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 Dharma Bums, first briefly at a poetry reading, and then when he asks Ray Smith to look after his suicidal girlfriend Rosie Buchanan while he’s at work. Rosie ends up killing herself, which devastates Cody.
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Cody Pomeray Character Timeline in The Dharma Bums
The timeline below shows where the character Cody Pomeray appears in The Dharma Bums. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...poets’ refined intellectualism. He notes that Rosie Buchanan, a beautiful writer who’s dating his friend Cody, is in the audience. After the event, everyone goes to dinner in Chinatown, and Japhy...
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Chapter 15
...go hunting for uranium and try to give him advice. Then, Ray visits his friend Cody and Cody’s girlfriend Rosie, who’s having a nervous breakdown. Rosie got in trouble at work...
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Chapter 16
Next, Ray visits Cody and his kids for a few days. Cody is devastated about Rosie’s death, and he...
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Chapter 25
...watches its branches jump and sway like human dancers, and on another, he dreams about Cody, Rosie, and a divine-looking throne.
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