The Breakfast Club follows five teenagers through their experience of Saturday detention. As the day goes on, the members of the Breakfast Club unconsciously examine themselves while they revolt against a stereotypical society portrayed by a close-minded teacher.

At the beginning of the day it is obvious that the teenagers want nothing to do with one another. In fact, they “don’t even know [each other’s] language.” John Bender instigates the group’s bonding through unconventional means like insults, disrespect, and drugs. Bender and his cohorts, Andrew, Brian, Claire, and Allison, portray stereotypical characters of a criminal, jock, nerd, princess, and “basket case,” respectively. They must rebel against society, and their obstinate teacher, to break away from their labels that were imposed on them by their parents and that define them in this stereotypical world.

Bender intimidates the group at the beginning of the day with his audacity as he continuously makes demeaning remarks and disrespects Mr. Vernon, the principal, by talking back and mocking him. As Richard Vernon leaves, Bender is the first to defy his no talking rule and quickly returns to his belittling remarks directed at the rest of the group. As Bender encroaches on everyone’s last nerve, “Why do you have to insult everyone,” escapes from Andrew’s mouth in a very frustrated tone. As Bender stares Andrew down he lets out, “I’m being honest a******. I would expect you to know the difference.”
Bender’s “honesty” at first, leads to more tension and fighting. He begins to mock everyone’s home life. When Andrew tries to do this back to him, Bender unexpectedly goes along with it and mocks his own family. This is the first sense of bonding found in the group. They begin to see their parents’ roles in their personalities. In response to this brief bonding moment, everyone, including the silent Allison, follows Bender as he leaves the library, where they are being held captive, as they go to his locker. When returning with the marijuana, the group realizes they cannot re-enter the library without running into Vernon. Bender, surprisingly, instructs the others to go back while he distracts Vernon and gets caught. This selfless act affirms Bender’s alliance with the other members.
After sneaking back to the library, Bender starts to smoke. One by one, another member of the Breakfast Club, including Brian, the nerd, follows Bender and begins to smoke. As the effects of the marijuana settle in, the group begins to let out more about themselves and show a different side that is radically different from what their stereotypes should be. Again, the idea of forceful parents comes up. Andrew is the first to realize how everything he does and everything he is was forced upon him by his parents. He does things to impress his dad. As he lets this out, the others follow. The only hold-out was Claire. Bender takes over for her and describes her life in a mocking way like he had done before. Angry, she tries to insult him, but fails, and succumbs to letting out her feelings as her peers had done.
At the end of the day, the Breakfast Club has fully come to terms with who they really are. As Brian writes his essay for Mr. Vernon, he expresses the bond that these five unlikely friends have. Although they think that Mr. Vernon “see[s] [them] as [he] wants to see [them], in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions,” they now know that each of them is “a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, and a princess, and a criminal.”