The Dharma Bums (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

At a glance:

  • Author: Jack Kerouac
  • First Published: 1958
  • Type of Work: Novel
  • Type of Plot: Autobiographical
  • Time of Work: 1955-1956
  • Setting: California, North Carolina, and the Washington Cascades
  • Genres: Long fiction
  • Subjects: 1950’s
  • Locales: California

Characters Discussed

Raymond (Ray) Smith, the first-person narrator, a wanderer based on the author. Ray is an intellectual who has turned from the Catholicism of his youth to Buddhism in his search for the ultimate truth of existence. He is disgusted with the shallowness and hypocrisy of American civilization in the 1950’s. In fact, his major problem is that he cannot live or get along in the world as it is and must retreat periodically from it. He is able to practice meditation successfully on mountaintops, in forests, and in deserts, but when he comes back to civilization,...

[The entire page is 955 words long]

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