Individuals Possessed a Set of Motivation Structures - Essay Example

Glass Castle Maslow needed to understand what inspires people. Maslow had a strong belief that individuals possessed a set of motivation structures unrelated to unconscious desires or rewards (Rakowski, Nina, 63). This article has focused on the book ‘The Glass Castle’ and has used Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of Needs to compare two characters. The two characters being compared are Jeannette Walls and Rex Walls. Jeannette is the raconteur of her memoir, narrating her story from the age of three through to adulthood. Being a child, she is wild hearted, adventurous and Dad’s favorite (Sark, Sylvia 67). She is a middle sibling, is very close to her younger brother Brian than her sister Lori who is older. The brother shares Jeannette outdoors love, while Lori is more of a bookworm. Jeannette’s feelings towards mom and dad changes; this is witnessed as she begins to mature. She is not happy with her Dad’s drinking habit and the way he persistently lets everybody down in the family. The dad never openly admits it or permits his flaws to be talked about. The author also recent her mom’s refusal to maintain a job long enough to constantly provide her children with a constant food supply. These antipathies make Jeannette more independent and willful. At the end of it all, she gathers sufficient money she achieve her dream life. The life of a prosperous reporter; nevertheless, she is always haunted by past experiences and sometimes not comfortable with her evolution from poverty into the upper idle class. On the other hand, the Dad is a highly intelligent person with a passion for logic. Wall is a skilled engineer and electrician; he usually spends his extra time discovering contraptions he is optimistic that he will make the family rich. Walls is an independent intellectual, to an extent that he is paranoid of the United States government and visions conspiracies in almost any form of organized system. Wall in a way suffered sexual abuse while he was a kid, and his troubled past life coupled with his alcoholism usually makes him unable to uphold his ideals of personal-sufficiency. Thus, concepts of fatherhood and masculinity usually trouble Walls since he is guided by some ideals concerning his role as the family head. Regardless of those ideals, Walls normally comes up short because of his alcoholism, which deeply drives him into despair and extended drinking. Rex is creative and bright when sober; the books title originate from a promise that he suggests in the entire Jeannette’s babyhood that at one point, he will construct a Glass Castle for the family to live in. The Glass Castle’s blue prints he carries all the time whenever they move. Walls really loves his family but is accountable for great chaos in their living, uprooting the family with a sudden notice to shift to a different town, consuming their already insufficient cash on alcohol, and vanishing for some days occasionally. In as much as he is a skilled engineer, Walls rarely maintains a job for a period longer than six months and usually finds himself in trouble by arguing with authority personalities. Walls always yearn to get rich in quick way, but all these end up at no place. He often gets extra cash through gambling; at some point Walls solicits Jeannette in hustling a player at a joint by letting the pool player believe she will give sexual favors to him. Walls justify this by lamenting that he Knew Jeannette could always maintain of herself. In comparison both the two characters are ambitious in life and aspire to achieve one day in life; in both cases there is a factor that motivates both of them. According to Maslow, different people possess a group of motivation structures that are not related to unconscious desires or rewards. Maslow states that individuals are inspired to achieve certain needs. Walls is determined to build his family a Glass Castle and remove the family from the current life that they are in, on the other hand, Jeannette is determined to be a reporter of which she achieves to be later in life. In both scenarios, the two characters are determined and are after something in life. The earliest and hugely spread Maslow theory is of 1943 and 1954, usually depicted as hierarchical stages within a pyramid. The basic or deficiency needs are perceived to motivate individuals when they are not attained. At the same time, the desire to fulfill such wants will turn to be stronger the longer the time they are denied. In the book, Walls fails to meet the family needs due to his alcoholism; Jeannette comes to realize of her father’s irresponsibility when she matures. All these motivate her to become a reasonable person in life when she grows up. On the other hand, Rex on realizing that he cannot fully provide for the family, he resolves to and gambles so as to generate more income for the family. This is marred with a lot of happening to an extent of him fictionally offering his daughter for sex in the gambling den. According to Maslow, if physiological wants are not attained then an individuals’ motivation will ascend from the quest to fulfill them (Penning, Samuel, 211). Much higher wants like esteem and social needs are not felt till an individual has met the basic needs to personal bodily well-functioning. According to Maslow, once the physiological wants are attained, an individual’s attention focuses on security and safety in order to be free from the peril of emotional and physical harm. Once Jeannette has achieved what she wanted in life, she opts to move away from her parents for the sake of living happily and in a secure place. She decides to go and live somewhere secure that she has always yarned for in life. “I had struggled to make a home for myself here, strained to turn the apartment into the kind of place where the person I wanted to be would stay” says Jeannette. On the other hand, Rex is not much concerned about this phase. After getting food for the family, Rex sees no need of living a classical life, instead, uses extra money he gets to buy booze and party with his friends. Rex is not moved by the fact that he has messed severally in life and needs to change; he feels secure in the hands his fellow friends while drinking. Instead, Rex usually has the family to do the “skedaddle” and in as much he argues that it is because of FBI, the wife argues that it is because of bill collectors; Rex is trying to stay safe and secure from being found through the use of such tactics. The moment an individual has attained the lower level physiological and safety desires, the higher level wants turn to be important, the first and foremost of which are social desires. Social desires are those that are related to interaction with other people which may call for need for friends, need for belonging and need to give and receive love. This is evident when Jeannette has attained the kind of lifestyle she was yarning for. She comes back to ponder how she can help her family by showing them the love they need. All the siblings need one another to unite so that they can help one another. Rex on the other hand finds most of his friends of whom he socializes with most of the time. Rex is within a pool of friends of whom he gambles with most of the time. This makes both Rex and Jeannette to have similarity in a way. According to Maslow, once an individual has attained the sense of belonging, the urge to feel important arises. These esteem needs may be classified as external or internal. After long struggle, Jeannette ensures that she leads a better life than what she was brought under. This is evident when she gets a job as a reporter, she ensures that she lives in a middle class housing and strives to help her parents so that they can appreciate her efforts. On the other hand, Rex struggles hard by hustling for the family so that he can be recognized as the head of the family and be respected whenever he gives orders. According to Maslow, self-actualization is the summit according to the hierarchy of desires. It is the quest of attaining an individual’s full potential. Jeannette works hard so that she makes it life; she is never satisfied with what she has and yarns for more. On the other hand, Rex is never satisfied with the way he is living and hopes that one day he builds his family a Glass Castle. Cited works Penning, Samuel. Wacky Aphorisms, What the Web Says About "the Glass Castle: A Memoir". S.l.: Book On Demand, 2013. Print. Rakowski, Nina. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Model: The Difference of the Chinese and the Western Pyramid on the Example of Purchasing Luxurious Products. Norderstedt: Grin Verla,g, 2008. Print. Sark, Sylvia. The Glass Castle. Rich & Cowan, 1955. Print. Read More