Ray Smith
Ray is the narrator and protagonist of The Dharma Bums; he’s a stand-in for author Jack Kerouac. Driven by his strong interest in Buddhist teachings and intense affection for his friend Japhy Ryder…
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Japhy Ryder
Japhy is an alias for Gary Snyder, the poet, mountaineer, and scholar of Buddhism whose relationship with narrator Ray Smith (Jack Kerouac’s alias) is arguably the novel’s central focus. In fact, even when Japhy…
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Alvah Goldbrook
Alvah is an alias for the famous Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, one of Jack Kerouac’s closest friends. Although he hosts Ray in Berkeley at the beginning of The Dharma Bums, he does not play…
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Henry Morley
Henry is an alias for the eccentric writer John Montgomery. Henry is the librarian, occasional mountaineer, and “actual madman” who accompanies Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder on their trip to Mount Matterhorn early in…
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Princess
Princess is the first of Japhy’s girlfriends; she first appears in the book when she visits Alvah’s cottage and abruptly takes her clothes off with no explanation. She then proceeds to have sex…
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Psyche
Psyche is one of Japhy’s girlfriends, a beautiful but shy young woman who has strong feelings with Japhy but doesn’t want to have sex with him. Knowing that Psyche has trouble controlling her drinking…
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Warren Coughlin
Warren is an alias for the Buddhist poet Philip Whalen. Warren is Japhy’s friend from college who frequently attests to Japhy’s brilliance and attends most of the parties that Ray recounts throughout the book…
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Sean Monahan
Sean is an alias for Locke McCorkle, a Buddhist carpenter who lives in rural Marin County. He lets Japhy and Ray live in a cabin behind his house for several months in the spring of…
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Christine Monahan
Christine is Sean Monahan’s dedicated, hardworking wife who cooks, cleans, and cares for their two children while Sean works in nearby Sausalito. She also feeds and takes care of Ray Smith when Sean isn’t…
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Cody Pomeray
Cody is an alias for Neal Cassady, the famously intense and unstable central character of Kerouac’s famous earlier novel On the Road (in which Kerouac called him Dean Moriarty). He only appears briefly in The…
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Rosie Buchanan
Rosie is a neurotic but talented writer who is dating Cody Pomeray and kills herself during a psychotic fit, just before Ray leaves San Francisco for North Carolina. She is terrified about the police, cuts…
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Beaudry
Beaudry is a truck driver who picks Ray up in Calexico, California, on his way to North Carolina. They spend an evening partying across the border in Mexicali, and then they go to Tucson, Arizona…
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Bud Diefendorf
Bud is a physically imposing, overly serious man who quit a career in physics and philosophy in order to become a Buddhist. He takes the religion to heart and, along with Ray, is the…
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Han Shan
Han San was a mysterious Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.) who carved his works into rocks in the remote mountains where he lived. Generally viewed as a bodhisattva (Buddhist monk), Han Shan…
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Minor Characters
Polly Whitmore
Polly is a divorced mountain-climber who briefly dates Japhy but is forced to compete with Princess and Psyche for his attention at his going-away party.
The little Santa Teresa Bum
The “little Santa Teresa bum” is a shy homeless man who rides the rails with Ray Smith in the first chapter and recites a prayer by Santa Teresa, which he carries around with him on a little slip of paper.
Rol Sturlason
Rol is a friend of Japhy’s, who is also a devout Buddhist obsessed with Japan. He tells Ray about his plans to visit the famous Ryoanji Zen rock garden in Kyoto, and Japhy later indicates that Rol has made it to Japan.
Ray’s mother
Ray’s mother lives in North Carolina; she worries when Ray arrives for his visit later than promised. She later gets a bad cough, which Ray treats after having a vision of a bottle of medicine while meditating.
Ray’s brother-in-law
Ray’s brother-in-law lives in North Carolina with Ray’s mother, sister, and nephew Lou. Frustrated that Ray spends all his time lazing around the house and meditating, he repeatedly insists that Ray get a job.
Lou
Lou is Ray’s beloved nephew, whom he teaches a little about Buddhism in North Carolina.
Rhoda
Rhoda is Japhy’s sister; she’s an alias for Thea Snyder Lowry. Japhy loves Rhoda dearly—and possibly as more than just siblings, as Japhy suggests that she should marry him instead of her fiancé, a rich man from Chicago whom Japhy loathes.
Rheinhold Cacoethes
Rheinhold is a pretentious poet and literary critic who is a close friend of Henry Morley and, much like his friend, has a habit of talking nonstop for hours. He’s an alias for Kenneth Rexroth.
George
George is an alias for Peter Orlovsky, Allen Ginsberg (Alvah Goldbrook)’s longtime partner.
Wally
Wally is the strict assistant ranger at Marblemount Ranger Station in the Cascades who, along with Happy, helps Ray make it up to Desolation Peak
Happy
Happy is a wise old mule driver in the Cascades who, along with Wally, helps Ray reach Desolation Peak. He remembers Japhy Ryder as an unusually capable and intelligent young mountaineer.
Bob
Bob is Ray Smith’s loyal dog in North Carolina.
