My Research Paper

I chose to write my paper on the 80's classic, The Breakfast Club. I choose this movie because a) I couldn't write about any of the movies I love from the 90's and, b) because of all the really horrendous movies released in the 80's, The Breakfast Club has managed to stay really relevant in our culture today. This is due to the simple fact that the movie looks at stereotypes. As much as people like to think that they are above labeling people by the way they look or act, it is something we all do. We crave order and organization in our lives, and stereotyping allows us to do that. I got the idea of making my paper focused on stereotyping from my sociology class; we spent a lot of time looking at how roles affect behavior and I thought it was a really interesting topic. If you think about the movie, specifically the scene where the jock is telling the other kids about how he beat up a nerd, it becomes obvious that even though he thought it was wrong he did it to fulfill his role as a dominant male. I'm also trying to plan it out so I can do a little research of my own and send out a survey to my old high school to see if stereotyping is as relevant today as it was in the 80's. Overall, I think there is a lot to be said about this issue.

So, What's My Score?

I chose to assess my personal analysis paper; the one in which we compared ourselves to celebrities. I actually had a really hard time writing this paper. It was way harder than I thought it would be to find a celebrity that I was similar too. I would score my rough draft as a low. The first reason is that I didn't really ever tell a specific story, which was kind of the whole point of the essay. I really need to be more specific in my next draft in order to raise my score. The other reason I would classify my paper as low is that it was really choppy. Because I had such a hard time coming up with ideas whenever I got one I would just write it down, making for a very disjointed paper. That part will be easy enough to fix in my next draft because I have already thought of some better ideas. Overall, I need to find a more specific story connecting my celebrity and I to fulfill the requirements of the assignment.

Chris and Jon

I feel that by using his own experiences, Krakauer made Chris's story more credible. It is one thing to say over and over that Chris was not crazy, but for Krakauer to say, "look, I did the same thing as him! Not because I was crazy, or had a death wish, but because I thought it would make me a better person, and give more meaning to my life." It was really powerful to see all the connections Jon had with Chris, and through those connections I feel like I understand why Chris did what he did. Obviously, no one will ever be able to ask him, but by understanding Jon's motives, I feel that he can provide an answer. Especially because their lives and personalities were so alike. Suddenly Chris's story seems more concrete... like Jon provided so solid possibilities, so the story meant more to me.