Author Jack Kerouac once said, “My fault, my failure, lies not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control over them.” Kerouac believed that his fate 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 writes about this phenomenon of internal concepts that drive human beings to act and, in this specific case, to live. Kerouac uses On the Road to tell travel stories from the early years of his life. Kerouac stars as himself as alter ego Sal Paradise and influential friend Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty. While Kerouac can't express what Sal and Dean are looking for in a single word or phrase beyond calling it IT, the essence of their story helps define what they are looking for. Sal and Dean each have their own distinct disposition and perspective, but are united by their internal desires. The characters in Kerouac's novel On The Road describe the power of human motivations as they seek to satisfy their personal needs according to Maslow's Hierarchy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty were strongly driven by human motivations that provided incentives and spurred the initial action of their journey. Kerouac provides simple but vital details early in the book by writing, “My wife and I broke up. I had just overcome a serious illness which I won't bother to talk about, except that it had something to do with the miserably tired separation and my feeling that everything was dead. With the advent of Dean Moriarty began that part of my life that you might call my life on the road” (9). Sal, who lives with his aunt and doesn't know what to do with his life, decides to meat Dean in his hometown of Denver. Sal is too experienced to be considered a teenager, but he's not ready to be an adult. When Sal leaves New York City, he begins a seven-year moratorium, an attempt to “transcend and transform himself” (Dunphy), which is best described 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, as it helped explain motivation and innate human curiosity. Maslow stated that all human beings have wants and desires that influence their behavior. It states that human beings are driven by unmet needs and that only unmet needs can influence behavior. It organized these possible unmet needs into the order in which they must be satisfied, increasing their complexity. The list includes physiological, safety, social, self-esteem and self-actualization needs. The more the person satisfies the needs higher on the list, the more humane and psychologically healthy the person is. As the novel progresses, the reader can watch Sal and Dean strive to satisfy needs that were still left unmet, serving as motivation throughout the story. At the beginning of the novel, Sal must overcome his physiological needs. Specifically, he needs to overcome the illness that afflicted him after his separation from his wife. The mysterious illness prevents him from maintaining a high quality of life. According to Maslow, if physiological conditions are not met, there is no way to satisfy more complex needs since psychological needs are essential for life. While Sal's basic needs may have involved numerous factors,Kerouac describes Dean's needs in a much simpler way. Dean yells at Sal during one of his visits to New York City, “while we can eat, son, understand? I'm hungry, I'm starving, let's eat now! (8). Dean's love for food may be strong, but he also had another drive, a sexual one that was much stronger than his appetite. Kerouac doesn't try to hide Dean's drive, being upfront from the beginning of the novel that Dean was in constant pursuit of women, with more emphasis on personal pleasure than intimacy. This drive was so strong that Kerouac wrote, "for to him sex was the only important thing in life" (2). Dean's simple struggles immediately help add to the romantic image. He is much more spontaneous and free-spirited than the analytical Sal, who longs to be free. This image helps 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 wants to be. Once physiological needs are met, issues of safety and security can be brought into question. Maslow believed that adults were more concerned with their safety in times of need, while young children showed signs of insecurity and the need to be safe. This point is significant because Dean and Sal are no longer small children, but at the same time they are trying to stay away from full-time adulthood. With views on safety that differ from those of children or mature adults, Sal and Dean follow neither perspective. Instead, they find their safety and security in unconventional ways and places. In particular, they find safety and protection on the road. Sal and Dean couldn't say they were safer and more protected in the comforts of their own homes, 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 offered. Above all, they sought to preserve the security of their well-being, traveling constantly to repress any feelings or emotions emanating from their respective hometowns that might haunt them. Perhaps the best explanation for the comfort felt on the road is provided by researcher Michael Hess: "For me, there is nothing better than a road trip, especially after I've settled into the journey and let go of the stress of making the suitcases, of leaving behind and the future stress of getting to where you are going is still far away. Chances are, Sal and Dean felt comfortable with this concept once they set foot on the road about what happened in the past and what would come in the future faded away, and instead they were able to appreciate each moment as it happened and focus on the power of the road to consume all thoughts, needs as job security, family security, and property security were being met because they were no longer a priority in their daily lives. Without priorities, Sal was able to follow Dean's lead and seek answers to the questions that they continually piqued his curiosity. At the beginning of his research, Sal naively thought that his research would produce direct results, whatever they were. He quickly realized that "it was my dream that was ruined, the stupid idea that it would be wonderful to follow a great red line across America instead of trying various roads and routes" (11). Sal was neither shocked nor discouraged by his findings because he had begun to feel the safety of the road. Dean also had an unconventional view on safety and security, demonstrated by his approach to driving andby the way he dangerously experimented with drugs and alcohol. Dean is described as “the circus every boy dreams of joining. Dean's way is pure carnal excitement, all speed, jazz and sex” (Leland). Kerouac makes it very clear that Dean is not affected by circumstances that would traditionally be considered dangerous. Numerous times, Dean is chastised for his reckless driving, but then becomes charmed as a hero by cutting the length of a road trip in half. When Dean wrecks a car with other passengers on board, 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 documented reckless abandon is an example of the lack of fear Dean holds. Once on the journey, Sal and Dean never feel in danger and because of this they are motivated to move forward towards higher needs. Social needs follow security needs. Maslow considered social needs to be those that motivate a person to find friends, belong, and give and receive love. They are often simply defined as belonging needs. Sal feels the need to belong at the beginning of the story, as his divorce from his wife creates the need to leave New York City and start a life on the road. Typically, the need to belong is more immediate in terms of family members and loved ones with whom a person spends most of their time. As Sal was leaving what was left of his family behind, he was able to ignore the need to belong to a family and instead seek out the group he believed he was a part of. The pursuit of friendship is one of the key motivations for belonging, and On the Road chronicles the unique friendship between Sal and Dean. 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, he ignored his aunt's warning before leaving. Kerouac wrote about the warning: “Although my aunt warned me that it would get me into trouble, I could feel a new calling and see a new horizon… I was a young writer and I wanted to take off” (8). Sal was willing to leave the safety and comfort of his hometown, a need he had previously fulfilled, to find the place where he believed he belonged. When Sal arrived in San Francisco, he realized that Sal was living recklessly, and 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 again witnesses Dean's struggles to belong. Denver is Dean's hometown, and he and his father are notorious for being car thieves and drunks. Sal realizes that as much as 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 ultimately where they belong. At the beginning of the novel, Sal is almost in awe of Dean, and is willing to go along for the ride, while Dean makes the decisions. 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 has to listen to Dean, but instead decides to point in the direction, or IT, they're going in their friendship. “By taking custody of Dean and IT, Sal transforms from little more than an admirer caught up in Dean's wake to becoming Dean's father-defender” (Dardess). Their needs changed as the novel progressed and because of this their friendship evolved. When Sal saw Dean struggling with his wife, he knew he was discovering his place. He thought, “now his eyes were empty and looking at methrough. It was probably the crucial moment of our friendship when he realized that I had actually spent some hours thinking about him and his problems, and he was trying to place that in his tremendously tormented mental categories” (188-189). Sal knew their friendship was special and finally got to see Dean's more human side as he broke down in San Francisco. Dean realizes that as strong as his power to manipulate Sal is, it still belongs to Sal for helping keep him alive. This friendship satisfies the need to belong and is another essential part of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs described in On the Road. When belonging needs are satisfied, esteem needs are the next motivators for Sal and Dean. Maslow considered these esteem needs to be those coming from oneself and the esteem received from others. If these needs are met, a person feels valuable and confident. If these needs are not met, the person feels weak, useless and worthless, frustrated. Dean relies on his esteem throughout the novel, appreciating the temporary highs that come from the everyday thrills he seeks, while on the inside knowing that his future is not as bright as his facetious exterior on the outside. Dean was usually the driver on their trips and always believed that he would find something great at the end of each of their trips. Sal, much wiser, but still skeptical, remained silent, as he didn't want to crush Dean's false hopes that he doubted were achievable. Dean, motivated to keep his self-esteem high, enjoyed every moment of their journey, almost as if he was oblivious to the reality of their situations. Toward the end of their trip, the couple traveled through Mexico. Dean was convinced that was where IT was, and he continued to convince himself by saying, “I sure damn well did it, oh my God, I don't know what to do, I'm so excited and mellowed out in this morning world. We have finally arrived in paradise. It couldn't be more beautiful, 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 couldn't be anything. Kerouac highlights this to show that Dean is trying to justify the choices he has made, choices that have put him and Sal miles away from their home. Dean tries to raise 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 claims. He was trying to justify his actions and relieve the tension that was building due to the decisions he had to make. Dean's false self-esteem would probably have kept his spirits up, but Sal realized that the reality was that they had traveled many miles, but had gotten nowhere. Finally, when all other needs are satisfied, a human being is motivated to satisfy self-actualization needs. These needs are described by Maslow as those that a person is “born to do”. He said, “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write.” Sal and Dean struggle with the idea of ​​self-actualization because they spend so much of their time trying to satisfy the four lower-level needs. You cannot try to understand your self-concept if you are still searching for your identity. Dean, as discussed above, is too immature and unrealistic to experience true thoughts of self-actualization, but the much more coherent Sal is capable of doing so. TO” (215).