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Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are both celebrated Beat generation novels that were underappreciated at the time they were published. In both of these novels the manifestation of mainstream American culture presents itself in the characters that symbolize oppression and its use as a way to get the protagonists to conform to behavior deemed “proper” by society. Ray Smith’s family represents mainstream society’s ideal family values in The Dharma Bums, and in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched represents the society that decides on “proper behavior,” just as she is doing for Randle McMurphy and the rest of the ward’s patients. Ray Smith and Randle McMurphy both had trials in their lives that affected them in good and bad ways, both were struggling against being made to conform to fit societal standards, but it’s in the way they let those trials shape them into better men that make them worthy of their own redemption in the end. Ray Smith, the lively and inquisitive narrator of The Dharma Bums, is a curious character created by Jack Kerouac that was a reflection of how the author saw himself at the time. Smith, a free-spirited man of around thirty-five years old who doesn’t seem to conform to the standard societal mold that his family symbolizes, leaves home in search of freedom and personal enlightenment. Though he is a recently converted Buddhist, his interest’s center around partying, drinking, and sex when the novel is in its adolescence, before he meets Japhy Ryder and really commits his life to focusing on the path to finding nirvana. Throughout Kerouac’s celebrated text, Smith displays an almost child-like sense of curiosity and honesty, and the tales he spins in the novel are those of adventure, friendship, and freedom. He seems to live his life as though he is struggling with a perpetual internal battle between lust, which he believes to be an obstacle of enlightenment, and purity, which he believes may lead to enlightenment. However, he still shows subconscious signs of being reluctant to embrace the Buddhist ways completely, at least until he

gathers the courage to set off to work alone as a lookout on Desolation Peak, where he emerges feeling enlightened. A character’s identity can be hard to define. In the Chicago Review, Samuel Bellman described the author-based character of Ray Smith as a “restless wanderer, the disinherited outcast woefully seeking a family, an identity, a definition, and localization on life’s graph” (69). three contributing factors that may be said to have helped transform the protagonist Ray Smith’s identity throughout Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums, either positively or negatively in their own respect, could be his recent conversion to Buddhism and the eternal devotion to seeking personal enlightenment; the “cherished” family values that were habitual to those who belonged to mainstream society during this time; and the simplicity he is searching for throughout life and how he found the answer he was looking for through nature. In the beginning of Kerouac’s novel that takes place in the early 1960’s, newly-converted Buddhist Ray Smith goes out on his own to get away from the typical expectations that accompany his life and, at a poetry jam, finds an inspirational, life-long friendship in Buddhist Japhy Ryder, model after real-life devoted Buddhist Gary Snyder. Smith regards Ryder as an ideal Buddhist role model throughout the remainder of the novel after they initially meet. Smith struggles with the societal belief that those dedicated to the Rucksack Revolution lack proper social and family values that were widely expected at this time, and the dedication and curiosity he feels for the Buddhist religion. Smith’s personal exploration into this renowned religion was aided by his adventurous climb up Matterhorn Peak in Sawtooth Ridge with Japhy and Henry Morley and his passion for writing poetry. Following this thrill-seeking exploit with his friends, Ray Smith hitchhikes across the country to return home to his family in North Carolina, following the suicide of one of his female friends. After spending just a few hours talking with those he is related to Smith, once again,

begins to feel as though he doesn’t live up to the expectations set by the common people that his family represents, and doesn’t want to because despite his everlasting compassion, those who follow the footsteps of mainstream society often seem to misunderstand him, and he them. Japhy Ryder states that society is “imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce consume, I see a vision of great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wondering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray” (Kerouac 73). Lonely and depressed, Ray Smith returns to Berkley to live with his mentor and friend, Japhy, who lives in a friend’s shack that is the frequent site of massive parties, which they both grow bored of. Before Japhy has to leave to live in a monastery in Japan, the best friends sneak away to hike to the coastline to part ways. Following his friend’s advice, Smith sets out on his solitary journey to work as a fire lookout on Desolation Peak, where he finally finds enlightenment in a simple life that is wonderful, because it’s meaningless. Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums’ Ray Smith’s identity has a largely positive progression throughout the novel. Smith’s conversion to Buddhism and his personal devotion to finding enlightenment has a positive impact on his identity because it drew his focus further away from the destructive habits that come with excessive partying and drinking, and made him more interested in exploring the world and its purpose. Smith’s focus on religion also influenced him positively because it gave him a sense of belonging when he couldn’t find it anywhere else. Most communities at the time believes that people like Ray Smith lacked decent values and morals, and made him feel that way, which in turn caused him to struggle with the feeling of not entirely fitting in with people like his family. This standard of belief could have effected Smith negatively by making him feel depressed or guilty when he didn’t yield to their ways of living when he should have been taught that his family would love him unconditionally, and that he

should embrace who he is, find his own purpose in life, and make that work for himself: A message he was starting to receive when he committed his life to Buddhism and searching for nirvana. The simple life he adopted after leaving home at the beginning of the novel definitely had a constructive impact on the identity of Ray Smith, because he retracted from the vain and petty life his family lead and gave his life a simple purpose; to explore the world pursuing only peace, happiness, and nirvana. Randle McMurphy is an obnoxious character that provides a bit of comic relief in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy enters the novel as a manipulative, self-confident con-man who willingly chooses to enter the mental hospital as a patient, not because he is crazy, but because he wanted to escape the hard work and labor of the Pendleton Work Farm, where he was sentenced to serve six months after getting into trouble with the law for gambling. After moving to the ward, McMurphy proves to be a disruptive alpha male who is determined not to ever do anything unless it is for his own personal gain, financial or otherwise. Soon after becoming a resident of the ward, he attempts to stir up the feelings of rebellion in the other patients against the nurses and aides: Once it was brought to McMurphy’s attention that the manipulative and oppressive Nurse Ratched could hold him there as a patient for as long as she wanted, he tried to act more quiet and submissive. Without considering the consequences, McMurphy fails to back up one of his impressionable followers, after which the disciple committed suicide because of McMurphy’s betrayal by open lack of support in a stand against Nurse Ratched. Subsequently, Randle McMurphy’s attitude towards the other patients began to shift to that more of a protector or guardian as he became to be more susceptible to accepting the responsibility of being somewhat of a role model to the ward’s other patients. In the later portions of the book, McMurphy displays several attempts to help with the rehabilitation of the

other patients in his ward: He goes out of his way to plan a fishing trip for the patients in the ward; he got into a fist fight with the aides to defend a patient named George, which ended in McMurphy’s first round of electroshock therapy; he helps a patient named Billy with an overbearing mom lose his virginity; and then, after Nurse Ratched provokes Billy into committing suicide, McMurphy shatters Nurse Ratched’s power and sacrifices his own mental health for the greater good of the other patients by attacking the nurse in front of all the other patients and as a result she has him lobotomized. The three factors that may be considered to have aided in altering the identity of the unexpected savior, Randle McMurphy, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, whether for the better or worse, could be the unexpected oppression – borderline torture – that he witnessed when he arrived at the mental institute; the looming threat of having his freedom being snatch away permanently at any time by Nurse Ratched; and the new-found feeling of responsibility he suddenly starts to feel for the other patient’s lives. When Randle McMurphy first arrive at the mental hospital, he startled the entire ward into silence with his loud laugh because it was a sound they hadn’t heard in years. In the weeks following that arrival, Nurse Ratched does her best to assert her authority over the entire ward, and she makes it clear to McMurphy what was waiting for him or anyone else who acted up: Electroshock therapy. Though he did his best to resist the oppression, thinking he could con the system, he was beginning to realize that Nurse Ratched was more manipulative and cunning than he was. As McMurphy began to realize the ruthlessness in which the orderlies used their preferred form of torture that they called treatment under Nurse Ratched’s orders, he also discovered that by reason of being committed involuntarily, he was trapped being a patient of the ward until the staff believed him to be well enough to leave on his own. This discovery caused McMurphy to adapt

his behavior to the situation, making him act more submissive toward the orderlies and obey Nurse Ratched’s authority. At this point the other residents had already started to look to McMurphy as a leader and they became confused by this change in behavior. After Cheswick commits suicide because McMurphy failed to stand against Nurse Ratched with Cheswick, McMurphy finally starts to understand the affect he has on the other patients and the responsibility that comes with that respect. McMurphy starts to accept his role in the rehabilitation of the patients and organizes a fishing trip, and while they are all out of the hospital McMurphy teaches the patients how to handle situation that may arise in the world outside the mental institute. When they were back in the ward, the aids started to mentally torture a germaphobe named George and when Randle McMurphy and another patient got into a fist fight with the aides, they were sent to endure electroshock therapy: McMurphy for the first time. McMurphy was trying to keep up a strong front to the patients when he returned to the ward, but Nurse Ratched did her best to weaken him in the eyes of his devotees. Even after being urged to escape by the other patients, McMurphy refused to leave because he promised to help Billy lose his virginity that night. The next day when Nurse Ratched found out what happen and threatened to tell Billy’s mother, Billy committed suicide. In his last attempt to help all the patients he felt responsible for, he sacrificed his sanity to better their lives. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest protagonist Randle McMurphy had an identity that predominantly improved over the course of the novel, however slowly the change was brought about, but to his credit the atmosphere and environment he was introduced to was designed to breed nothing but a decline in sanity and over mental health. Moving into a mental institution would be life-changing, but this particular mental hospital sounds like Hell. The effect living in a place like this would have a negative effect on anyone’s identity, and that holds true in

this case, however McMurphy also tried to channel his energy into improve the atmosphere. The event of finding out his freedom rested in the hands of Nurse Ratched changed him entirely – and not for the better. McMurphy disregarded everyone’s needs but his owns, and his thoughtlessness caused someone he knew to commit suicide. This devastating act made McMurphy realize that he was considered a leader among the patients and that it was now his responsibility to help their rehabilitation. He took them all under his wing and after Billy died he sacrificed himself. Though this life-altering burden took its toll on McMurphy’s strength and sanity, in the end he found redemption for all the bad he had done but sacrificing himself for the greater good. A book review published by an unknown author in Issues in Criminology states, “In the free spirit’s fight against the oppressive powers of organized society, McMurphy could not possibly win. Yet he could not give up the fight, because that would have been a complete denial of what the struggle was all about” (“Review” 233).

Works Cited Bellman, Samuel. “Review: On the Mountain.” Rev. of The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. Chicago Review Dec. 1959: 69-72. Web. Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York: Penguin Classics, 1958. Print “Review.” Rev. of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. Issues in Criminology 1968: 233-234. Web....