The Color Purple : Applying Maslow 's Hierarchy Of Needs

Abraham Maslow was an American philosopher who was born in the early 1990 's in Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the leading theorists that promoted humanistic psychology during his era. Maslow sought to understand what motivates and inspires individuals. He theorized that individuals possess and hold a group of motivation and incentive systems not related to plunder or insensible desires. Maslow declared that people are motivated and provoked to attain certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. The earliest version of Maslow 's hierarchy of needs includes five motivational needs, often viewed as hierarchical levels inside a pyramid. The five stage representation can be separated into basic needs and growth needs. The deficiency or basic needs are said to motivate and stimulate individuals when they are unmet and not fully attained. Also, the desire to fulfill and accomplish such wants and needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. Once these needs have been relatively satisfied, an individual may be capable of reaching the highest level of the pyramid called self-actualization. Maslow though that self actualization is a state that exists when an individual is acting in harmony with his or her full capabilities. In Cormac McCarthy 's novel, The Road, we will examine the character 's physical journey towards self-actualization on Maslow

At the end of the novel Celie has finally created a permanent life for herself.  The way she interacts with the other characters and attitude towards things has

    Celie is not a typical protagonist. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character Celie is an ugly, poor girl who is severely lacking in self-confidence. However, Celie transforms throughout the course of the novel and manages to realize herself as a colorful, beautiful, and proud human being. Celie becomes a powerful individual.

“And she just about the color of a eggplant.” (87) Finally, Celie lives her life bitterly and does not notice or appreciate anything around her. Shug tells her, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” (p. 178) Shug feels that God created beauty in the world to make humans happy. She feels that it is important that people take the time to acknowledge everything around them. From this, Celie realizes that Shug has enlightened her. She admits that she does not appreciate the world she lives in. This changes the way Celie perceives her existence. She begins to have a more positive outlook on life, despite the hardship she experiences. Celie herself can also be compared to the color purple. She has lived her life unnoticed. Once she realizes this, Celie creates an identity for herself and is finally noticed amongst her community. Another important symbol in this novel is pants. Once Celie is liberated from her marriage, she starts a pant-making business. The pants represent independence, which again is a concept that relates to the theme of the novel. Celie can finally provide for herself. In her “previous life”, Celie’s only role in society was to bear children and keep house. The pants also symbolize a change in Celie’s relationship with men. Before, the idea that men and women had anything at all in common was completely daft.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker starts off with a rather graphic view of a young black woman denominated as Celie. Celie has to learn how to survive her abusive past. She also has to figure out a way she can release her past in search of the true meaning of love. Alice walker wrote this book as an epistolary novel to further emphasize Celie`s life events. From the beginning of the novel Alice Walker swiftly establishes an intimate contact with the reader. The book begins with a eloquent and lucid record of the physical abuse Celie`s father subjected her to. Even in Celie`s dark moments she is still able to find hope.

Celie is mostly uneducated until her sister helps her learn how to read and write so she can write her letters when she is absent as she suspects she will need to send her away from Albert. This displays Celie’s will to improve herself even through the harsh times she goes through and is able to keep her composure. Celie protects her sister Nettie from the fate she had and allows for Nettie to have a better life compared to hers. Celie in the novel evolves into a character that is strong, caring, and the ability to

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is used to analyze motivation of consumers, which are composed of 5 five stages. From the lowest level to the highest one respectively are physiological, safety, belongingness, ego needs, and self-actualization. (Solomon and Barmossy et al., 2006)

In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Celie leads a life filled with abuse at the hands of the most important men in her life. As result of the women who surround and help her, Celie becomes stronger and overcomes the abuse she experienced. The three most influential women in Celie’s life are her sister Nettie, her daughter-in-law Sofia, and the singer Shug Avery. These are the women who lead Celie out of her shell and help her turn from a shy, withdrawn woman to someone who was free to speak her mind and lead her own independent life.

“I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.” Celie is trying to understand why her father, Alphonso, is starting to rape her repeatedly, however, convinces herself to believe it is her fault Alphonso is abusing her. She thinks that this horrible thing happening to her is because she herself is bad. In Celie’s second letter a year later her mother has passed away angry at Celie for father has impregnated her. After Celie had her children, her father gave them away; however, she believes that her father killed one of her children. Although all this is happening to Celie, she only hopes her father finds himself a new wife so that he does not advance towards her younger sister, Nettie, and rape or mistreat her like he did to Celie. Eventually, her father does get remarried and Celie serves as a maid for him and the kids he had with his new wife as well as a protector for Nettie.

As Nettie receives opportunities Celie could never fathom, their relationship comes to a halt. Celie stops receiving letters from her sister and is left to take care of her husband’s obnoxious children from a previous marriage, and is verbally/physically abused on a daily basis by both her husband and his children. Celie’s husband has a torrent affair with Shug Avery, a blues singer with a practical mentality who does not endure any mistreatment from anyone, regardless of their gender. When Shug Avery falls into Celie’s care, Shug Avery teaches Celie a thing or two about self-confidence and the strength she must find within herself to stand up to her husband. Towards the end of the novel, Shug Avery encourages Celie to leave her husband and move with her to Memphis, where she can escape the pain of her past and for once in her life be happy.

Celie is able to accept her past and establish a clear vision of herself and fulfillment through the acts of love. She meets other women who tell her that she should stand up for herself and fight, but Celie feels that it’s better to survive than to fight and risk not surviving. However, there are certain triggers that lead Celie to stand up. Like a true fighter, Celie proves herself to be willing to stand up for the people she loves. Even as a downtrodden victim of her Pa, Celie sacrifices herself and offers herself to her father so that he keeps his hands off of Nettie. As mentioned in this quote, where Pa is sexually abiding Celie, “First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. ” (Walker, 4). Celie has the potential by putting her efforts into other people, but not realizing she is able to stand up for herself the same ways he does for Nettie. Relating it back to the novel, “Beloved”, Sethe does the same representation when she is trying to save Beloved even though the idea is bizarre of her killing her own child, but she only does it so that she would not have to suffer the way Sethe did. Celie is introduced with Shug Avery a blues singer, who she was first found “rude”, but as the story moves along, Shug Avery becomes the reason Celie learns to love herself. Because Celie is finally opening herself up by loving someone, Celie becomes more lovable. Through Shug’s love, Celie begins to realize her own self-worth, from the minute when Shug Avery wrote a song for Celie, as said in this quote: “This song I'm bout to sing us call Miss. Celie's song.”(Walker, 73).By the end of the novel, Celie loves more

Characters throughout Alice Walker’s The Color Purple can be evaluated and analyzed using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a five-stage model consisting of fundamental needs and growth needs. His theory states that the basic, lower tiered needs have to be met before the growth, higher tiered needs can be met, to ultimately reach the top tier, self-actualization. In The Color Purple, Walker shows the eventual progress to self-actualization through the protagonist, Celie. Celie’s growth is shown through her letters to both God and her sister Nettie. Celie fulfills her basic physiological needs when she gets married to Mr._ because she is finally able to escape her father’s abuse, beatings, and rape. It takes a while, but Celie gains safety and security when Shug Avery tells her, “I won’t leave… until I know Albert won’t even think about beating you” (Walker 76). The relationship that Celie forms with Shug helps Celie satisfy her belonging and intimacy needs. Their love for each other can be shown when Shug states, “cause she [Nettie] the only one you ever love… sides me” (120). As Celie begins her life in Memphis, she meets the respect/self-respect needs when she opens her own business making and selling pants. Celie feels so pleased and shows her character development when she says, “I got love, I got work, I got money, friends, and time” (218). Celie finally reaches self-actualization by the end of the novel. She has a successful business, is able to be independent in her own house, and realizes that she can bring herself happiness and that through every situation she needs to see the bright side. This is evidently shown when Celie is talking to Mr._ and says, “If she [Shug] come, I be happy. If she don’t I be content” (288). Celie’s evolution to reach self-actualization is clearly displayed in The Color Purple as Celie faces and overcomes hardships and learns to be confident in herself.

After many years in Mister's household, Shug, one of Misters ex-lovers comes to stay because she is sick. Eventually, Celie has the opportunity to become closer with this woman whom she loves dearly and finally learns how to fight back and make her voice heard. By choosing to have Celie is the narrator for herself, Walker enables her to express herself in a very strong way. Celie discovers that Mister has been hiding every letter from her sister Nettie, and Celie is extremely upset. Instead of not expressing her emotions, like she would have most likely done in the past she cries asks Shug, "How I'm gon keep from killing

<br>In the preface to ‘the Colour Purple' Walker identifies her religious development as the inspiration for her novel and labels religion and spirituality as the principle themes in the book. There are a number of principle characters who complete this journey however in many instances the religious element of the novel is overshadowed by other prominent themes such as personal development, female relationships and racial issues. These must be taken into consideration when assessing Walker's success in delivering her

In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, she explores the thin grey line that stands between survival and living. Through her protagonist, Celie, she examines the dramatic shifts of empowerment; focusing on the young black girl in the 1850’s.