Abraham Maslow In Lord Of The Flies

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, declared that “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail”. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, set during the wartime era of the 1950s, a group of British school children crash land on a deserted island. While their first concern is to gather supplies to survive, today’s priorities have grown into much more, causing SOCIETY to under-appreciate the privileges we have. In Western Civilization today, Golding would be disappointed to see that unlike most post-world war youth who faced severe hardship, modern American individuals magnify their small problems as a result of taking for granted the simple luxuries that Abraham Maslow has established, like resources that the

In psychology, Abraham Maslow established a hierarchy of needs to exemplify that without the necessary psychological needs met like food, water, and comfort, humans cannot grow to reach their full potential. Additionally, the hierarchy of needs frame shows how when psychological needs were met, we can be prompted to move on to the next level of fulfillments. In the book, the children are on a constant hunt for food and water. Jack would worry “if only [he] could get a pig!”(55) and when he needed water, Ralph told him there “ought to be some left,”(50) meaning that the supply is diminishing. Without the psychological needs met, the children cannot grow to be comfortable on the island. In the course of the Lord of the Flies, the children are more aware of the basic needs every person wishes to fulfil on the island in order to fit the psychological needs requirement. In the 21st century today, Golding would soon realize that people take for granted basic psychological needs one accustoms to having already. Likewise, children and people in today's world fail to acknowledge the privileges they have compared to families that fought for basic needs during wartime. Within most societies in the United States, basic psychological needs, like hunger and thirst one can easily obtain are looked past. In Lord of the Flies, every small problem acquired, whether that be hunger, thirst, or safety, becomes a large problem; whereas today, they are miniscule. Golding would see the dramatized versions of modern problems, like homework, chores, and sports, and think that one should not take for granted the luxuries they accustom to, because without them, individuals cannot grow to reach their full potential in