John Bender, the main character in the film, is seen as the “criminal”. His persona is portrayed in the film as a typical high school “bully”. He is a very rebellious character, who clearly wants to

Andrew’s true personality is clearly different from what he is perceived as by others. It seems that he is looked at by others as a person that he doesn’t essentially want to be. Andrew doesn’t want to disappoint anyone, so he is turned into the person that everyone expects him to be. Deep down it’s obvious that he wants to be able to do what he wants. His life is shaped by everyday pressure put on him by his father and coach and not by his own decisions. Eventually he is going to breakdown and no longer involve himself in the things that he once found enjoyable but now is forced to do. His coach and father expect him to be a winner. Perhaps this is why an attraction develops between him and the “basket case“, who is expected to be a nothing. He is truly frustrated and at the same time wants to be the best at whatever he does. His true personality is very sensitive and caring, which shows by his negative comment towards everyone, which he means reversibly, such as: “You ask me one more question and I’m beating the shit out of you!”.

be seen as the tough guy to everyone, for example: smoking cigarettes and talking dirty to Claire, when he said, “come on Sporto, level with me. do you slip her the hot... beef... injection?” when talking about her sexual life, if one, with Andrew. Bender seems to be very outspoken and always looking for trouble. He makes himself an instigator of many situations causing people to initially dislike him. His appearance alone is what I believe causes many people to have negative thoughts about him, he wears biker gloves, ratty clothes, has uncut hair, and has cigarette burns on his body. Bender definitely has a lot of issues that he doesn’t care to talk about, and its apparent that he deals with them by using dry humor and sarcasm. Although unbearable and insupportable, the others do not depict him as the guilty party for removing the screw and closing the door in the library, this shows that the rest of the detention crew is scared of what he will do to them because of what he comes off to be.

Benders true personality is hidden beneath a lot of internal pain caused by his life outside of school. John is subjected to severe mental and physical abuse at home. His father continuously nails him with vulgar names and burns his forearm with a lit cigar for spilling paint in the garage. I believe it is then that he rebels and becomes the "criminal". It is sad though, because it seems as though he is labeled for life. Mr. Vernon yells at him, "See what he'll be like in 5 years." It’s ironic that he has developed such a pessimistic outlook on li

Some topics in this essay:
Claire Standish, Andrew Bender, Andrew Clark, Brian Johnson, Pixie Stick, Shermer Illinois, John Bender, Deep John, Allison Reynolds, Andover Students, true personality, fake id, detention school, socialization process, potential success, 18 ago, father coach,