The Dharma Bums Essays

The mind it not simple, it is not black and white. Instead, the mind is a very complex space filled with various types of emotions and ideals. Throughout The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac focuses his attention on an eventful journey, more specifically, enlightenment. Ray Smith (Jack Kerouac) is a man who has been through thousands of life-altering experiences and has let his mind reach its potential of free will. Thankfully, Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder) guides him into the religion of Buddhism. Buddhism

beliefs, Whitman guides the reader and advices them on what aspects in life to hold dear and how to reach the same form of enlightenment and freedom as he has found. Specifically through nature, understanding, and equality. Similarly, the book “Dharma Bums”, written by Jack Kerouac, also expresses Kerouac’s religious and spiritual views of the world. However, unlike Whitman, Kerouac’s book is about his journey into achieving his own form of enlightenment through Buddhism and nature. Whitman’s teachings

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

Jack Kerouac wrote the 1958 novel The Dharma Bums. In The Dharma Bums, Ray Smith, aka Kerouac, explores the relationship that mountain climbing, hiking, and hitchhiking had with his city life. Buddhism is also a recurring topic throughout the book; Ray Smith is constantly trying to connect his experiences with it. The Dharma Bums encompasses the portraits of the Beat Generation. The main themes associated with this book are non-conformity

Mistreatment of Women The novels The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, and On the Road by Jack Kerouac all connect using the feminist theory by showing the ongoing mistreatment and lack of respect for women by men. The feminist theory analyzes gender inequality, mistreatment of women, and the issue of objectifying women in society. All of the men in these novels by the name of Ray Smith, Japhy Ryder, Leo Percepied, Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty, and Ed Dunkel objectify women and are only interested in

the word Dharma. For the purpose of defining Dharma it is described as, “the path of righteousness and living one’s life according to the codes of conduct as described by the Hindu scriptures” (Das). Dharma is considered, “the very foundation of life” (Das). According to Das, “It means, that which holds’ the people of this world and the whole creation. Dharma is the ‘law of being’ without things cannot exist” this is the human history according to Hinduism. Rajhans explains that Dharma is the main

The Epic of Gilgamesh conveys numerous themes. Among those are the inevitability of death, the eminence of the gods, and strikingly the importance of love as an impetus. Love, defined in a consummate sense is intimacy, passion, and commitment. These traits are exemplified in Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship, and they are also implied between Enkidu and Sham hat. Despite the violent and abrasive nature of the happenings of this text, love is displayed blatantly throughout. From Enkidu's introduction

include Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure), Dharma (duty), and Moksha (liberation). Although many have a difficult time grasping these abstract concepts, these same people may actually have already been exposed to the ideas.This is because many Western pieces of literature display evident traces of the four Purusharthas.

are given in life. The term dharma is mentioned throughout the book and is an important part of the practice of Buddhism. Dharma is as described by Batchelor, “referring to the teachings of the Buddha as well as to those aspects of reality and experience with which his teachings are concerned, ‘Dharma practice’ refers to the way of life undertaken by someone who is inspired by such teachings” (xi). Later in the book he goes on to further explain that the goal of dharma practice is to free ourselves

My first week proved to be very challenging. My favorite uncle was a veteran and I often visited him at the Missouri Veterans Home nursing center. He died several years ago, however, I remembered seeing many older veterans who did not have anyone to visit them. Many were very lonely and longed-for visitors. I had decided volunteering with the Veterans Administration Medical Center Jefferson Barracks Division would be something that I would really enjoy. I researched how to volunteer with the Veterans

Visualize having a king who made 282 laws and if a person did not follow them they would get a really big punishment. That is how it was 4,000 years ago when a king named Hammurabi ruled in Babylon. He ruled Babylon for 42 years. King Hammurabi became king of Babylon in 1754 BCE. Were Hammurabi’s laws and codes fair and just? King Hammurabi’s codes were unjust because of the evidence found in the 282 laws. The codes that King Hammurabi wrote about were personal injury law, property law and

Published within a century of each other, On the Road and Moby Dick seem to occupy completely separate literary spheres. Herman Melville’s erudite whaling tale could not possibly have anything in common with Jack Kerouac’s counterculture gospel, one may reason. From afar, the magnificent Pequod certainly differs from a stolen Hudson. However, both vehicles are driven by a mad captain in pursuit of moral satisfaction and truth, chasing Moby Dick and chasing “IT.” The tragic protagonist, Dean Moriarty

what kind of life a typical member lived. The different living situations that Ray had in the story made it fairly clear to me the living situations that Kerouac had as well by moving from place to place. Throughout many of his novels, not just in Dharma Bums, Kerouac uses Roman a Clef to stir his writing and represent interesting and significant parts of his

The first example describes someone who prays for others despite the lack of result. The second example compares a bum that played jazz to Christ and how his music was like when Christ called out to God saying “ My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me”. The use of religion and spirituality in poems was common amongst the beats. Jack Kerouac used it in his works such as The Dharma Bums, and Big Sur. Kerouac “ reveled in the Buddhist notion of rejecting our corporeal selves”(Simpson, 2003 p.7) and this

Jack Kerouac once said, “Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion. Jack’s work covers topics such as travel, poverty, Buddhism, jazz, and Catholic spirituality. Jack Kerouac started his writing career in the 1940’s but it wasn’t until the 1950’s when his book, “ On the road” was published that he would get commercial success. On the road would eventually become a classic defining the Beat Generation. Uncertainly balanced between two cultures and

gay, they were shown in a manner that may erase their homosexuality. Jeffrey B. Falla writes about subversion in his article “Disembodying the Body: Allen Ginsberg’s Passional Subversion of Identity.” In it, Ginsberg is depicted in Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums as straight, and Ginsberg comments “’I guess he decided to write a novel in which I was a big, virile hero instead of a Jewish Communist fag” (Falla, 58). Here, Ginsberg is taking a claim over his identity; he is taking pride in his Jewish blood