Realistic Representation

A vital component of representation for a social group is unity. However, many past movements have struggled to find a unified angle through which to represent the entire group--as individuals, even within social groups, we all have our singular values and beliefs, which may coincide with those of the entire group and may not. Kerouac conveys this difference amongst the individuals of the beat movement in his novel The Dharma Bums in writing, “We were two strange dissimilar monks on the same path” (176). The two main characters Japhy Ryder, based on Gary Snyder, and the narrator Ray Smith, based on Kerouac himself, both consider themselves to be "Dharma Bums," poets, and to possess a bit of "Zen Lunacy," but they express these terms through different conduits.

The most obvious difference between these two Dharma Bums is activity level. Japhy becomes frustrated with Ray one day, saying, "‘Why do you sit on your ass all day?’(Ray responds,) ‘I practice do-nothing.’ (To which Japhy retorts,) ‘What’s the difference? Burn it, my Buddhism is activity’” (175). Although Japhy practices the traditional form of meditation still three times a day, he remains active and busy most of his day contributing to his living community or studies in one way or another. Japhy thrives off of this activity, and through this activity he considers himself free. Ray is more of an observer. He calls the practice of "do-nothing" what the mainstream society of the time would most likely call "lazy." He finds his freedom in being able to sit and watch and enjoy the busy goings-on around him.

The two also differ on their views of sexual activity and alcohol. Ray abstained from Japhy's ancient ritual re-enactments of yabyum or other lustful activities, mentioning within his narration, “I really thought myself a kind of crazy saint" (186). While Japhy practiced a more hedonistic view going against mainstream America's "suburban ideal and sex repression and general dreary newspaper gray censorship of all our real human values" with his various methods of practicing (what Ray defines as) "Zen intellectual artistic Buddhism" (31, 115). Furthermore, although both Japhy and Ray drank alcohol, Ray is described throughout the novel as having alcoholic tendencies. Japhy finally expresses to Ray the power which alcohol seems to have over him, "You're just drinking too much all the time, I don't see how you're even going to gain enlightenment and manage to stay out in the mountains, you'll always be coming down the hill spending your bean money on wine and finally you'll end up lying in the street in the rain, dead drunk" (191). Although Japhy may seem to simply be regurgitating mainstream society's distant, cold judgments of people identifying the with beats in general, his words stem more from a concern for his friend, not only a concern that he will die an alcohol, but also how this will affect his ability to be enlightened and follow the dharma.

Despite their difference (and society's judgments), the two friends remain classified as "Dharma Bums" (while their real-life counter parts remain classified as "beat poets"). Kerouac, through his novel, invites his readers to recognize and accept that difference and dissention thrive in all social groups, and by granting us these contrasting values allows his reader to develop a more realistic and thorough view of what it means to be a Dharma Bum (or a beat).