Post #5: Dharma Bums

This was mentioned in class today but at the beginning of Dharma Bums it’s really hard to notice the congestion the city brings in Ray’s life and in the lives of his friends around him. His life in the city just seems normal, the typical way he lives, nothing really problematic, it just is. The way he hops on a train to get up to San Francisco just seems so normal for him. It’s not until Ray, Japhy and Morley drive up to Yosemite to climb the mountain that suddenly there’s a change of pace. There’s a definite switch that liberates them and brings them a sort of easy peace. It’s as if the country enabled them to reach a level of Buddhism that the city prevented. The rural country, with nature all around them, allowed them to have a clearer state of mind. The difference between country and city was especially evident when the boys came down from the mountain and Ray was faced with the harsh realities of his friends. His friend, Rosie, was stressed and paranoid to the point of suicide. I don’t now much about Buddhism but I’m pretty sure those are all opposite emotions a Buddhist tries to achieve.

I think this was mentioned in class, that not all the events in Dharma Bums are real, which is really hard to imagine. Kerouac’s writing is so pure and real that it seems impossible to write unless actually experienced. The way that Dharma Bums is written, even more so than On the Road, it seems like Kerouac had a notebook on him all the time to capture each conversation. That’s what makes this book so amazing is that he had the talent to come up with these situations and conversations even if they weren’t real, but the sound real!