The Dharma Bums And The Zen

The Zen was flourished in the United States after the World Warâ…¡. The "Beat Generation" writers practiced meditation almostly. The Zen had made huge impact on them. This dissertation uses the Dharma Bums as a case study, resorts to the textual analysis impact studies and the comparative studies, illustrates the relationship between the Zen and Kerouac who is the core figure of the "Beat Generation".Firstly, this thesis discusses the historical background and the related infrastructure that how the fates got tied to Kerouac and the Zen. Then it analyses the specific wander and natural images in the text, analyses the Zen that the writer comprehended in the process of the ordeal travel and the Zen buddhism to the bliss of Dhyana, such as all things turn out to be fruitless, the heart should live nothing, the seek of me, merciful and altruistic and so on. It reduces the Kerouac's meditation course. And then this dissertation exposes the multi-dimensional characteristics of Zen in the text, such as compatible parallel, demonstrate personality, save beyond, seasonal radical and so on. At the same time, this paper probes into the feature of the Zen in the process of acceptance and the impact that the Zen affected on the "Beat Generation" literature and life to make a better understanding to the Zen when it was accepted in the United States. At last, this paper clarifies the entanglement of Kerouac in religion. He was kept hovering between Catholic and the Zen. He continued to change from religious identity to the final failure of self-identity, which doomed him the tragic fate of "on the road" forever.