A Retrospection Of The Dharma Bums With Tillich’s Theism Existentialism

As the sequel of On the Road written by the Beat King Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums keeps recording the story of the beat members who continue exploring new cultural ideal as well as lifestyle after the Second World War. Just as its name implies, The Dharma Bums combines the oriental Zen Buddhism and occidental picaresque element. The proposition of the author could be conclude by a lifestyle of learning from east and then a self-transcendence, self-salvation under the monopoly of post-war industrial materialism. Therefore, it is justifiable to argue that the publication of this novel marks the ending of Kerouac’s early pure bohemian idea as well as the beginning of the tentative mirroring of Zen Buddhism.This essay adopts Tillich’s ideal of theism existentialism for the purpose of analyzing the theme of self-transcendence in The Dharma Bums. Paul Tillich(1886-1965) is the representative of theism existentialism in modern period. In a manner of speaking, both Kerouac and Tillich explore the similar outlet for modern society in literary and philosophical field respectively. The main arguments of this essay, including the invasion of nonbeing, the appearance of three anxieties as well as the reaction of two forms of courage, are in accompany with Tillich’s basic philosophical ideas derived from his books such as The Courage To Be.This essay, including Introduction and Conclusion, is constituted by five sections:Introduction intends to give a comprehensive description of Kerouac and his major work, then a sketch including existing representative research materials will be present in a thematic oriented and critical way.Chapter one focuses on the analysis of manifestation of anxieties in the Dharma Bums. It first gives an existential explanation of terms as nonbeing and subsequently anxiety; the second quarter gives a close look from actions and dictions of major characters such as Japhy and Ray to those of minor characters as Alvah and two gondola bums, and so forth, because the characters, which serve as an epitome of the whole contemporary American people who are caught in the chaotic postwar time, show clearly an inevitable dilemma, and there’s a necessity for a fightback under the collective anxieties, which leads to the discussion of the second chapter.Chapter two first gives a brief explanation of the philosophical term “courage” and it’s classification according to Tillich, then explores leading characters’, for the purpose of rebelling against endless anxieties, various forms of courage, in which a spiritual level of Ray’s beat Zen and Japhy’s mixed Zen are analyzed with Tillich’s theism existentialism. The emphasis lies in the aspect of description and comparison between Japhy’s semi-collective courage and Ray’s individual courage, which aims to show how two of them absorb and transform eastern philosophy respectively, the discrepancy and uniqueness will be discussed based on the text.Chapter three, as the sublimation passage, firstly discusses the pioneering Kerouacism—the real Dharma Bums Han Shan from whom Japhy and Ray imitate, then the comparison of real Zen Buddhism and Zen Lunatic will be discussed, the next part,togethering with other novels of Kerouac, gives a critical analysis of the influence of Kerouacism, including discussions about the literary as well as realistic value of the new-born form of individual courage, as well as the pros and cons of it.The conclusion firstly generalizes the main points of the previous chapters, and relative arguments have been enhanced; besides, the realistic meaning of this research is also presented in the ending part.