Dear Mr. Vernon: We accept that we have to sacrifice the entire Saturday in school confinement for the wrong thing. We did wrong, but you asked us to write an article to explain to you who we think we are. It's crazy. What's your business? You look at us with your eyes, and define us in the simplest terms, the most convenient, so there is a nerd, an athlete, a weird, a little princess, and a little hooligan, right? This is how we thought of each other at 7 o'clock this morning, we were all brainwashed by you. ——The most sincere breakfast club
As stated in the letter, on a Saturday at Xue Mo High School, five people who were fined to school for violation of school rules were circled together:
The cynical and provoking hooligan Bender;
Andrew, an athlete with well-developed limbs and easily irritated;
The cowardly and submissive nerd Brian;
The proud, disdainful, sophisticated little princess Claire;
Allison, a weird, withdrawn grotesque.
Facing the dull and closed classrooms, harsh and extreme teachers, and contemptuous criticism, the five people went from indifferent, sarcastic and provocative to each other, to cover each other, and unanimously confronted with supervision... Therefore, there was a strange formation of isolated individuals who had no intersection. The collective. They slowly broke the ice while arguing about each other's differences and prejudice, and found the common point, the confusion and troubles from home.
Bender had no expectation of him because of vulgarity and violence. Even the family who used cigarettes as Christmas gifts was labeled as a gangster. He was unpopular and accepted, and he used cynicism as a shield from harm and used rebellion to make trouble. Prove existence. For example, he was punished to stay in school this time because he pressed the alarm indiscriminately.
Andrew has lost his ability to judge himself because of his demanding family, which "must take the first" and "do not accept losers", and constantly cater to the expectations of his parents. For example, the reason why he was punished to stay in school this time was to prove to his father that he was a tough person. He wrapped the butt of a weak classmate with tape.
Brian was influenced by strong parents who value academic performance and regards performance as the only criterion for evaluating himself. He devotes most of his time to studying, even in extracurricular activities, he also participates in mathematics and physics clubs. The reason why he was punished to stay in school this time was that he could not accept the handicraft class and took the F test, and he was found by the teacher with the intention of committing suicide with a gun.
Although Claire has good family conditions, her parents only use her to argue, and don't care how she feels. Claire, who can't find love from her parents, lacks self-confidence and can't open her heart to others, but in order to prove her gregariousness, she has to rely on and obey her friends against her will. She was punished to stay in school this time because she ran away from school during school hours to go shopping.
Allison was unwilling to stay with his parents because of the ignorance of his parents, always carrying a pile of weird luggage, and wanted to run away from home. For no fun and no friends, she came to accept the punishment of staying in school on Saturday for no reason, just to pass the time.
Finally, they learned that the different offbeat labels and weird behaviors on their bodies are actually bad family environments and parents who don’t understand them. "God, will we be like our parents in the future?" "It will happen naturally. It is inevitable. People will die when they grow up." What a desperate pain.
The film does not reflect the story line of the parents too much, but let Mr. Vernon represent the adult's perspective: high above, strong authority, simple and rude, of course, also angry and worried. In order to communicate the world of adults and teenagers, the film also sets a bridge character, Carl. Once also attending this school, and as a cleaner, Karl, who has read the letters and lockers of the teenagers, and heard the conversations between the teenagers, is the adult who understands the ideas of the teenagers best.
Vernon: "Carl, I have been teaching for 22 years, and every year the children become more and more self-righteous."
Carl: "Actually, the children have not changed, you have changed."
Vernon: "When I get old, they will take over this country. This keeps me awake at night. When I get older, will these kids take care of me?"
Carl: "I never counted on it."
Adults may think that children’s lives are learning hard and simple. Where can there be so much pain and rebellion? It may be that adults are too far away from childhood and teenagers, and the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of adolescence are becoming more and more unreal, and they are overwhelmed by firewood, rice, oil and salt, but it does not mean that the troubles of teenagers no longer exist at this moment.
What the film calls for is a kind of communication, understanding and care. Not only between adults and teenagers, but also between teenagers and teenagers. Everyone has secrets that they don't want to admit, because they are afraid that those secrets will make themselves look weird. But "We are all weird people, it's better if someone hides it." The party girl Claire and the lonely girl Allison have similar conservative views on love; nerds and athletes have the same pressure from family; rich girls are the same as little hooligans. Feeling lonely ignored...
The teenagers in the film have different worries and confusions, but they are so similar. As the film wrote in the letter to Teacher Vernon at the end: "...you look at us with your eyes and define us in the simplest terms. But we found that we are all nerds, athletes, weird people, little princesses, Still a hooligan. Does this answer the question of "Who do we think we are?"
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