fight to fit in with their classmates. The film's five central protagonists play diverse high school stereotypes, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that these labels do not define who these individuals are. "The Breakfast Club" dispelled stereotypes and opened the path for more honest depictions of teenagers in popular culture with its complex and realistic portrayal of puberty.

Body Paragraphs

The Breakfast Club delves into various issues that teens face, such as the pressure to conform to cultural norms, the battle to fit in with one's classmates, and the search for identity. The film's five main protagonists embody a distinct high school cliché, such as the jock, geek, princess, basket case, and criminal. However, as the film unfolds, it becomes evident that these designations do not accurately describe who these folks are.

For example, Andrew (Emilio Estevez), for example, is a jock who is striving to live up to his father's expectations. He is seen as the prototypical high school athlete, but he is also under pressure to be flawless and afraid to disappoint his father. Likewise, Claire (Molly Ringwald) is a princess who feels trapped by her wealthy lifestyle. She is regarded as the popular girl but aspires to be more than a gorgeous face.

Brian's character also emphasizes social pressure to conform to cultural norms (Anthony Michael Hall). Brian is the nerd his peers torment, but he also stole the exam answers that landed them all in detention. He is under pressure to adhere to the expectations of his peers. But he also wants to be respected for who he is.

The film also delves into the issue of trying to fit in with one's classmates. This is demonstrated by Allison (Ally Sheedy), the basket case who her classmates misunderstand. Allison is perceived as an outsider, although she has much to contribute and is not defined by her label. Finally, the notion of identity is emphasized via the character of John (Judd Nelson). John is a tough-guy criminal who is also fighting his troubles. He is known as the bad guy but aspires to be more than that.

The Breakfast Club's five significant characters are highly multifaceted and multi-dimensional, and each is given an opportunity to tell their tale throughout the film. For example, Andrew (Emilio Estevez) is the jock struggling to live up to his father's expectations, and Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) is the nerd his classmates bully. Claire (Molly Ringwald) is a princess who feels trapped by her privileged life. Allison (Ally Sheedy) is the basket case that her peers misunderstand, and John (Judd Nelson) is the criminal with a tough exterior but is also struggling with his demons. Each character is relatable in a unique manner, and the spectator may empathize with their difficulties.

The film does a fantastic job of depicting these folks as more than their titles. The audience gets to witness each character's inner thoughts and feelings, allowing them to understand and relate to them on a deeper level. The film also does an outstanding job of demonstrating how the characters evolve and grow throughout the story.

The Breakfast Club is important for several reasons. First, it popularized the adolescent cinema genre in the 1980s and helped establish John Hughes as a significant player in the business. Second, the film's topics are still relevant today and appeal to viewers of all ages. The film's portrayal of high school kids as complicated and multi-dimensional persons aided in breaking down preconceptions and paving the way for more nuanced and realistic representations of teens in popular culture.

The Breakfast Club was one of the first films to depict the intricacies and tribulations of adolescence accurately. It was a break from regular teen films of the time, which emphasized shallow and one-dimensional characters. Furthermore, the film's themes of societal pressure, the desire to fit in with one's contemporaries, and the search for identity are all significant today. Many kids today experience similar challenges and may identify with the characters in The Breakfast Club. The film's ability to connect with viewers of all ages demonstrates its relevance and eternal nature.

The Breakfast Club is a timeless classic that addresses issues that are still relevant today. The portrayal of its characters as multifaceted and multidimensional persons in the film helped to break down preconceptions and pave the way for more nuanced and realistic representations of teens in popular culture. The Breakfast Club will be recognized as a pioneering work of the 1980s adolescent cinema genre and a modern-day classic. The film's ability to touch on universal topics and its sympathetic characters have elevated it to a timeless classic that continues to captivate audiences of all ages.

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Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club” Coursework

The film “The Breakfast Club” explores friendship among teenagers, high school students. It narrates about three adolescent boys and two girls from different school cliques, who spend a Saturday in detention, exploring their selves as well as the others’ personalities. At first, they spend several hours arguing, blaming, and labeling one another, i.e. acting out their family-based and social patterns and stereotypes.

However, after finding out they have a lot in common, the five teenagers unite, despite their social and psychological differences, and establish a strong friendship. In the letter to their instructor they reveal their newly grown belief in their similarity: “But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain (Brian Johnson), and an athlete (Andy Clark), and a basket case (Allison Reynolds), a princess (Claire Standish) and a criminal (John Bender).” The main themes which can be identified in the storyline are crisis as a cause and catalyst of friendship, friendship and belonging, and disclosure and intimacy in friendship.

First of all, the film is instrumental in understanding the idea that the precondition of friendship is a crisis or significant conflict (Lecture Notes, Week 1, p.2). In the present case, the characters undergo the crisis of delinquency, or “crossing the line”, and the subsequent penalty. In particular, Brian brought up in the perfectionist spirit, receives an “F” and takes a flare gun to the school. Andy, a talented sportsman, feeling the pressure of the necessity of following his father’s role model, beats a fellow student. Claire skips a class deciding to go shopping and entertainment. This crisis of delinquency consists of the clash between values, patterns, and expectations, nurtured in these students since their early years, and their actual behavior.

In particular, Andy finds his delinquent act disgusting, but still believes his father expected him to break some of the school rules; Claire thinks she does not deserve such punishment for playing truant and feels offended when her father refuses to negotiate with the teacher about less stringent measures. Brian feels his act was childish but blames himself for receiving the low mark and failing to fit into his parents’ idea of “the perfect son” rather than for endangering the lives of his peers.

As one can understand, the characters are experiencing a tension between the social roles of “children of their parents”, “students” and “adolescents” (representatives of the age group). In detention, they are forced to spend nine hours in the limited space, so as social creatures, they begin to express, either directly or indirectly, their attitudes towards the situation. After realizing their crises are identical by nature, Brain, Andy, John, Allison, and Claire become close to one another.

Friendship as a realization of the need for belonging in a certain cluster of society is communicated mainly through Allison’s character. As Allan writes, friendship is one of the pillars of social identity as it helps in the formation of one’s “self-perception” in the broader social context (Allan, 1998, p.694). In this sense, at the very beginning of the film, Allison looks like a marginalized individual with a deformed vision of her social class, as the girl rejects the views and values of her upper-middle-class parents and behaves like a “basket case”, falling in the extremities, from pathological shyness to absolute frankness and straightforwardness.

She reveals she has no friends, so Allison needs an informal micro group or a reference group to from a better understanding of herself in society. Therefore, she is the first to verbally articulate that she, Brian, John, Claire, and Andy are friends, probably because the girl strives for relationships with those peers whose social identities are more “mature”. However, Claire, Andy, and John, who seem to have a greater awareness of their place in society, at first vacillate, because they already belong to an informal group that underlines their position. As Paine notes, individuals are judged based on who their friends are (Paine, 1975, p.119).

In this sense, Claire doubts whether her relationships with Brian and John will be accepted by her already existing upper-middle-class friends, obviously “golden girls”, whose future is already paid off by their parents; at the same time, John considers the possible consequences of his relationship with arrogant and glamorous Claire, who might be mocked by his lower-class or subculture friends due to the hidden Marxist antagonism between the two social classes. However, due to their young age, these adolescents prioritize informal small groups (teenage cliques) over the broader society, so the pressure of the social class is not very strong in their case. Therefore, they readily embrace diversity and make friends based on shared experiences and common problems.

Finally, friendship necessarily involves sincerity and trust. “The Breakfast Club” shows that friendship allows sharing one’s inner life and feeling trusted and respected. After the adventure of escaping the persecution of the teacher, the five adolescents believe they are a team, characterized by mutual support and protection. Later, as John “sacrifices” himself for letting others safely get to the classroom, they realize it is also possible to depend on and trust each other.

As a result, all of them reveal their dissatisfaction with the family environment, the pressure of parental hopes, abuse, and neglect and even address the most “obscure” aspects of their lives, including sex and the development of their sexuality. As Bock assumes, secrecy is one of the means of governance (Bok, 1982, p.178), so the five characters might intend to solve or mitigate their existing family problems through friendship.

As one can conclude, “The Breakfast Club” shows the spontaneous development of friendship based on the similarity of the characters’ negative responses to their roles imposed by the family. The film also shows that the crisis that equally affects everyone, serves as a powerful catalyst of friendship and facilitates the initial disclosure and growth of trust.

Lectures notes. Week 1. (2009).

Allan, G. (1998). Friendship, Sociology and Social Structure. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships , 15, 685-702.

Paine, R. (1975). An Exploratory Analysis in ‘Middle-Class’ Culture’. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland , 117-137.

Bok, S. (1982). Secrets . New York: Pantheon Books.

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IvyPanda. (2022, June 13). Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/friendship-in-the-film-the-breakfast-club/

"Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”." IvyPanda , 13 June 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/friendship-in-the-film-the-breakfast-club/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”'. 13 June.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/friendship-in-the-film-the-breakfast-club/.

1. IvyPanda . "Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/friendship-in-the-film-the-breakfast-club/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club”." June 13, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/friendship-in-the-film-the-breakfast-club/.

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The Breakfast Club, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 594

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The characters in the breakfast club learn that all of them have a terrible reputation with their parents. For instance, during their mingling, they find out that John is always mistreated both physically and verbally at home by his parents. Brian’s parents are not happy with his performance at school and expect him to perform much better on his grades. This has led him to have suicidal thoughts whenever he thinks about his classes. Finally, Claire’s parents are not that of an excellent example of her life. One learns that during disagreements, they always involve her to get back at each other. Despite all of them coming from different background, they realize they have something in common, and these are the problems they face in their lives.

• Claire is this person who has seen a lot in her teenage hood. As the breakfast club program continues, she narrates how her life has been hard. She has faced a lot of peer pressure and abusive parents in her life, and now she finds someone to confine into and can understand her.
• The relationship that John has with his parents is not a happy one. As the detention, the program continues, one learns that John’s parents are always abusive towards him. This makes him feel unwanted and unappreciated.
• From the beginning of the program, Allison has this character that the breakfast club members find as being a habitual deceiver in whatever she does. This makes it hard for the members to understand her.
• In the breakfast show, Andrew is portrayed as a group member who is afraid to make critical decisions for himself. This weakness has cost him problems in his life, and he tries to face it while in detention.
• Brian has not been performing well in school, and for this reason, many times, he has been thinking of attempting suicide. His parents seem to be not happy with him failing in his exams. This has led to him having a bad relationship with him
• Forming-at the beginning of detention, John disregards the regulations and tries to rally other students into mocking and harassing Claire and Brian.
• Storming-Allison does not join the other group members in detention to smoke marijuana in their first encounter, meaning there is a lack of cohesion in the group among the members. The lack of cooperation at the start is some of the visible events that form the storming stage.
• Norming- this shows testing new grounds and conforming to roles. As the program nears to end, one notices how Allison has changed. In the beginning, she is this lonely girl who does not want to join the group members in smoking marijuana, to a happy girl who even goes ahead and tears a piece covering of Andrew’s jacket and keeps it for herself. This shows how she has transformed, and the detention has worked for her.
• Performing-during detention Claire requests Allison if she could do a makeover for her, Allison accepts, and Claire does a pretty job in transforming her. This transformation caught Andrew’s eye, and immediately, he develops romantic feelings for her.
• Participation helped the characters to grow as in the letter Brian claims that each one them is a jock, a geek, a basket case a criminal, and a princess. These demonstrate that despite the differences they had when they came into detention in the end, the differences they have are what makes who they are. They embraced their differences and appreciated one another. This show the stereotypes one is given sometimes define who they are, and through that, one can understand the potential and difference they bring.

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Breakfast Optimist Club Announces 2024 Oratorical and Essay Winners

March 31, 2024 at 5:14 p.m..

The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club announced the conclusion of its 2024 Oratorical and Essay Contests, which culminated in an awards ceremony held at a recent club meeting. The Oratorical and Essay Contests, long-standing traditions of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club, aim to encourage and recognize excellence in communication skills among youth in the community. Participants were tasked to either write an essay with the theme “Optimism: How it Connects Us” or a speech with this year's theme, "Discovering the Optimist Within Me," according to a news release from the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club. The Oratorical Contest winners were first place, Shashank Upadhyay, Warsaw Community High School; second place, Emilia Samaranayake, WCHS. The essay contest winners were first place, Caleb Smith, WCHS; second place, Bryttin Wagoner, Lincoln Elementary School; third place, Lynk Klinefelter, Wawasee High School. During the awards ceremony, winners read or performed and were presented with certificates of achievement, medals and/or monetary prizes or Kosciusko Cash. The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club extends its gratitude to all participants, judges, sponsors and volunteers who contributed to the success of this year's contest. Through events like these, the club remains committed to fostering optimism, leadership and academic success among youth in Warsaw and beyond, stated the release. For more information about the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club and its initiatives, visit https://warsawoptimist.org/.

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Warsaw Breakfast Optimists Announce 2024 Oratorical And Essay Contest Winners

The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club recently hosted the winners of the Oratorical and Essay Contests at the Shrine Building at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds, Warsaw. Photos provided.

News Release

WARSAW — The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club has announced the conclusion of its 2024 Oratorical and Essay Contests, which culminated in an awards ceremony held at a recent club meeting.

The event showcased local students in the realms of public speaking and writing.

The Oratorical and Essay Contests, longstanding traditions of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club, aim to encourage and recognize excellence in communication skills among youth in the community. Participants were asked to either write an essay with the theme “Optimism: How it Connects Us” or a speech with this year’s theme, “Discovering the Optimist Within Me.”

The following students emerged as the winners of the 2024 Oratorical and Essay Contests:

Oratorical Contest Winners

• First: Shashank Upadhyay of Warsaw Community High School
• Second: Emilia Samaranayake of Warsaw Community High School

Essay Contest Winners

• First: Caleb Smith of Warsaw Community High School
• Second: Bryttin Wagoner of Lincoln Elementary School, Warsaw
• Third: Lynk Klinefelter of Wawasee High School, Syracuse

During the awards ceremony, winners read or performed and were presented with certificates of achievement, medals and/or monetary prizes or Kosciusko Cash.

The Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club said it was grateful to all the participants, judges, sponsors and volunteers who contributed to this year’s contest. Through events like these, the club demonstrates its commitment to fostering optimism, leadership and academic success among youth in Warsaw and beyond.

For more information about the Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club and its initiatives, visit warsawoptimist.org.

Pictured in front from left are winners in the Oratorical Contest: Emilia Samaranayake, Margareta Loebs, Neil Viswanadha and Shashank Upadhyay. Upadhyay won first place. In back, is Oratorical Contest chairman Jeff Owens.

Oratorical winner Emilia Samaranayake performs at the Optimist Club.

Pictured from left are Essay Contest winners Lynk Klinefelter, Bryttin Wagoner and Caleb Smith. Smith won first place. At far right is Shari Benyousky, Essay Contest chairwoman.

Oratorical winner Shashank Upadhyay performs at the Optimist Club.

Essay winner Caleb Smith reads his essay for the Optimist Club.

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The Breakfast Club

By john hughes, the breakfast club themes, authoritarianism.

Defined as the enforcement of strict obedience to authority and the repression of personal freedom, authoritarianism is a dominant theme in The Breakfast Club . Hughes explores the theme through the character of Vice Principal Richard Vernon , who oversees the all-day detention of Bender, Claire, Andrew, Brian, and Allison. Vernon attempts to impose his authority by placing unrealistic demands on the students, shouting at them to stay still and not speak for the next eight hours. Throughout the course of the film, Vernon continues to act tough with the students, treating them as miscreants whose freedom should be restricted. However, his attempts at strong-arming respect ultimately fail, because the students can see through Vernon's act and perceive the insecurity that fuels his need for obedience. In this way, Hughes portrays Vernon's authoritarian attitude as a compensation for his failure to earn genuine respect from others.

As a counterpoint to authoritarianism, Hughes addresses the theme of rebellion in The Breakfast Club . When Vernon attempts to impose his will on the detention students, Bender is provoked to rebel, and he defies Vernon's authority at every opportunity. Bender's first act of rebellion is to speak to the others as soon as Vernon leaves the room. While the others initially resist Bender's rule-breaking, they soon join in and speak with him. Bender's next move is to make it so the door to Vernon's office won't stay propped open. With this act, Bender wins back the students' privacy by making it so Vernon can't spy on them as easily. As the film goes on, Bender continues to lead the other students in rebellious acts, which include tearing up old books, smoking pot, running up the walls, climbing furniture, and crawling through air ducts. The film concludes on one last act of rebellion: rejecting the premise of Vernon's essay assignment in a curt note. However, it isn't Bender who writes the note, but Brian, the brainy member of the group who, through Bender's example, has found that he too has the capacity and desire to question authority.

Resentment is another major theme in the film. Defined as the bitter indignation that follows unfair treatment, resentment first arises in The Breakfast Club when Vernon addresses the group at the beginning of their detention. By treating them with disrespect, Vernon reveals that he resents having to spend his Saturday watching over the group of troublemakers. Bender also reveals his resentful nature when he takes shots at Claire, Brian, and Andrew—people he doesn't like because he sees them as far more privileged than he. Claire soon confesses to resenting both of her parents, who have neglected her following their divorce. Brian also resents his parents; in his case, it is because they put too much pressure on him to excel in academics. For Andrew, his resentment stems from being raised by a bullying father who is obsessed with winning. Similarly, Bender has been raised by a violent, overbearing father who instilled in Bender a desire to rebel and lash out at others. Allison isn't immune either: she resents her parents for emotionally neglecting her. Although Hughes portrays resentment as a negative emotion, resentment is also something that helps bring the students together as they bond over their indignation at having been mistreated by authority figures.

Social Division

Social division is another important theme in The Breakfast Club . The theme enters the story when the students begin their detention and it becomes clear that the individuals in the group have little in common—at least superficially. Through the characters' dialogue, Hughes establishes that the only two in the group who know each other are Claire and Andrew, because they are both members of the popular set. Brian, branded as a "dork" by Bender, belongs to the quiet, nerdy, over-achieving crowd, and only associates with other academically gifted kids. Bender is a rebel "burner" who hangs out with other grungy, drug-taking kids, and Allison is a socially outcast girl who appears to not have any social skills. Despite these social divisions, the students come to learn that they are more similar than it would seem, as they each struggle to relate to their dysfunctional families and are inclined to repress their feelings of resentment and grief. Through sharing their problems with each other, the students see beyond the arbitrary social divisions that have defined them and learn to relate on a more intimate, universal level.

Family Dysfunction

Family dysfunction is a major theme in The Breakfast Club . Defined as deviation from the healthy norms of behavior within a family, family dysfunction enters the film when Claire speaks of how her parents have been using her as a weapon in their acrimonious divorce, adding that she would prefer to live with her older brother if she could. Bender also comes from an extremely dysfunctional family, explaining to the others that his father is physically abusive. For Andrew, the issue is being pushed into sports by an unfeeling monster of a father. For Allison, it is being neglected by her parents, who ignore her cries for attention. For Brian, it is being pushed by parents to keep perfect grades without them accounting for the psychological toll so much pressure can take. Ultimately, Hughes shows that each of the students in the Shermer High School Saturday detention is dealing with unaddressed family dysfunction in some form. However, an unsympathetic figure like Vernon lacks the imagination to consider the roots of the students' misbehavior.

Emotional Repression

Emotional repression—the action of restraining the expression or examination of one's feelings—is another key theme in The Breakfast Club . Having grown up in dysfunctional homes where feelings were minimized in one way or another, the students at the center of the film have been implicitly taught by their parents to push down any negative emotions that arise. This repression can often lead to acting out, which Bender exhibits when he provokes reactions from Vernon and the other students. In undermining others, Bender relieves the internal pressure of the anger and grief he feels in regard to his parents. Allison is another strong case of emotional repression: Seemingly mute when the film begins, Allison draws attention to herself with bizarre outbursts. When she finally opens up about the grief she feels at being neglected by her parents, she can barely put words to her pent-up emotions. Similarly, Andrew suppresses his resentment of his father; when he gets high, however, Andrew shouts and dances and flexes his muscles, letting himself release some of the tension. With these depictions, Hughes shows the destructive effects of bottling up one's emotions and the satisfaction that comes with letting go.

Bonding—the establishment of a relationship based on shared feelings—is another crucial theme in The Breakfast Club . At the beginning of the film, it seems the only thing that unites the five students is the fact they must serve all-day detention on the weekend. However, the students soon find they have shared feelings that result from living in similarly difficult circumstances. As the students each establish that they resent their parents and wish they could escape the pressures of teenage life, they reach a level of understanding among each other; most feel safe enough to be vulnerable and shed tears in front of the others. At the end of the film, the group cements their bond by submitting one essay to Vernon that Brian writes on all of their behalf, presenting a united front in defiance of his abusive authority. Hughes further emphasizes the group's newly forged bond by showing the burgeoning relationships of Claire and Bender, and Allison and Andrew. Both couples have seen past the superficial divisions of high-school cliques and discovered genuine emotional connections.

The Breakfast Club Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Breakfast Club is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club study guide contains a biography of director John Hughes, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Breakfast Club
• The Breakfast Club Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes.

• Back to Normal on Monday?: Stereotypes in The Breakfast Club

Wikipedia Entries for The Breakfast Club

• Introduction

• Share full article

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Shakira’s Pop-Up Show: Not Something She Dreamed Up at Breakfast

Months of preparation precede what can appear to be a sudden decision to entertain fans at a busy time in the heart of Times Square.

By Colin Moynihan

They may look impromptu. But they are not. Pop-up performances in Times Square aren’t quite the spontaneous events the term suggests.

Shakira ’s performance on Tuesday evening lasted barely longer than a subway trip from the Port Authority bus terminal to Grand Central and went off without a hitch. But that was largely because of months of behind-the-scenes planning that included securing permits, meeting multiple times with city officials and the police, and carefully calibrating when, exactly, to announce the secretly planned show.

Overseeing those preparations was Nick Holmsten, the co-founder and co-chief executive of TSX Entertainment, which operates a large concrete stage on the third and fourth floors of a building at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 47th Street.

Most days the performance space is hidden behind an 18,000-square-foot electronic billboard. But on Tuesday, two panels, weighing 86,000 pounds, swung open to show Shakira, along with her dancers and musicians, 30 feet above the sidewalk.

A reported 40,000 people were there to watch from below as Shakira opened her show with “Hips Don’t Lie.”

“There is an enormous amount of work,” Holmsten said in an interview, describing the hurdles of planning a pop-up musical performance in the center of Manhattan.

In addition to organizing performances, TSX runs a range of entertainment-related ventures, including recording studios and a supper club. The performance by Shakira was the third that TSX had produced at the West 47th Street site. Post Malone performed last July; in November, the South Korean pop singer Jung Kook appeared.

Beyond making arrangements with artists, Holmsten also has to make sure that he has permits in hand from multiple city agencies and from the mayor’s office, a process that he usually begins about two months before a show is to take place.

In the case of the performance by Shakira, Holmsten said he obtained permits to install speakers at Father Duffy Square and permission from the Fire Department to allow the use of smoke as a special effect.

Another form of preparation involves dressing the TSX stage, which Holmsten likened to “a very raw warehouse.” Ashley Evans, Shakira’s creative director for live performances, called it “literally a concrete box.”

Evans and others arranged for the installation of a video wall at the back of the space, plus a mirrored floor and ceiling, to create the image of what he described as “an LED video cube.” The idea, Evans said, was for Shakira to “play off the fact that she was performing in a box.”

Holmsten, who grew up in Sweden and started a music app there before working in senior roles for Spotify, said the Police Department is involved from the beginning when pop-ups are planned.

“We need to run even the artist through them and get approval for the artist,” he said.

The police are most interested in questions of timing, Holmsten added, which includes knowing when performers plan to arrive in Times Square (i.e., when nobody is expecting them) and making sure shows are scheduled for no more than 15 minutes.

“Sometimes if it looks good after 15 minutes the Police Department can give the thumbs up” for a short encore, Holmsten said.

Tarik Sheppard, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of public information, said officials also make plans to manage foot and vehicular traffic around Times Square. He added that the department’s intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus watch out for threats that could affect the event.

One of the most crucial timing questions, Sheppard and Holmsten agreed, is when to announce a pop-up. The aim is to give the public enough time to show up, but not so much that a large crowd comes too early.

“How do you find that sweet spot?” Holmsten said. “That is, I think, the No. 1 question.”

The news that Jung Kook would perform was made public roughly 30 minutes in advance, Holmsten said, because his young and fervent fans could be expected to spot social media announcements quickly and flock to Times Square.

Shakira fans are a bit older, so the performance was announced on her Instagram account two hours before its scheduled start at 7:15 p.m.

Of course, that meant that thousands of Shakira fans would be swarming Times Square just as thousands of Broadway theatergoers were trying to make curtain time.

Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance (the business improvement district for the area, which was part of the discussions), said the Police Department had decided that no one could cross Seventh Avenue or Broadway between 45th Street and 47th Street around the time of the performance, but made an allowance for theatergoers.

“If someone went up to a police officer with tickets and said ‘Hey, I’m going to the Minskoff Theater or the Richard Rodgers Theater,’ then they were allowed to cross,” Harris said.

The Broadway League, which represents many of the theaters, did not respond to a request for comment on how it thought the evening went.

As for the litter left by 40,000 concert fans, the Alliance handled the post-show cleanup, which Harris described as minimal.

Holmsten said the crowd had dispersed from Times Square within 40 minutes. Workers then began removing equipment that had been set up for the show.

“By around 10 or 11 in the evening most of the stuff is gone,” he said. “You cannot even see that anything happened.”

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