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
Ray has a drink in a rundown tavern and hitchhikes up to the Marblemount Ranger Station. When he arrives, the assistant ranger, Wally, complains that the last man who drove him was speeding. Ray realizes that he won’t have the freedom of a bhikku while working this job. He learns the ropes at Fire School and meets Burnie Byers, a 65-year-old lumberjack who remembers Japhy as a kind of brilliant prodigy. Ray spends his free time hiking or drinking by the Skagit River, while everyone else parties at carnivals. The river flows fast down from the cloud-covered mountaintops; Ray watches birds fish in it and logs float down it. The trees and leaves seem content, as though they’re right where they’re supposed to be, in perfect harmony with the eternal whole of the ecosystem and universe.
For the first time in the book, Ray gives up countercultural wandering to do ordinary paid work. His mental adjustment here shows how conventional jobs forces people to suppress their authentic selves and instead fit into someone else’s mold. Nevertheless, that is a relatively insignificant part of the fire lookout job, which is like the culmination of everything Japhy has taught Ray: it requires him to spend a long period of time totally alone in nature. During the training, when Ray continues his meditation, he immediately reaches a state of serenity, which shows that his understanding of the universe is improving over time.
Themes
When it’s time to head up the mountain, Ray buys groceries and drives up the Skagit River with a muleskinner named Happy. They pass two dams and reach Diablo Lake, where prospectors arrived in the 1890s to search for gold. An enormous fire devastated the area in 1919, largely destroying the trail and leaving Desolation Peak full of snags (dead or burnt-out trees). Happy remembers sending an overly naïve youngster up to Desolation one year and warns Ray that everyone who works there eventually goes crazy from isolation. While Happy drives the mules up what’s left of the trail, Ray takes a boat up the river to the Ross Dam, where they spend the night sleeping on floats in the river and marveling at the enormous full moon.
The burnt-out trail and Happy’s comment about loneliness serve as warnings: the lookout job is not as easy as it seems. In fact, both the psychological toll of being alone and the difficulties of surviving in a harsh environment present challenges for people who take the job. Of course, these are the precise challenges that Ray is seeking out—his ability to cope with them will show how resilient he has become through his Buddhist training and his relationship with Japhy.
Themes
In the morning, it’s finally time for Ray to go to Desolation Peak,—but it's rainy, and Happy says that he hopes Ray brought some brandy to cope with the weather. In fact, it’s still snowing on Desolation Peak, and Ray promises Happy that they’ll share a bottle of scotch after the summer’s over. Ray realizes that Happy and Japhy remember each other fondly, and all of a sudden, he starts to seriously miss Japhy.
This conversation between Ray and Happy recalls Ray and Japhy’s conversation about alcohol before hiking Mount Matterhorn: Ray thought he’d need a drink, but Japhy promised him that it wouldn’t be necessary. Now, even though Happy tells Ray he might need to drink to cope with the lookout job, Ray doesn’t need alcohol to find inner peace when he’s in the wilderness. This reflects how his Buddhist training has changed him over the last year (since the start of the book).
Themes
Ray, Happy, and Wally travel upriver for a couple hours, then take the trail on horseback with their mules. It’s wet and slippery, but they make steady progress. When they reach a section of trail that’s blocked off by a fallen tree, Happy builds a new shortcut around it. As they continue climbing, the shrubs give way to a meadow and then then snow-covered gray rocks. The snow and hail are intolerable by the time they reach the top, where the tiny wooden fire lookout cabin is located. Ray realizes that it’s drearier than he expected, and he starts questioning his decision to come.
This climb up Desolation Peak has a lot in common with Ray and Japhy’s climb up Mount Matterhorn. Notably, both can be seen as metaphors for Ray’s quest for inner peace through Buddhism. Just like on Mount Matterhorn, Ray has to pass through a series of obstacles and difficult trail sections—but patience, resilience, and continual hard work are the keys to success. This resembles the way his meditation practice is about gradually learning to control the mind and perceive the truths of Buddhist scriptures, one step at a time. And just like when Ray faltered when he reached the summit of Mount Matterhorn, here, upon reaching the summit, he questions whether he’s made the right decision. Both also represent his doubts about Buddhism—namely, his suspicion that it might not bring him to the state of joy and inner peace that he desires. However, this time, Ray’s doubts are much weaker than they were at Mount Matterhorn. This suggests that he has gained confidence and comfort in his meditation practice over time.
Themes
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Inside the fire lookout cabin, everything is old and filthy. Wally tells Ray to start cleaning immediately, while Happy makes coffee. Ray points out that it’s too foggy to see anything—never mind a fire—but Happy explains that the fog should clear in a few days. Ray wonders whether it might stay forever, like on Han Shan’s eternally foggy Cold Mountain. After having coffee, doing more chores, and eating spam and eggs for dinner, the three men go to sleep.
The reality of Desolation Peak doesn’t quite match Ray’s expectations, but his ability to cope with it suggests that he has become more adaptable through Buddhism. He then compares himself to Han Shan, his and Japhy’s idol, whom he’s trying to emulate by living and meditating on a remote mountaintop. This is significant because it shows literature’s power to communicate across history and transform people’s lives, even generations after a writer has died. Of course, Kerouac hopes to harness this power through his writing and inspire others to follow in his footsteps when they read The Dharma Bums.
Themes
Happy and Wally leave in the morning, leaving Ray alone and terrified. He spends the whole foggy day cleaning, and in the evening he meditates outside. That night, Ray wakes up terrified: there’s “a huge black monster” right outside his window. Actually, it’s just Mount Hozomeen in the distance—Ray can see it now because the fog has cleared. The mountain is spectacular: it looks just like the drawing Japhy made in California.
Ray’s terror at the weather and his utter solitude reflect the psychological challenges of the job, which Happy warned him about. Of course, Ray’s ability to manage these feelings will be a test of his Buddhism, and that’s why he copes with the sense of terror through meditation, which reminds him that everything in the universe is the same, all negative feelings will pass, and so on. It’s significant that Mount Hozomeen initially looks like a “monster” before Ray notices its majesty—he manages to change his perspective through Buddhism and see the beauty in what initially looks foreboding. Of course, it also reflects the broader transformation in the symbolism of mountains over the course of the novel: initially, they’re foreign and foreboding. But as Ray gets used to being in the wilderness, they eventually come to represent the eternal beauty and resilience of nature.
Themes
