The Outcast

The basket case. The outcast. The rebel. In The Breakfast Club this role is filled by Allison Reynolds, played by Ally Sheedy. By their very nature, rebels make up one of the least consistent archetypes within teen film, however this does not diminish the importance of their role. In The Breakfast Club, Allison plays the role of the basket case, silent for over half the film she makes it clear that she does not care what the other characters think of her. Allison is, however, simply playing a role. Her rebellion is how she covers her problems, and perhaps this could be said of most archetypes within the teen film. When Allison does open up, she does so in a manner that could be described as larger than life, emptying the contents of her purse and lying about being a nymphomaniac.

The outcast plays an important role within the teen film, however their archetype is defined not so much by the way in which they act as it is by the way other characters act. The outcast can take a number of forms, such as the basket case in The Breakfast Club, the DUFF in The Duff, or the newcomer in Clueless to name a few examples. How can such wildly different characters be grouped together? 

One thing which all of these examples have in common is their transformation. While other archetypes often spend their character arc defining what makes them unique, the opposite is often true for the outcast. In The Breakfast Club, The Duff, and Clueless the outcast undergoes a major transformation with the help of the popular kid. In The Breakfast Club this is achieved when Claire helps Allison transform herself, changing her style to fit in and in the process attracting the attention of the jock, Andrew. In The Duff, Bianca, played by Mae Whitman, undergoes a transformation with the help of jock and popular kid Wesley, and in doing so ends up pursuing a relationship with him. In Clueless, popular kids Cher and Dionne help new kid Tai transform herself and attempt to set her up with one of the popular kids.

In each of these cases, the outcast is helped by someone more popular than themselves to achieve what they perceive to be a better social status. The outcast longs to be accepted, however this is demonstrated in drastically different ways character to character.