Dead Poet Society

There are 5 needs to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and they are physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.

       The very first need is eating and drinking or any physical need of survival thus is the most basic. An example from the movie “Death Poet Society” is at the beginning of the movie, after Mr. Keating gave his second day lesson (the ripping lesson), Mr. Keating and I believe the professor called “Josh” the teacher who caught Mr. Keating’s student ripping were at the dinner eating food. That is one of the most common needs of physical.

       The second need is the safety need; safety need is the need to feel that the world is organized and predicable; need to feel safe, secure, and stable. Richard Cameron the red headed student, he is the character that needed most security. Unlike many of his contemporary, Richard live with the rules, he feels awkward without rules. At the very beginning of the movie, Richard is the one who held the flag that has “tradition” written on it, and when Mr. Keating asked the class to tear the introduction, he was the one that showed the most uncertainty, even after he started to tear, he used ruler to tear. He also responded the first class with Mr. Keating with the comment of “weird.” All of the above indicated that he needs rule, needs things to be organized and predictable. At the end of the movie, he was also the first to tell the administration, because he wanted the sense of security.

       The third need is the belongingness and love needs, that is the need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted; need to avoid loneliness and alienation. There are two characters that best portrait this need, and they are Knox and Todd. Todd received the same gift “desk” that he had received from last year, for his birthday from his parents. This indicates that his parent does not care much about him, and his is definitely not pleased with this. Knox fell in love with Chet’s girl friend Christine, and he is not giving up just because she has a boy friend. Knox tried to win her in three scenes; first, he kissed her in the party; second, he went to her school and read poem to her, and third, Knox asked Christine to go to the play with him.

       The forth need is the esteem needs, the need for achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition and respect from others. Todd definitely fit into this. He has the talent and passion of becoming a writer, but was forced to live in his brother’s shadow to become a lawyer, and his parents is apparently not giving him the recognition of being himself, and care more about his brother and his progress in catching up with him. The examples in the movie are the birthday present, the recognition of talent from Mr. Keating and the last scene in the movie, when he found his self-esteem and stand up to do what he wanted.

       The fifth need is the self-actualization need; the need to live up to ones fullest and unique potential. Neil is the character that would fit into this need. Neil’s life had been written scrip which his father is the author of his life, and everything is father ask and son does format until Mr. Keating came into his life, and he was first time asked to think for him self, and to seize the day. To live up to his fullest potential, he participated in a play, which his father had already decline the request. The end result is that his father is going to send him to the military school, not able to accept the fact that his life will be just a script written by someone else, he decided to suicide (and succeeded.)