Pot Smoking (Symbol)
The pot-smoking the students engage in is a symbol of rebellion. Midway through The Breakfast Club, Bender risks leaving the detention room to collect a bag of cannabis from his locker. While Bender is confident in his mission, the other detention students who accompany him are afraid Vernon will catch them. When given the option to join Bender in smoking a joint in the library, Claire and Brian are the first to leave their desks. Andrew is far more reluctant to take part, knowing that Vernon will only dole out more punishment if he discovers them taking drugs during their detention. However, Andrew soon goes off with the others. While high, Andrew marches through the library room, dancing, doing cartwheels, and running up the walls. With these gestures, Hughes further emphasizes the rebellious nature of the students' pot-smoking.
Cigar Burn (Symbol)
The cigar burn on Bender's forearm is a symbol of parental abuse. During the lunch break, Bender teases Brian because the balanced lunch he unpacks would seem to indicate that Brian has stereotypically perfect parents who nurture and support him. When the students ask Bender about his own parents, Bender does an impression of his father, portraying him as mean-spirited and violent. However, Andrew believes Bender is lying. To prove the accuracy of his impression, Bender shows the group a round patch of scar tissue on his inside forearm. He explains that it is from a lit cigar that his father seared into his skin as punishment for spilling paint in their garage. The group goes quiet as they take in this symbol of physical abuse.
Elephant Lamp (Symbol)
The elephant lamp project that ruins Brian's grade point average is a symbol of hubris—excessive self-confidence. Late in the film, Brian confesses to the group that he was given detention because a flare gun went off in his locker; he also explains that he was considering using the flare gun to commit suicide because he has a failing grade in shop class. Brian explains that he enrolled in shop class because he believed it would be an easy A, but it proved to be his most challenging class. When Brian's elephant-shaped ceramic lamp wouldn't turn on, he was given an F on the project. Having gone into the class believing his intelligence was superior to the average "dumb" shop student, Brian must come to terms with his excessive self-confidence upon receiving the unexpected failing grade.
Claire's Diamond Earring (Symbol)
The diamond earring Claire gives Bender is a symbol of devotion. Toward the end of the film, Bender mocks Claire's sadness by asking her if her rich father gave her the diamond stud earrings she wears as a Christmas present, adding that his last Christmas gift was a carton of cigarettes. In this scene, the earrings are contentious objects that represent Claire's economic privilege over lower-class students like Bender. However, Claire gives Bender one of her earrings as she says goodbye in the parking lot at the end of the movie. Now that the two have admitted their attraction to each other, Claire shows her devotion to Bender by dividing the pair of earrings, symbolizing their bond by keeping one for herself and entrusting the other to Bender, who puts the stud in his earlobe.
Brian's Essay (Symbol)
The essay Brian writes on behalf of "The Breakfast Club" is a symbol of defiance. When the students' detention begins, Vernon tells the students that they must write a thousand-word essay on the subject of "who you think you are." The essay is supposed to prompt the students to address the overconfidence that led each of them to break school rules and end up in Saturday detention. However, the students ignore the essay assignment, preferring to forge bonds with each other. At the end of the film, Vernon picks up the one essay that Brian writes on behalf of the group. In a few short lines, Brian takes issue with the premise of the essay, and tells Vernon that they have discovered they are each a brain, a princess, an athlete, a basket case, and a criminal. With these labels, Brian mocks Vernon's reductive view of each of them and defies his authority by refusing to act contrite.
