Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Dharma Bums, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Enlightenment and Nature
Counterculture and Freedom
Friendship
Literature and Authenticity
Inclusion, Exclusion, and Community
Summary
Analysis
In September 1955, Ray Smith, the novel’s narrator, rides a train from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, although his final destination is San Francisco. Another bum climbs on the train with him. For lunch, Ray buys wine and bread in a small town and eats it with some cheese that he bought on his way north from Mexico City to California. Ray shares with the other bum, who shyly but gratefully accepts.
In the novel’s opening scene, Ray Smith—who is a stand-in for author Jack Kerouac—introduces his unconventional lifestyle, which would be familiar to readers of Kerouac’s earlier semiautobiographical novel On the Road. Train-hopping is a classic example of Kerouac’s bohemian, wandering lifestyle: it’s adventurous, illegal, and (most importantly) free of charge. By sharing his lunch with the other bum, he shows that he feels a sense of kinship with fellow homeless travelers, even if they might be living that lifestyle out of necessity rather than out of choice, as Kerouac is.
Themes
Ray remembers Buddhist teachings about charity from the Diamond Sūtra, but he’s become less devout over the years, since the wanderings that he narrates in this book. He thought of himself as a modern bhikku, traveling like a pilgrim around the U.S.—in other words, he was already a Dharma Bum, even though he hadn’t yet learned the term from Japhy Ryder.
To explain his willingness to share his food, Ray introduces the Buddhist principles that guide him through life. He uses Buddhist scriptures like the Diamond Sūtra as models for how to live a more fulfilling life—one focused on seeking spiritual enlightenment through wandering, meditation, and voluntary poverty—rather than conforming to the societal norm of seeking material wealth and stability. Clearly, his friendship with Japhy plays an important role in shaping Ray’s lifestyle, even if he thinks that he’s already part of the “Dharma Bum” community by virtue of his values and goals. Finally, Kerouac also emphasizes that he’s narrating the past, and that things have changed since—in other words, he might not stay as absolutely committed to Buddhism as he appears to be in the book.
Themes
Presently, the other bum on the train says a prayer from Santa Teresa and tells Ray a little about his life as a train-hopper. Ray says that he’s planning to take the Zipper train, which he used to work on; most bums call it the Midnight Ghost, since it’s the fastest way from LA to San Francisco overnight. The other bum has been riding it for years. Ray struggles to stay warm as the train barrels up the California coast to Santa Barbara, where he gets off and says goodbye to the bum.
Even though he’s a Christian rather than a Buddhist, the other bum’s prayer shows that he is focused on achieving spiritual goals rather than material ones, just like Ray. For travelers like Kerouac and the bum, train schedules are an important piece of inside knowledge—indeed, their conversation about the train’s nickname shows that Kerouac is already part of a larger community of wandering bums.
Themes
In Santa Barbara, Ray goes to the beach and cooks on an open flame. Then he swims, dances around, drinks wine, and eats. He contemplates the meaning of life and the enormity of the universe, and then he goes to sleep. Ray dreams about his New England home and about his parents riding the trains. He wakes up at dawn but decides to go back to sleep.
Ray’s night on the beach shows how he finds joy and freedom in his unconventional, unpredictable lifestyle. Although he's all alone, he’s also totally self-sufficient. So, whereas most people weigh themselves down with possessions and obligations, Ray’s lifestyle suggests that people don’t need much to be happy (except maybe a campfire and some wine).
Themes
Get the entire The Dharma Bums LitChart as a printable PDF.
