The Dharma Bums

by

Jack Kerouac

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The Dharma Bums: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
After about a month of faithful meditation, Ray hears a revelation: “Everything is all right forever and forever and forever.” He thanks the universe, feels an incredible sense of freedom, and remembers the quiet, thoughtful Warren Coughlin. February is warmer—Ray spends his nights contemplating the stars, looking for the significance in his dreams, and reminding himself that he is one with the emptiness of the universe. He understands that he’s taking advantage of his family’s generosity, and his brother-in-law suggests that he get a job. The local men also make fun of him, but Ray knows that they spend all day wandering around their farms, trying to look busy. Unlike them, Ray embraces doing nothing all day. He’s not bothered: he knows that, fundamentally, everyone and everything is made of the same universal substance.
Ray’s revelation is his way of understanding the Buddhist belief that the same unchanging laws always govern the universe. Whereas in the last chapter, he felt a sense of despair at his own mortality, now he sees how it’s just part of the broader workings of the universe. This means that “everything is all right” in the universe, even when awful things happen to him or his loved ones. And by realizing this, he can save himself from unnecessary attachment to things or unnecessary suffering in the world. Meanwhile, his awkward conflicts with the local men reflect the tension between mainstream and countercultural values throughout the book. The men don’t understand how Ray organizes his lives around something besides work—in other words, they’re so locked into the mainstream that they can’t imagine any other way of living. However, Ray points out that the men are just pretending to work all day, which shows that their values are contrary to their happiness: they are pretending to do work that they don’t want or need to be doing.
Themes
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Counterculture and Freedom Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
Quotes