Examining Maslows Hierarchy Of Needs Through Jeanette Wall

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Examining Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs through Jeanette Wall

The world today is a complex and multifaceted web of interaction. There are over seven

billion individuals, united by humanity yet separated by individual character. There are different

people everywhere pursuing all manner of different paths, each driven by desire but constrained

by circumstances. It is often the case that individuals presented with the same opportunities and

the same set of circumstances often end up pursuing different paths. Such is the case in Jeanette

Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle. In this captivating piece of literature, Jeanette takes her

audience through the path of her life, tracing it all the way to as far back as she can recall. She

narrates her experiences moving around with her family from one town to another. This story is

analyzed using the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory of motivation. The analysis is based on

the theory as discussed by Dr. C. George Boeree in the article Abraham Maslow and the chapter

“Hierarchy of Needs of Abraham Maslow by Em Griffin. Griffin provides a basic discussion of

the needs at each level. On his part, Boeree elaborates the nature of Maslow hierarchy, outlining

not just the incremental nature of needs, but how some past problems related to a particular set of

problems can lead to future fixation on the same. This essay uses the character of Jeanette Wall

to illustrate that needs are never truly satisfied but merely just suppressed/obscured by a periodic

satisfaction, allowing one to focus on the next level of needs until the prior need reemerges.

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Summary

Maslow developed a theory of human behavior motivation in the form of a pyramid

where there are lower level needs and higher level needs. There are more needs at the lower level

and fewer needs at the higher level. According to his theory, Maslow argued that the needs at

these lower levels need to be satisfied before the needs at higher levels become functional. Thus,

individuals will not begin to seek self-esteem or belonging needs until they have attended to

physiological needs. Even within the same level, needs are often hierarchical. Some have to be

satisfied before others. An important feature of needs at the lower level is that they are triggered

by deficit, and are as such, also referred to as deficit-needs (Boeree 1). Maslow makes an

important note concerning past deprivations. When an individual undergoes a period of

extremity at a younger age, where they are especially deprived of the satisfaction of a particular

need, then they end up fixating on that need even when they are much older.

Character Analysis: Jeanette Wall

The lower the level of need that an individual is driven by, the greater it tends to obscure

or diminish other needs. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, lower level needs take

precedence over higher-level needs. Em (126) contends that lower needs take priority until they

are satisfied. These necessities are usually very powerful and primal. By taking priority, it means

that other needs will be ignored. In the book, however, Jeanette illustrates a further dimension of

the priority of these needs, whereby her character illustrates that not only will other needs be

ignored, but they will also be proactively neglected. This is whereby she informs us that a few

days after being brought home from the hospital, she was cooking hot dogs for herself because

she was hungry and there was no one else at home (Wall 9). This is an adequate illustration of

the primal nature of lower level needs. Jeanette is driven by her hunger to engage in the very

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same activity that had brought her tremendous pain and caused her to be hospitalized. She

neglects her safety needs so that she can satisfy her need to eat.

Needs within the same level are not equivalent, meaning that even within the same level,

there are further hierarchies to needs. Boeree (1), illustrates that needs, that are classified under

the same category by Maslow are not always of the same priority. For physiological needs, he

argues that thirst takes precedence over hunger as does air over thirst. In Walls’ book, this

assertion is aptly illustrated by the same incident described above. The need to avoid pain and

hunger are both needs at the physiological level. Yet, the need to eat takes precedence than the

fear of pain. She is driven by her desire to feed to engage in an activity, which has been painful

for her.

Security needs being a lower level of need, take precedence over belonging needs.

Maslow’s theory points out that once individuals are satisfied at the physiological level, the next

level of needs is the safety and belonging needs, which includes safety from physical threat/harm

and being free from anxieties and fears. The need emerges for all humans regardless of age.

Jeanette’s character illustrates this in the scene where she falls out of a car. The family is on its

way to Las Vegas when they hit a sharp bend. The door flings open and Jeanette tumbles out of

the car (Wall 18). It takes quite some time before her parents come back and consequently,

Jeanette worries that maybe they have abandoned her. Boeree (1) points out safety needs such as

stability and protection. In this particular instance, Jeanette is afraid that she will no longer have

the protection of her parents. We can also sense her yearning for stability, along with that of her

siblings, where she and Lori are counting the number of times that they have moved around

(Wall 18). Albeit both children indicate that they enjoy moving around. Their broaching of this

subject could indicate a certain discomfort around the whole issue.

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Lower level needs are triggered due to a deficit, and this is how they achieve motivation.

Em (128) highlights that belonging needs, safety needs and physiological needs are only

triggered when a person has a deficit. Boeree (1) corroborates this assertion, noting that when

one has had enough of a particular level of need, then it ceases to be motivating. This finding can

be illustrated for several needs using Jeanette’s character. For physiological needs, this is quite

self-evident such as in the scene where Jeanette makes her own hot dogs after she has left the

hospital. Another more apt illustration, however, is Jeanette’s yearning for the satisfaction of her

security needs. This occurs when she falls out of the car. For the first time, her vulnerability is

brought out and we are able to perceive her belonging needs. Jeanette is afraid that her parents

might not be coming back for her and so she starts crying (19). She stops crying and starts

moving towards the houses in the village around her. However, she decides that if her parents do

decide to come back for her, then they would not be able to find her and so returns to sit on the

railroad tracks. Here, we can see Jeanette desperate and yearning for her parents to come back

for her. She feels insecure in their absence and wishes for them to return. Prior to this incident,

there is not another instance where Jeanette seeks her father’s reaffirmation.

Sometimes needs emerge due to problems or incidences that people go through at an

early age and for such needs, they persist throughout an individual’s life. Boeree (1) points out

that when individuals undergo a period of extremity such as extreme hunger or abuse, then they

will tend to fixate on such a need for the rest of their lives. One of the things that Jeanette lacked

a lot during her childhood was stability and predictability. Owing to the irresponsible nature of

her father, the family moved a lot around, what her father liked to refer to as skedaddling, to

escape bill collectors and other similar responsibilities. Thus, stability was an area of past

deprivation for Jeanette. There is evidence that she fixates on this much later on in her life. On

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page 71, Jeanette reports that one of the things she really liked about her life with Eric was that it

was “calm and predictable”. The calmness and predictability of her marriage life was a stark

contrast to the unruly and unpredictable nature of her upbringing. It seemed a way to finally

satisfy her safety level need for stability.

Conclusion

The character of Jeanette Wall in the book “The Glass Castle” aptly brings out many of

the features of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. Through her character, it becomes apparent

that needs are never truly completely satisfied, but only partly to the extent that they facilitate a

focus on other emergent needs. Needs can tend to be obscured until one experiences a deficit,

and this is when they then seek to satisfy these needs. Using this knowledge, one can structure

their lives such that they are able to focus on important areas of need. By reflecting on one’s

upbringing, and contrasting that with present behavioral tendencies, one may be able to identify

deprivation needs. From here, one can seek ways to work around such needs in order to achieve

the satisfaction of higher levels and in particular, self-actualization.

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Works Cited

Boeree, C. George. “Personality Theories: Abraham Maslow.” Webspace.ship.edu.

Shippensburg University. 2011. Web

Griffin, Em. A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014. Print.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.

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Examining Maslows Hierarchy of Needs through Jeanette Wall

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