The Dharma Bums

"And Suddenly I realized I was truly alone and had nothing to do but feed myself and rest and amuse myself, and nobody could criticize." (235)

Here towards the end of the book Ray is all alone. Japhy is gone and Ray has no one. He feels alone, but he likes it. He likes being free from others and their judgments. He is completely self reliant. Before this he is searching for freedom and finds it occasionally but now he has found complete freedom and aloneness.

"The vision of the freedom of eternity was mine forever" (243)

Here Ray is on Desolation Peak and he is looking out at sunset when he has this self satisfaction as he looks out into the world and can see freedom and he feels complete freedom and he can cherish it forever. He can looks out into the empty land and feels the freedom of eternity because there is so much to be had.

The Dharma Bums

“Life’s already shoved an iron foot down my mouth. But I don’t think that’s anything but a dream cooked up by some hysterical monks who didn’t understand Buddha’s peace…” (202)


Here Ray and Japhy are talking at the party and they decide to go off for a hike. This quote tells a lot about what ray thinks about life. He knows life is hard, but he thinks positively about it. He believes that the afterlife is peaceful and happy and that everyone goes to a good place, so life is hard but it is worth it.

“Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and except to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak…just like life” (212)

This is another quote that tells us about what Ray sees life as. He sees it as a struggle, that when your young everything is so easy and beautiful. And before you know it you have grown up and life is one big struggle. Going back to the first quote you start off well and go throw a struggle and end up all good at the end.

First Paragraph

In Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums, the main character, Ray Smith, leaves home to travel across the United States on a spiritual quest. While at home, Ray feels misunderstood and constrained by his family; his desire to find solace in nature is not valued by his family. Ray’s decision to live out of a backpack shows his intension to lead a unencumbered lifestyle. In the end, Ray finds his comfort in a shack that lets him be free from industrial America. Even starting at home, Ray from young age is on a search for totally freedom from societies restraints and criticisms.

Reike Master Notes

- Energy Healing
- Work to strengthen energy flow (aura) by Chi
- Chi is underlying force of what the world is made of
- A form of practice or faith healing
- Treatment of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual diseases
- Mikao Usui is the creator, from Japan
- Over one million U.S. adults have experiences Reiki treatments
- Rei means ‘spirit’, ‘soul’ or ‘ghost’ and ki means ‘energy’ or ‘life force’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki

http://reiki.7gen.com/

The Dharma Bums

“Then I suddenly had the most tremendous feeling of the pitifulness of human beings, whatever they were, their faces, pained mouths, personalities, attempts to be gay, little petulance, feeling of loss, their dull and empty witticism so soon forgotten…” (199)

This is at the final goodbye party for Japhy before he moves to Japan. Everyone is drunk and signing and falling everywhere and acting ridiculous. Ray himself is also drunk but in silence by the fire he realizes that everything people do these days is worthless. That the lives they live are kind of pointless and they all live by a certain feeling. But when your drunk those feelings are lost and forgotten quickly.

“Japhy was sad and disappointed. ‘How do you expect to become a good bhiukku or even a Bodhisattva Mahasattva always getting Drunk like that?’” (190)

Japhy wants to take Ray to a lecture but Ray would rather walk around San Francisco and get drunk. This seems kind of opposite from the beginning. Japhy was usually the one letting go and not caring, where as Ray sat back and care more about what he did and how he appeared. In this case Japhy is hoping Ray will go to the lecture to talk to other writers to help his writing but Ray would rather walk around drunk.

The Dharma Bums

“but I didn’t go to a hotel, I had to watch my money now, and instead I just hauled my pack to my back and walked straight for the railroad yards to stretch my bag out somewhere behind the tracks. It was then that, that night, that I realized the dream that had made me want to buy the pack…. the most beautiful sleep of my life” (153)

Here Ray is in El Paso and doesn’t want to spend more money because he spent the money on the bus. He got the backpack so he doesn’t have to relay on staying places and can go where ever and sleep where ever and be free and not worry about it.. It is this night that he final realizes the power of this and freedom giving him the best sleep ever.


“In the morning I had to get the show on the road or never get to my protective shack in California.. “since it’s a dream already ended, then I’m already on California, then I’ve already decided to rest under that tree at noon.” (157-158)

Ray is still in El Paso and he is wishing he was already in California at Japhy’s shack where he feels comfortable. California has become his base and home, not where he is really from. He knows it well and find comfort there. With his tree and the shack. Neither of witch provide any physical protection but he calls them protective because he knows them and loves them and finds some routine and structure in them

The Dharma Bums

“But it wasn’t funny, I felt rather sad, in fact real sad, like the night before in that horrible fog wire-fence country in industrial L.A., when in fact I’d cried a little. After all a homeless man has reason to cry, everything in the world is pointed against him.” (122)

This quote clearly shows how Ray feels about America and industry. He couldn’t stand L.A. and you can tell that not only does he dislike it but he feels sad, that America has come to this, where towns are covered in smog from industries and where the world is against homeless people, and can’t help them. This give him a clear reason for why he does what he does in nature, to get away from that constant reminder of sadness.

“And he had a nice home in Ohio with a wife, daughter, Christmas tree, two cars, garage, lawn, lawnmowers, but he couldn’t enjoy any of it because he really wasn’t free.” (129)

I like this quote because my paper is on freedom. To Ray being free is the most important thing. You could have anything and if you aren’t free you can’t enjoy any of it. If you don’t live and be free from restraint you can’t enjoy life for to the fullest.

Paper Topic

Freedom

The Dharma Bums

“…clean morning sun Japhy’s said. ‘You know, the earth is a fresh planet, why worry about anything?’” (106)

Japhy and Ray are shopping in a thrift store for new clothes and since they are so cheep they feel they can buy as much as they wont and it wont go to waste. This quote reminds me of the discussion in class about how both Japhy and Ray flip flop between ideas. They both seem like nature loving people that treat the earth well, but here they seem careless of the earths supply because of the good deal

“I was all outfitted for the Apocalypse indeed, no joke about that; if an atom bomb should have hit San Francisco that night all I’d have to do is hike on out of there..” (107)

After getting all of his supplies Ray is so happy that he has everything he could ever need in his backpack. He feels free and he is ready to go wonder wherever life takes him. If anything was to happen to him, he was set as long as he has his backpack. He isn’t quite free though, because his life is in the backpack and he is stuck to it.

Final Presentation

Raike Master

The Dharma Bums

“Up out of the orange glow of our fir you could see immense system of uncountable stars, either as individual blazers, or in low Venus droppers, or vast Milky Ways in commensurate with human understanding, all cold, blue, silver, but our food and our fire was pink and goodies” (73)

This line stood out to me because I like how Ray talks about the stars and what they really are, not saying the typically pretty stars in the sky. He brings in some mystery to it and put both the perspective that they were tiny compared to the universe but at the same time they were content because of there warm fire compared to the cold universe.

“‘The whole purpose of mountain climbing to me isn’t just to show off you can get to the top, it’s getting out to this wild country.’” (81)

Here Ray is talking about weather or not to climb another peak because heading back down. He is content with what he as already done and how far he as gone because he has gotten high enough to see the country. Even though he says this I don’t think he completely means it because he does have some competitive nature and does climb the last peak because Japhy is.

The Dharma Bums

“He was being very serious and leaderly and it pleased me more than anything else” (53)

Here they are about to hike and Japhy is getting prepared and is showing leadership. This shows Smith’s idealistic view of Japhy that he appreciates his leadership and taking care of the situation.

“But Japhy had on his fine big boots and his little green Swiss cap with feather, and looked elfin but rugged.” (54)

Ray is looking at Japhy and admiring his backpacking look. He himself doesn’t feel like he looks like a backpacker, but Japhy fits the perfect picture of a backpacker. This tells us that they think there is a typically look for backpackers and they have a desire to look like that.

The Dharma Bums

“shore, come on with us and we’ll all screw ya at ten thousand feet” and the way he said it was so funny and casual, and in fact serious, that the girl wasn’t shocked at all but somewhat pleased.” (27)

Japhy said this and it shows how he treats women. He believes that they are just sex objects but he has a way of controlling them and talking to them that they actually like him and fall for him. He has a way of saying things and his spirituality make them like him.

“Don’t you think it’s much more interesting just to be like Japhy and have girls and studies and good times and really be doing something, then all this silly sitting under trees?” (33)

Alvah says this to Ray showing how others in the book view him. They don’t really understand what Ray does and think it doesn’t have a purpose. Someone like Alvah would rather just live life and not worry about what will happen. They don’t know what Ray gets out of tree sitting.

The Dharma Bums

“ I was very devout in those days and was practicing my religious devotions almost to perfection” (5)

This is when Ray Smith is talking about his religious believes and when he was younger he was more devoted and he has lost it now that he is older. Now he is more cynical and hypocritical about life. He has changes from what he was as a younger boy.

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running- that’s the way to live.” (7)

This is the way that ray wants to live his life. After he moves to Santa Barbra this is how he lives and he loves it. He loves being free and having no worries. He finds happiness in relaxing and being free.

Raymond Carver- Are These Acual Miles?

Quote 1:

“Toni has been two hours on her hair and face. Leo stands in the bedroom doorway and taps his lips with his knuckles, watching” (p.583)

This to me seems like a typical scene in the 1950’s like we have been talking about in class. Leo’s wife is spending hours on putting a front on, a mask, for the world because she has to play a certain character that night. Everything is an act that people put on but it is not who they are at home. Leo is waiting anxiously for her and it is clear just from this line that they don’t have the perfect relationship and that Leo has to watch Toni prepare for the outside.

Quote 2:

“Earnest Williams looks from across the street…Leo walked the women to the car, surprised Ernest Williams on the sidewalk with a newspaper in his hand…Ernest Williams started, then slapped the paper against his leg, hard.” (P.584)

Even though everyone puts on this front, people who watch closely, like Ernest, can see what really goes on in the family. Ernest sees the affair that Leo has and now looks past the fronts that they put on. You can tell in the story that he later looks down on them and can really see who they are.