As the movie starts out, the five teenagers are being punished with Saturday detention; their assignment for the next eight hours was to right a paper entitled "Who Am I?" Their most probable assumption was from them to write about their achievements. Being students in America, we are all raised to excel at whatever we do, whether it is at grades, wrestling, or being popular. Since "they judged themselves by what they do and achieve, their self-identities depend upon their achievements," (Kimball and Leidich page three). This leads to competitiveness, envy, jealously, and greed. Bender was jealous of Claire social status and of her leading "a better life" and to react to that he yelled at her and over-exaggerated the truth. He judged her by material possessions (earrings) and by social standings (prom queen), and he judged himself against her and

Practically everyone pays the cost of belonging. Claire probably wants to hang out with Bender but because of the conditions of her clique, she can't. Andrew's cost of belonging was that he couldn't think for himself. When he did, he liked Brian and Alison, but his clique requirement is probably not to be involved with them. Brian's relationships don't have a cost of belonging; he and any new friends are probably welcomed all the time without a requirement. Bender, though he does not admit it, has a cost of belonging also. His friends would reject Brian in fear of him "telling" or something along that line. Claire told him that even his clique had requirements. She said that he if they were saw by his friends walking down the hallway, he would say that he's having sex with her.

In the beginning of the movie everyone showed a fear of pain and suffering. When John showed his cigarette burn that his father gave him, everyone "ignored" it and was quiet. Alison got over this fear when she dumped her bag on the couch for Brian and Andrew to see. If she did not want them to talk with her, then she would not have done that. Then Andrew saw the invitation and talked with her about her problems. Last, Claire and John talked their problems out, found out how similar they were and fell in love.

I thought that he film helped a lot with the text. Without the movie, the material would be very dry and hard to understand. The movie gave examples of everything so far in the text. It gave examples of the hierarchy of needs (like Bender still needing safety need before belongingness and love); the types of fear (rejection with Claire and a mask; failure with Brian and overachieving; and pain and suffering with Andrew and his making fun of and torturing the innocent); last, addiction with Bender and Alison with the way they are always, at school and at home.

Almost everyone showed a fear of failure also. Brian and Andrew covered their fear with over achieving. Brian would work all day to get the

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Approximate Word count = 1347
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)