Thursday, April 19, 2007
1st Paragraph for Dharma Bums Paper
Japhy in the book The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac is the leading spiritual voice in the book. However, Japhy has very conflicting ideas within his spirituality. Japhy tends to use some ideas selectively instead of the devout following of all of his beliefs, which he defends so exuberantly. Japhy does this because of his desire to become enlightened, like the people who’s philosophies he adopts. His impatience for a personal revelation is what brings him to constantly jump between realist and romantic personal views. He does however, try to defend every view he has ever adopted, because of his fear that it might be the one that in the end will lead him to enlightenment. This of course makes Japhy seem very hypocritical at times. Reading the book you see the tension within Japhy around the subject of his beliefs and which ones to follow at which times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Very good start on your paper. Your paragraph is focused and certainly has a topic and a number of original thoughts. I wonder, however, if the thesis itself is really the most interesting point that you make in this paragraph. Certainly I see this tension "within Japhy around the subject of his beliefs...", but to me this isn't really a thesis, it sounds more like an observation. However, the sentence "His impatience for a personal revelation is what brings him to constantly jump between realist and romantic personal views," might make for a much more engaging thesis in and of itself.
What do you think about organizing the paper around that idea??
Post a Comment