Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums

Book Review - The Dharma Bums The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac is a motivating tale about the life of Ray Smith, a writer who goes to San Francisco where he meets an odd character named, “Japhy Ryder”. Japhy is a Zen Buddhist and a Dharma bum, which is essentially a wanderer of sorts that lives wherever his life takes him which leads to many odd adventures. The story seems to be split between the crazy adventurous times within the city and the meditative calmer times out in the wilderness. It sets up a creative plot that’s full of many odd and quirky moments full of poetry, drugs and partying among the characters. By the end of the story, the reader is left with many philosophical ideas stuck in mind with an intriguing mix of life lessons that are seen throughout this novel. This novel is impressive as Kerouac uses many engaging ways of enticing the reader such as, making the book a lot more in-depth with the characters. He does this in a multitude of different ways such as many conversations that readers see throughout the book that are

Kerouac had a stimulating way of writing it which brought a lot more depth to the book which made it a lot more compelling to read. Without this style of writing that helped develop the characters so well, it’s questionable if this book would’ve ever turned out as compelling as it is. Readers also see the immense amount of effort put into the message of belonging through the eyes of our depressed protagonist, Ray. Aside from Ray, readers also see the development of his relationship with Japhy who influenced Ray’s perspective of live heavily throughout the novel. Without all of these elements, this narrative would be a shell of what is now is since it currently can be interpreted differently by many making it a very diverse and remarkable novel that would deserve nothing less than a 9/10 if it were to be