The Social Rebels And Spiritual Questers Kcrouac’s The Dharma Bums

Some critics think that The Dharma Bums is Kerouac’s most undervalued bookfor this book shows that Kerouac has grown older and wiser than he was when he livedand wrote On the Road. The Dharma Bums has been considered to be a religious bookfor a long time and critics argued over the properness of Kerouac’s understanding andinterpretation of Dharma, as a result, its profound socio-cultural significance wasneglected unfortunately. Although The Dharma Bums has claimed its position in literaryhistory later, it certainly deserves much more attention.In The Dharma Bums, Kerouac ponders on and reflects on the American societyand people’s state of living through an Eastern philosophical way. It was an alien andsomewhat shocking work at that time: the political tension between East and Weststressed people’s nerves, the hostile emotion generates a universal fear and resistancetowards the East. The Dharma Bums reflects on people’s state of living and the societyin a philosophical and poetic manner, it enlightens and teaches people to rebel againstthe society’s suppression of people’s free will through an Eastern philosophical manner.Moreover, The Dharma Bums helps America to become a more tolerant country in thefuture, and the rising of the pop culture in the70s and80s owed a lot to this book andthe Rucksack culture mentioned in this book.This paper studies the socio-cultural elements of the mid-fifties America throughDaniel Bell’s theory and analyzes the birth and significance of The Dharma Bums,finally it comes to the conclusion that, according to Daniel Bell’s theory, there are twoconsequences of the cultural contradictions of capitalism: one is that during the processof modernization,“the economic impulse” broke the constraint of “the religiousimpulse” and became the dominant force. As a result, people’s spiritual world becameweak. This is also the reason why Kerouac turned to Eastern religion for help. The otherconsequence is the manipulation of people by the commercial society and extreme politics caused the loss of people’s authenticity and free will. The Dharma Bumsappeared as the times required. Like an ancient eastern saint, Kerouac beckoned thespiritually lost people with new beliefs, and he provided those who struggled in thematerial world with an alternative way of living and thinking, he also enlightened andtaught people to rebel and quest.