The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club gives examples of the principles of interpersonal communication. Five high school students: Allison, an emo, Brian, a nerd, John, a criminal, Claire, a prom queen, and Andrew, a jock, are in Saturday detention together. By the end of the day, they find that they have more in common than they thought.
I began by selecting a scene from the movie and using it to explain interpersonal communication. The interpersonal exchange I chose was the scene where Bender and Claire go through each other’s wallet and purse. Claire inquires about the pictures of girls in Benders wallet and Bender asks about the number of items in Claire’ purse. This scene shows that interpersonal communication is a dynamic process. In previous transactions between the two characters, they were hostile towards each other and had minimal self-disclose. In this conversation, Claire calmly asks Bender personal questions, although Bender is still watchful of what he self-discloses.
Interpersonal communication is unavoidable. While Claire is asking these questions, no matter how Bender responds, he is still sending Claire a message about himself, which is a form of communication. Interpersonal communication is unrepeatable, in that Claire probably would not ask the same kind of questions after realizing Benders disbelief in monogamy. The conversation could not be reenacted exactly the same. Interpersonal communication is also irreversible.
After this interpersonal transaction, it would be impossible for Bender to argue that he believes in monogamy or for Claire to argue that she does not. Even if they were to say they did not mean what they said, the transaction would still have some sort of effect on both of them. Interpersonal communication is complicated because Claire must take everything she knows about Bender in consideration before she forms her questions.
When she asks Bender, why he does not believe in monogamy and Bender does not respond, Claire...