"American Beauty" and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, explaining his belief that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs and that certain lower needs must be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. The paper reviews Sam Mendes's movie, "American Beauty", describing it as a microscopic vignette of the American, white middle-class. The paper employs Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of needs to understand the underlying emotions of the film.

From the Paper:

"Abraham Maslow established the theory of a hierarchy of needs, believing that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs must be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied (Maslow's pp). Rather than studying the neurotic or mentally ill, Maslow studied exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglas to determine how they came to be successful (Maslow's pp). Unlike Skinner and Freud, he believed that people are "basically trustworthy, self-protecting, and self-governing and that humans tend toward growth and love" (Maslow's pp).
Maslow felt that although there is a continuous cycle of negativity, such as wars, murder, and deceit, he believed that violence is not what human nature is meant to be like, and occurs only because of and when human needs are thwarted (Maslow's pp)."

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