Peeling Off Labels
When you see a mother using food stamps at a grocery store, do you assume that she is a lazy bum who lives off the money of honest taxpayers? When you see a young man wearing expensive jewelry, driving a nice car with tinted windows, rap music blaring from the bass-ridden stereo system, do you assume that he is a drug dealer? When you see a scantily clad and well-endowed young woman, do you assume that she is promiscuous? A label is "a descriptive or identifying word or phrase" (Merriam Webster). Labels and stereotypes have been around for a long time, as Henrick Ibsen demonstrates in his play A Doll's House, which was written in the late 1800s. Over one hundred years later, stereotypes are still a main focus of conflict, as expressed in the popular 1980s movie "The Breakfast Club." Getting rid of labels is not an easy process. Shedding a label is generally accomplished in three stages: first a label is assigned, then it is recognized and rejected, and finally a search for individuality begins.
How are labels assigned? Often they are created by society and are based on gender, race, religion, age, or social standing. In A Doll's House, Nora is seen as more an object than a person. When the play was written, women in general were viewed as wives and mothers, not individuals. Nora skillfully plays the part of obedient wife as Torvald questions her about what she did in town, assuring him that she "would never dream of doing anything [he] didn't want [her] to (Ibsen 933)." In "The Breakfast Club," the characters' peers designate labels as a result of a combination of social status and behavior. Brian is "the brain" because he is an A student, Bender is "the criminal" on account of his rebellious behavior, and so forth. In his essay to Mr. Vernon, Brian addresses the labels that have been placed on him and his peers:
Labels are superficial, however, and when they are peeled off they often reveal something completely unexpected. When Torvald receives the letter from Mr. Krogstad and learns of Nora's secret, he begins to see her as "a hypocrite, a liar...a criminal" (Ibsen 974). When the conflict is resolved and it becomes clear that no one will suffer because of her forgery, Torvald returns Nora's label of vulnerable woman, telling her he "wouldn't be a proper man if [he] didn't find a woman doubly attractive for being so obviously helpless" (Ibsen 975). In "The Breakfast Club," the teenagers have been aware of their labels for quite some time. When they spend an entire day together, however, they "find that they have more in common than they ever realized" (Internet). Once these labels are shed, it becomes apparent that everyone possesses strengths and weaknesses that allow them all to be able to relate to one another in a way that was not possible before. Recognizing a label will often trigger a rejection of that label. When Nora realizes that her husband sees her as nothing more than a helpless woman, she realizes that their marriage has not been true, that they do not understand one another, nor do they truly love each other. She realizes she has been nothing more than a "doll wife" (Ibsen 977), an object for Torvald to play with and show off to his friends. In "The Breakfast Club," when Claire describes Allison as bizarre, Andrew tells the group, "...we're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all" (Hughes). In voicing this opinion, he begins to reject the labels and compare similarities rather than differences.
After labels are rejected, they must be replaced with something else; the person who was labeled must find his or her individual identity. When Nora realizes that she and Torvald do not love one another the way they should as husband and wife, she makes a decision that she must "learn to stand alone" (Ibsen 977). Rather than remain the object she is in her marriage to Torvald, she desires to be her own person. She tells Torvald that she is leaving him to find herself, launching her search for individuality. In "The Breakfast Club," the characters tackle individuality from a different angle. Rather than asserting their distinctiveness by focusing on their differences, they cross the social boundaries of their high school peers, become friends for a day, and concentrate instead on their common ground. Brian appropriately conveys this idea in his essay to Mr. Vernon when he says
Have you ever peeled a label from a can or a bottle? Sometimes what you find underneath that label is exactly what you expected, and sometimes you find something completely unforeseen. More often than not, however, part of the label will stick. When people reject their labels, they frequently find that the label is actually a part of them. Rejecting a label may entail simply revealing another side that has never been shown before. Or, as in Nora's case, it may involve doing something unexpected or unheard of. Labels are not necessarily always negative, but one must keep in mind the truth in the old adage, "You can't judge a book by its cover."
Works Cited Hughes, John. The Breakfast Club. Universal City Studios. 1985."...we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed" (Hughes).
In agreement with the opening quote from the movie, these characters "are quite aware of what they're going through" (Hughes).
"You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and 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?" (Hughes)
The characters discover their individuality in their similarity.
Ibsen, Henrick. A Doll's House. Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1999. 930-980.
"Internet Movie Database." 28 Apr. 2001. http://www.imdb.com.
"Label." Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 29 Apr. 2001. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary.