Community: The Breakfast Club
and Geoffrey Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales
The Breakfast Club: They are five total
strangers with nothing in common,
meeting for the first time: a brain, a
beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse.
Before the day is over, they break the
rules, bare their souls and find friendship
in a way they never dreamed possible.
The Canterbury Tales: They are 32
strangers meeting for the first time. (See
list on study guide.) They come together at
the Tabard Inn to begin their pilgrimage to
Canterbury, thus creating a new and
diverse community. This company of
pilgrims is not a typical example of a
tightly networked company. The pilgrims
come from different parts of society—the
court, the Church, villages, the feudal
manor system. To prevent discord, the
pilgrims create an informal company,
united by their jobs as storytellers, and by
the food and drink the host provides.
Questions to consider about community:


Based on the five main characters
in BC, describe the community at
Shermer High School.
How important is social status in
this fictional community? Why?
The Importance of Company
Many of Chaucer’s characters end their stories by wishing the rest of
the “compaignye,” or company, well. The Knight ends with “God save al
this faire compaignye” (3108), and the Reeve with “God, that sitteth
heighe in magestee, / Save al this compaignye, grete and smale!”
(4322–4323).
Company literally signifies the entire group of people, but Chaucer’s
deliberate choice of this word over other words for describing masses
of people, like the Middle English words for party, mixture, or group,
points us to a theme that runs throughout The Canterbury Tales.
Company derives from two Latin words, com, or “with,” and pane, or
“bread.” Quite literally, a company is a group of people with whom one
eats, or breaks bread. The word for good friend, or “companion,” also
comes from these words. Company also had an economic connotation.
It was the term designated to connote a group of people engaged in a
particular business, as it is used today.
The functioning and well-being of medieval communities, not to
mention their overall happiness, depended upon groups of socially
bonded workers in towns and guilds, known informally as companies. If
workers in a guild or on a feudal manor were not getting along well,
they would not produce good work, and the economy would suffer.
They would be unable to bargain, as a modern union does, for better
working conditions and life benefits. Eating together was a way for guild
members to cement friendships, creating a support structure for their
working community. Guilds had their own special dining halls, where
social groups got together to bond, be merry, and form supportive
alliances. When the peasants revolted against their feudal lords in
1381, they were able to organize themselves well precisely because
they had formed these strong social ties through their companies.
Company was a leveling concept—an idea created by the working
classes that gave them more power and took away some of the
nobility’s power and tyranny. As far as class distinctions among the
pilgrims to Canterbury are concerned, they do form a company in the
sense that none of them belongs to the nobility, and most have working
professions, whether that work be sewing and marriage (the Wife of
Bath), entertaining visitors with gourmet food (the Franklin), or tilling the
earth (the Plowman).
Summary of this background information:
CCS addressed: ELACC12SL2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally)
in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies
among the data. ELACC12RL7: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded
novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text.
 Read the two versions of Brian’s “essay” below.
1. Beginning of Film: “Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062.
“Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was
that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you
who we think we are. What do you care? 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.”
2. End of Film: “Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for
whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write an 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. But what we
found out is that each one of us is a brain...Brian Johnson ...and an athlete...Andy Clark ...and a basket
case...Allison Reynolds ...and a princess...Claire Standish ...and a criminal...John Bender.
Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.”

From the two different versions of Brian’s “essay,” infer how their community will change. Use
complete sentences.

What is a theme of The Breakfast Club (edited version,
clips from the film)?
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a
literary work.
 Compose an “I Am” poem based on one of the characters from the
CTales prologue. Show your understanding of characters and relationships by
the choices you make in your writing. Use documented quotes as evidence of
character. Use your own paper.
CCS addressed: ELACC12SL2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally)
in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies
among the data. ELACC12RL7: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded
novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text.