Maslow's Hierarchy

Maslow's Hierarchy is a description of things that need to take place in order for Self-Actualization. A real life situation for example; If you are feeling ill, you aren't very likely to care about what other people think of you, because your main concern is to feel better. In the simplest terms, its an order of physical and mental states that have to be in this certain sequence in order to reach the top. It goes from the bottom, which is "Physiological" to "Safety", then "Belonging", "Esteem", and finally "Self-Actualization". A great example of this pyramid, as unfortunate as it is, would be the Holocaust. In order to have complete control over the Jews the way Hitler did, took a lot of planning and strategy. He started at the topmost section, "Self-Actualization" by convincing Germans that the Jews were taking all of their money and putting them in a bad economical position. Next, he hit the "Esteem" and "Belonging" stages both simultaneously by distributing propaganda such as news papers  that made the Jews look bad not only to Germans, but to other Jews as well. They were saying things like "The Jews are our misfortune", which to me is pretty degrading. He hit the last two at the same time, "Safety" and "Physiological", and for this to happen, he had to take the already dignity-ridden Jews into controlled spaces; what is known as concentration camps. There, he was able to control their behavior, such as sleeping and working, as well as their food/water intake. Oh, don't forget the prison-like buildings they were kept in. From then on, you know what happened. I think Maslow's Hierarchy is very applicable to everyday life, and it plays a big part.

Allegory - The Sneetches

An Allegory is something, usually in a story, that has two different meanings; a literal one, and an abstractly symbolic one, that has a deeper meaning than it's initial appearance. Dr. Seuss is famous for stories like these, and the one I'm specifically referring to is "The Sneetches". The literal part of his story is the star-bellied Sneetches are supposedly better than the other Sneetches, and there's a big controversy over the whole issue. All the ones without stars, tried to get them... it's kind of confusing to explain, but in the end, everybody learned that your social status shouldn't be defined by something physical about you, it doesn't matter what you look like. you should always be accepted no matter what.