How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Breakfast Club.
Quote #4
BRIAN: It's like me, you know, with my grades... like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't.
CLAIRE: What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?
BRIAN: 'Cause I'm stupid... 'cause I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um... and we had eight weeks to do it and we're supposed to, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was supposed to go on... my light didn't go on, I got a F on it. Never got a F in my life...
Brian's dissatisfied with himself, but it's not just because he values high grades. It's because his parents do and he has to buy into those values. He has to live up to a standard he isn't free to set for himself, which is why he feels like he doesn't like himself.
Quote #5
BRIAN: I can't have an F, I can't have it and I know my parents can't have it! Even if I aced the rest of the semester, I'm still only a B. And everything's ruined for me!
CLAIRE: Oh Brian...
BRIAN: So I considered my options, you know?
CLAIRE: No! Killing yourself is not an option!
Brian doesn't actually try to kill himself. He brings in a flare gun—perhaps intending to shoot himself with it—but it goes off in his locker and is discovered. It makes Brian look sad—obviously—but the same technical incompetence that ruined his elephant lamp also ruins this half-cocked suicide attempt. Irony…