Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs dictates the four different levels of progression that are required to achieve self-actualization. There are a number of different literary characters that were studied this semester that fit into Maslow’s hierarchy and strive to achieve self-actualization. The first of all is the character Beowulf who actually achieves self-actualization for a brief time during his adventures. The most important to the human quest for self-actualization is the character Everyman …showed first 75 words of 1364 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1364 total…he defeats Grendel’s mother. Everyman also reaches his top tier when he is accepted into heaven. That play tells us that we can only achieve self-actualization when we die and are accepted into heaven. Could the only true self-actualization come when your life is over? Is your life the first four tiers and death the final one? If any of these questions are true, we will only find out the answer when we die.