The Way To Self-actualization

Don DeLillo(1936-),Italian-American post-modernist novelist,is regarded as one of the greatest contemporary American novelists.So far,he has created over ten novels,three plays,many short novels and some proses.He reveals and criticizes American society with his sharp language and writing style.He is well known for the eighth novel,White Noise.He has won a lot of awards,for example,"National Book Award","the PEN/Faulkner Award",and"Jerusalem Prize",etc.At the same time,he is one of the most powerful competitors of the Nobel Prize of literature in the 21 st century.Cosmopolis,written in 2003,is the 14th novel of Don DeLillo.There is a book reviews that although this novel is not the best in his works,it is one of the best novels of American novels in recent years.Cosmopolis,like Ulysses,is about what happens to the protagonist in the course of a day,aiming to reveal all kinds of problems in American post-modern society.For example,commercialized art,reality and visual space,sex,death,global financial market and terrorism,it just likes a kaleidoscope of post-modern society.In the past,many scholars studied this novel mainly from the perspective of space theory,language features,ecologism and intertextuality,etc.However,few scholars analyze this novel from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.This thesis is to analyze the protagonist—Eric's way to self-actualization from the perspective of Maslow's hierarchy of needs,including physiological needs,safety needs,belongingness and love needs,esteem needs and self-actualization,in order to get some inspirations which is beneficial for people to realize their self-actualization.In this kaleidoscopic post-modern society,individuals' needs can not be satisfied completely because of the changes of social environment.But,no matter what kind of obstacles individuals will encounter on the way to self-actualization,they should have confidence in pursuing the realization of their self-value and embracing the more wonderful life.