"When you're on top of a mountain, keep climbing" : Jack Kerouac's path to enlightenment in the Dharma Bums
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Christopher Baratta (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
- Advisor
- Mike Wentworth
Abstract: In his novel The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac recounts his journey across the
American landscape in the mid-1950s. The emerging corporate, materialistic, consumer
driven society that America was becoming didn’t offer individuals like Kerouac and his
fellow Beats many avenues for their spiritual pursuits. Using literature as their main
instrument, the Beat movement focused on a shift in individual and social consciousness
and spiritual freedom. The Dharma Bums illustrates this desire for a new social
consciousness, as well as focusing on the journey of an individual toward enlightenment.
On his path to enlightenment, Kerouac, as Ray Smith, lives the life of a vagabond,
riding the rails, hitchhiking, and abandoning all reliance on material possessions. This
intentional marginalization relies on adopting a Buddhist influenced lifestyle, the
guidance of Japhy Ryder (Gary Snyder), and a transcendent return to the natural world.
This study follows the path of Ray Smith, examining the methods and measures of an
individual in pursuit of an understanding of existence and knowledge of the self.
"When you're on top of a mountain, keep climbing" : Jack Kerouac's path to enlightenment in the Dharma Bums
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Created on 1/1/2009
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- Kerouac Jack 1922-1969 The Dharma Bums--Criticism and interpretation
- Subjects
- Kerouac, Jack, 1922-1969. The Dharma Bums -- Criticism and interpretation