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
Japhy suddenly starts running down toward Ray from the summit, at times leaping several feet. Ray takes off after him, and in all of five minutes they run their way to the bottom, screaming and enjoying themselves. Ray remarks that he now understands why Japhy told him “you can’t fall off a mountain,” and Japhy says that this is what “when you get to the top of a mountain keep climbing” really means. They remark that “the people below” don’t deserve to hear their triumphant yells. Ray is frustrated that he didn’t make it to the top, because now he understands what it takes to go back downhill. But Japhy promises that they’ll return the next year to try again. Japhy and Henry tell Ray that they’re proud of his effort—it’s his first time, after all—and call him a Tiger.
While Ray is overwhelmed by fear and shock, Japhy is playing and enjoying himself, which shows the difference between confronting a challenging situation blind and doing the same with wisdom derived from Buddhism. Again, the climb helps Ray fully understand the truth of Buddhist teachings that he previously only knew in a superficial, theoretical way. “You can’t fall off a mountain,” for instance, is not just literally true—it’s also a metaphor for the way people’s spiritual progress is stable over time. Once a person learns something, or scales a mountain, they “can’t fall off,” or lose the wisdom they’ve gained.
Themes
In the late afternoon, Ray, Japhy, and Henry start heading back toward their campground. They hope that they’ll be able to navigate by moonlight later on. Each takes his own path: Ray follows droppings down a deer path, Japhy takes off his pants and slides around in the snow, and Henry keeps talking loudly. At camp, they make a bonfire and have dinner under the full moon. Ray realizes that he absolutely loves wandering around in solitude—he compares himself to native children living off the land.
When the men split up, each of them starts acting in a characteristic way that shows how they personally engage with nature: Japhy gets naked, Ray investigates other living beings, and Henry ignores his surroundings entirely, preferring to listen to himself speak. This shows how, while nature can help people better understand themselves and their place in the world, there’s no specific formula for doing so. When Ray realizes that he loves being alone in nature, this confirms that he’s spiritually connected to the rest of the world. However, although his comparison between himself and American Indian people is well-intentioned, he fails to recognize his own ignorance about American Indian culture.
Themes
The men continue down toward the base of the trail. In the moonlight, they dance their way down the long valley full of boulders. Ray’s feet hurt, so he switches his tennis shoes for Japhy’s hiking boots. Ray is exhausted and wants to rest, but Japhy and Henry insist that they have to make it back to Henry’s car. They take a break in the meadow at the bottom of the boulders, and the rest of their way down is much easier. Now that they’re at a much lower altitude, it’s warmer, and they get back to the car in no time. In fact, it’s so warm that Henry realizes he didn’t really need to fix his engine.
The guys retrace their steps, but Ray struggles to find the energy he needs to make it all the way down the mountain. This functions as a kind of spiritual test, measuring his perseverance and resilience in the face of obstacles. Indeed, the physical difficulty of climbing mountains is another reason it helps build spiritual strength. To finish the hike smoothly, Ray borrows Japhy’s boots, which symbolically represent Japhy’s wisdom and mountaineering expertise. The act of switching shoes therefore represents how Ray’s relationship with Japhy strengthens him and helps him to learn.
Themes
Ray, Japhy, and Henry are hungry. They find a decent-looking restaurant, but (to Ray’s surprise) Japhy is afraid to go inside because he feels underdressed. They stop in a more casual place across the road, but it’s dreary and depressing, so Ray convinces Japhy to return to the first place. After Japhy proclaims himself an anti-materialistic bhikku, he eats voraciously. After dinner, the guys buy a bottle of wine and smoke a cigar to celebrate. Henry drives all night to get them back home to Berkeley, and at dawn, Ray and Japhy stumble back to their respective shacks.
So far, Ray has presented Japhy as a flawless, masculine hero, so it’s fitting that he finally reveals some weakness. In fact, his weakness isn’t just his fear of looking underdressed—it’s the contradiction between this fear and his self-image as an independent mountain man who doesn’t care what others think. Similarly, there’s a contradiction between eagerly digging into an expensive meal and claiming to be a minimalist who rejects material luxuries. But these contradictions between Japhy’s values and his behavior don’t necessarily make him a hypocrite—rather, they’re natural human weaknesses that Buddhists strives to overcome. Ray also struggles with similar contradictions—for instance, when it comes to his drinking and his feelings about sex. Both Japhy and Ray know what they believe but continually struggle to live up to their values, and they use Buddhist practices like meditation to try to embody those values more fully.
Themes
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