A Countercultural Study on Kerouac'sThe Dharma Bums

Abstract

The present research work is a study to see Jack Kerouac's novelThe Dharma Bumsas counterculture manifesto. The study focuses on the aspects of the novel that directly oppose the contemporary American capitalistic norms and values of the 1950s. The people that the novel talks about are the beatniks who involve themselves in the practice of excessive wanderings, Zen Buddhism, jazz music, haiku, sexual indulgences, drug use and stealing to subvert the values of the mainstream culture. It celebrates unchecked self-expression and serves a heavy blow to the values of decency and decorum of the polite society. So, the present study opens the door to see the text as a countercultural one. The researcher's sole intention is to show how its author is challenging the established culture for the eternal freedom.