Reading Lovesong In Light Of Maslow’s Hierarchy Needs

Alex Miller（1936－）is an outstanding novelist and literary critic in contemporaryAustralian literature. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers since the end of thetwentieth century. He has published eleven novels since1998and has been honored withfourteen awards. Miller is a twice winner of Australia’s highest prize for literature “the MilesFranklin Award”. Lovesong was published in2009. In2010, it was short listed for “the MilesFranklin Award” and“the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction” and won“theAge Book of the YearAward”and“theAge Fiction Prize”. In2011, it won“the NewSouth Wales Premier’s Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction” and “the NewSouth Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, People’s Choice Award”.This thesis mainly analyzes the novel from Maslow’s hierarchy needs reflected in themain characters. It contains three parts: the introduction, three main chapters and conclusion.Introduction briefly introduces the writer and his works, the summary of Lovesong, briefliterature review and relevant Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory. The first chapter mainlyresearches the process of unremitting efforts in Sabiha’s self-actualization of motherhood afterher satisfaction of deficiency needs. To become a mother she has very strong power that isdifferent from the ordinary people and would achieve it at any price. Her intentional seductionof Bruno is not only the indirect cause of Bruno’s death but also the root cause of her owntragic life. Then chapter two mainly studies John’s satisfaction process of love and belongingneeds and the painstaking self-actualization process after his knowledge of the affairs betweenSabiha and Bruno. He was a careful, considerate gentleman and always thought for others.The sense of responsibility and sacrifice are fully demonstrated in John. The third chaptermainly discusses the presentation of needs in other main characters: Bruno’s love andbelonging needs, the author’s esteem needs and Houria’s self-actualization. They all haveclose relationship with the protagonists. So the exploitation of them will help us betterunderstand the protagonists’ characters and experiences. Finally, the conclusion makes asummary of the above contents and suggests further research perspectives. All in all, readingLovesong from the perspective of hierarchy needs can help readers understand the variousneeds deeply. As shown in the novel, in different situations different people have different needs to fulfill their different purposes with different costs.