Monthly Connections, April (The Last One) Don't You Forget About Me

So I finally have a topic of my choice!!!! While contemplating the final thesis of my high school career, I automatically thought that it would be best to do a John Hughes film. Well, John Hughes didn't direct St. Elmo's Fire but atleast it's a brat pack film. So I thought I'd compare several things with John Hughes' representation of high school during the 80's to what I have found my own to be.

First and foremost, disappointingly enough, there is no boy that even compares to Jake Ryan at this school. I don't think I ever expected there to be one when I did first come to high school because with exception of a few Bethany and Sacred Heart kids, I already knew pretty much everyone in my grade and the grade above. Now could a Jake Ryan even exist? The book that had the most elements of a romance this year was Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff is definately not Jake. The next one I can think of is the relationship between Tariq and Laila. And in my own naive brain which of these relationships am I led to believe is the most realistic. I never heard about a rich, handsome senior paying attention to a shy sophomore. These characteristics do not carry over to Wuthering Heights or A Thousand Splendid Suns. Heathcliff was moody, mean, and could be downright scary at times. Tariq and Laila knew each other from childhood then didn't see each other for many years.

So, following that whole idea, next would be Pretty in Pink. That's not exactly one of my favorite movies but it has a similar plot so it will make sense to put it next. Same thing with the rich guy except the girl (which once again happens to be Molly Ringwald) is poor. I don't really think that there is a huge gap between who's rich and who's poor at school. But I also think that if someone were really rich, they would probably be going to Archmere or Shanahan or St. Mark's instead. So once again, this is the main story of a high school movie that I never saw or encountered in high school which questions the whole validity of it. But the character of Andie is probably the idea of commonplace people. This is similar to what we discussed in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Andie sees all of these rich people and sort of has envy, but not really envy. just something kind of like it. This is more relatable to most people including Prufrock. He's kind of pathetic, somewhat like Andie. But there are characteristics of the modern hero, much like Andie, and much like real life. We can relate to each character for not being rich or popular or even having the fullest head of hair.

I guess I might as well cover the three big ones, so yes, that would mean The Breakfast Club. I don't really know if the school can keep students all day on Saturdays, but I imagine that if they could, five random people in school probably wouldn't become friends just because they all had to spend one day together and they probably wouldn't have in the movie either because we never do know if they all stay friends. In the one scene they contemplate this as well. And Claire (Molly Ringwald again!) says that they won't. They won't say hi when they see each other in the hall and they'll never hang out like they do for the one day. I don't think Oxford has cliques like this. Well there are but I think most students who go here have friends that fit many different stereotypes, we're not as "divided"-for lack of a better word, as most of the high schools that you see in movies. Actually, I'm not too sure of the underclassmen, but this is my own interpretation of high school. There are several instances, like when teachers have their rooms setup in groups where my group consisted of different types of people. I think we each considered the others our friends (Particularlly in Psych last year and Statistics this year). Of us there were athletes and brains and a person who drove a sports car and even the 20 year old who dressed in all black, and we were fortunate enough to all be friends. But these are people that I saw everyday rather than just once and done. In The Power of One, Hoppie makes a big impression on Peekay, that lasts a life time. This is what we like to think happens to The Breakfast Club, and this is something that I would like to think was true about my high school experience.

So unfortunately, I've found my whole high school experience to not play out like a John Hughes movie. When I turned 16, Jake Ryan wasn't standing there waiting for me, and my parents did remember my birthday. There wasn't some rich guy who asked me to prom. In fact, I'm not even going to prom, and I don't consider that to be a loss. There wasn't a time that I was put with four other random people and we became friends over the course of a day. I know I skipped a few, but this was getting kind of long and none of the literature really compares to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Of course, there were the similar feelings which is what I think makes most of his films, particularlly in the 80's, so appealing even coming to thirty years after their first releases. It's nice to think that somewhere there is that one great guy who doesn't care how much money your family makes and notices you even though you're plain Jane. Or that we can connect with people regardless of how different we think we are or seem to be. I think that a lot of people(including John Hughes) probably considered high school to be some of their best years. However, most of the people I know, most of them in the real world that is, don't consider high school to have been as romanticized as John Hughes made it seem. As for me, I believe that the best is yet to come in college and after I graduate college.