Talk:John Bender/@comment-67.197.229.144-20161121065354

I believe you have been mislead, as I assume many viewers of the Breakfast club have been. I contend that there are a number of hints throughout the film that strongly imply that Bender intentionally gets endless Saturday detentions so that he can constantly be attempting to persuade fellow high school students to stop being so self interested avoiding difference within their student body.

Is it simply coincidence that he sizes up every other principal character starting from the get go (the ridiculing you mention)? I think not. Is it a coincidence that he facilitates every single bonding activity that occurs throughout the film, or that he pits all of the students against Vernon? I think not. Is Bender simply a teenage douchebag boy when he throws his fist up in the air in the final shot, declaring success with getting another girl? I think not.

To me, these all imply his efforts to bring the students together. His fist in the air is his declaration of success with another attempt at getting kids to be more considerate of each other. Why bother showing Bender at the end of the film over any other principal character? It is because he's the one who moves the whole movie along. He's the one who facilitates everything.

Also, I believe that at least Claire realizes this when they're in the janitor's closet together. When Bender reveals to her that he didn't find her secret talent to be disgusting, I feel it was actually a reveal that he was disguising himself the whole time. He is clearly more candid in that scene than in any other. In the end when Claire and Bender kiss and she gives him her earring, it seems that she wouldn't have simply rebelled against her virginity for the sake of being cool, or being defiant of her parents/reputation so that she could have sex with this punk player who gets so many girls. She is more perceptive than that, and also has more self-confidence than that.

The last hint I'll cite is that he has multiple piercings and multiple photos of women in his wallet. We can infer that this simply means he's a bachelor, or we can infer that he has gone through similar experiences with other female detention attendees. The ear piercings are still trophies, but they are trophies not ment to objectify women (even if he wants them to come off that way). They are instead ment to be personal reminders of his success with his fellow students.

So, while Bender certainly may have changed by the end of the film, I believe that he did not change in the way that you have perceived. He was not simply going through the same general process as the rest of them. Instead, he represents perhaps the stronger character to have come out of any 80's film, an enlightened high school aged guy who somehow defies both the greed/self-interest/hedonism of the 80's and recognizes the greatest things that separates us from each other- fear of difference/uncertainty/the unknown/failure. Thoughts?