Author Jack Kerouac once said: "My fault, my failure, lies not in my passions, but in my lack of control over them." Kerouac believed that his destiny consisted of much more than bad luck and poor decision-making and attributed it to the natural, subconscious processes of his mind. In his novel On the Road, Kerouac talks about this phenomenon of internal concepts that drive human beings to act as they do, and in this case, to live. Kerouac uses On the Road to recount the journey of the early years of his life. Kerouac appears as his alter ego Sal Paradise and his influential friend Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. While Kerouac can't sum up what Sal and Dean are looking for in a single word or phrase besides calling it IT, the essence of their story helps define what they're looking for. Sal and Dean each have their own disposition and perspective, but are united by their internal desires. The characters in Kerouac's novel, On the Road, depict the power of human motivations as they attempt to satisfy their personal needs according to Maslow's hierarchy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty were strongly driven by human motivations that instigated them and instigated the initial action of their journey. Kerouac provides simple but essential details in the book's opening: “My wife and I have separated. I had just recovered from a serious illness that I won't talk about except that it had something to do with the dismal separation and the feeling that everything was dead. With the arrival of Dean Moriarty began the part of my life that might be called my life on the road” (9). Sal, living with his aunt and not knowing what to do with his life, decides to kill Dean in his hometown of Denver. Sal is too experienced to be considered a teenager, but is not ready to become an adult. When Sal leaves New York, he begins a seven-year moratorium, an attempt to "transcend and transform himself" (Dunphy), which is best defined as his life on the road. To better understand what may have motivated Sal and Dean, it is helpful to understand Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs and how it applies to the psychology of human motivation. Maslow's 1943 study, A Theory of Motivation, was vital to psychologists because it helped explain motivations and innate human curiosity. Maslow said that all human beings have wants and desires that influence their behavior. It states that humans are motivated by unsatisfied needs and that only these unsatisfied needs can influence their behavior. He ranked these possible unmet needs in the order in which they must be satisfied, becoming more and more complex. The list includes physiological, safety and security, social, self-esteem, and self-actualization needs. The more the needs at the top of the list are satisfied, the more human and psychological health they are. As the novel progresses, the reader can see Sal and Dean striving to meet the needs they still have left unmet, serving as their motivation throughout the story. At the beginning of the novel, Sal must overcome his physiological needs. Specifically, he must overcome the illness that tormented him after being separated from his wife. The mysterious illness prevents him from maintaining a high quality of life. According to Maslow, if the physiological conditions are not met, there is no way to satisfy more complex needs since psychological needs are essential to life.Although Sal's basic needs may involve many factors, Kerouac describes Dean's needs in a much simpler way. Dean shouts to Sala during one of his visits to New York: "As long as we can eat, son, can you hear me?" I'm hungry, I'm starving, let's eat right away! (8). Dean's love for food may have been strong, but he also had another drive, his libido, which was much stronger than his appetite. Kerouac makes no attempt to hide Dean's drive, being direct from the novel's opening that Dean was constantly on the lookout for women, with more emphasis on personal pleasure than intimacy. This impulse was so strong that Kerouac wrote: “for to him sex was the one and only important thing in life” (2). Dean's simple struggles immediately help reinforce a romantic image. He is much more spontaneous and free-spirited than the analytical Sal, who longs to be free. This image helps to further depict a slight tension between Sal and Dean, where Sal is the man the reader sees in himself, but Dean is the character the reader wishes he was. Once physiological needs are met, questions of safety and security can be called into question. Maslow considered adults to be more concerned about their safety in times of need, while young children showed signs of insecurity and the need to be safe. This point is important because Dean and Sal are no longer young children, but at the same time they are trying to stay away from full-time adulthood. With different views on safety and security than children or mature adults, Sal and Dean follow neither perspective. Instead, they find safety and security in unconventional places and ways. Most notably, they find safety and security on the road. Sal and Dean couldn't say they were safer in the comfort of their own home, which would be a typical response, because they didn't have a home. Instead, they embraced life on the road, finding comfort in the simple pleasures the road provided. Most importantly, they tried to maintain the security of their well-being, constantly traveling to suppress any feelings or emotions from their respective hometowns that might have haunted each of them. Perhaps the best explanation for their comfort on the road is provided by researcher Michael Hess: "For me, there's nothing better than a road trip, especially after I get into the car and have left behind the stress of packing and leaving behind and the The future stress of getting to where you're going is still a long way off. Sal and Dean are likely to feel reassured by this concept. Once they set foot on the road, worries about what had happened in the past and what was approaching in the future faded away, and instead they were able to appreciate each moment as it was. was happening and focus on the present. Due to the power of the road to consume all thoughts, needs such as job security, family security, and property security were met because they were no longer a priority in their daily life. Without priorities, Sal was able to follow Dean's lead and seek the answers to the questions that continually piqued his curiosity. At the beginning of his pursuit, Sal naively thought that his research would yield direct results, whatever they might be. He soon realized that "it was my dream that was screwed up, the stupid fireside idea that it would be wonderful to follow a great red line across America instead of trying various routes and routes »(11). Sal was neither shocked nor discouraged by his findings as he began to feel the safety of the road. Dean also had an unconventional view of safety and security, as evidenced by his approach to driving and the way he dangerously experimented with drugs and alcohol. Dean is described as "the circus every boy dreams of joining." Dean's road is pure carnal excitement, all speed, jazz and sex” (Leland). Kerouac makes it very clear that Dean is not phased by circumstances that would traditionally be considered dangerous. Many times, Dean is reprimanded for his reckless driving, but is then presented as a hero by cutting the length of a trip in half. When Dean wrecks a car with other passengers in it, the passengers immediately say to Sal, "He's a devil with a car, isn't he?" – and according to his story, he must be with women” (231). This reckless and documented abandonment is an example of the absence of fear that Dean holds. Once on the road, Sal and Dean never feel unsafe, and because of this, they are motivated to move on to higher needs. Social needs follow those of safety and security. Maslow considered social needs to be those that motivate a person to find friends, to belong, and to give and receive love. They are often referred to simply as belongingness needs. Sal feels the need to belong early in the story, as his divorce from his wife creates the need to leave New York and start his life on the road. Typically, the need to belong is most immediate when it comes to family members and loved ones with whom a person spends most of their time. Since Sal left behind what was left of his family, he was able to bypass the need to belong to a family and instead seek out the group he believed he was a part of. The search for friendship is one of the primary motivations for belonging, and On the Road chronicles Sal and Dean's unique friendship. At the beginning of the novel, Sal and Dean are just acquaintances who have the same goals; to avoid loneliness and alienation. Sal was so desperate to belong that he ignored his aunt's warning before leaving. Kerouac wrote of this warning: "Even though my aunt had warned me that he would get me into trouble, I heard a new call and saw a new horizon...I was a young writer and I wanted to take off » (8). Sal was ready to leave the safety and comfort of his hometown, a need he had already satisfied, in order to find the place he believed he belonged. When Sal arrived in San Francisco, he realized that Sal was living recklessly and that although he had wives, ex-wives, and children just like him, he had no real family. Returning to Denver, one of four cross-country trips taken in the novel, Sal once again witnesses Dean's struggles to belong. Denver is Dean's hometown, and he and his father are well known for being car thieves and drunks. Sal realizes that even though Dean talks about being loved, his relationships are all superficial. Their friendship grows as the couple continues to hit the road. They meet other travelers and wonder if the road is finally where they belong. Earlier in the novel, Sal is almost impressed by Dean and sets off on the trip, while Dean takes the lead. This dynamic of their friendship changes in San Francisco when Sal sees that Dean has been kicked out of the house by his second wife, Camille. Sal no longer feels like he should be the one to listen to Dean, but instead decides to take a stake in the management, or IT, that theycontinue in their friendship. “By taking custody of Dean and IT, Sal goes from being a simple admirer caught in Dean's wake to being Dean's father-defender” (Dardess). Their needs changed as the novel progressed, and through this, their friendship evolved. When Sal saw Dean struggling with his wife, he knew he was finding his place. He thought, “Now his eyes were empty and he was looking right through me. It was probably the turning point in our friendship when he realized that I had actually spent a few hours thinking about him and his problems, and he was trying to fit that into his terribly tormented mental categories" (188-189). . Sal knew their friendship was special and he finally got to see a more human side of Dean as he fell apart in San Francisco. Dean realizes that as strong as his power is to manipulate Sal, it also belongs to Sal for helping him stay alive. This friendship fulfills the need to belong and is another essential element of Maslow's hierarchy of needs described in On the Road. When belongingness needs are met, esteem needs are Sal and Dean's next motivators. Maslow considered these esteem needs to be those of the self and the esteem received from others. If these needs are met, a person feels valued and confident. If these needs are not met, the person feels weak, worthless, and frustrated. Dean relies on his self-esteem throughout the novel, cherishing the temporary highs of the daily thrills he seeks, while inside he knows his future is not as bright as his facetious glances at the exterior. Dean was usually the driver during their trips, and he always thought he would find something awesome at the end of each of their trips. Sal, much wiser, but still skeptical, remained silent, because he didn't want to crush Dean's false hopes that he doubted were within his reach. Dean, driven to maintain high regard, enjoyed every moment of their trip, almost as if he was oblivious to the reality of their situation. Towards the end of their trip, the couple crossed into Mexico. Dean was convinced that this was where IT was lying, and continued to convince himself by saying, "I sure did good, oh me, oh my God, I don't know what to do, I'm so excited and softened in this morning world. We have finally arrived in paradise. It couldn’t be cooler, it couldn’t be grander, it couldn’t be anything” (282). Dean is only right in one part of his statement, the part where he says it can't be anything. Kerouac points this out to show that Dean is trying to justify the choices he made, choices that brought him and Sal miles from home. Dean tries to boost his self-esteem and reduce his cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is best explained as the phenomenon that describes the feeling of discomfort when a person begins to understand that something they believe to be true is in fact not true (Myers). Cognitive dissonance theory explains why Dean was driven to make such bold statements. He was trying to justify his actions and ease the tension that was building up due to the decisions he had to make. Dean's false high self-esteem was likely to keep his spirits up, but Sal understood that the reality was that they had traveled many miles and gotten nowhere. Finally, when all other needs are satisfied, a human being is motivated to fulfill the needs of self-actualization. These needs are described by Maslow as those that a person is “born to do.” He said: “A musician must make music, a” (215).