Compare and contrast - The Dharma Bums, Into thin Air

Bohemian lifestyle . Then the friends decided to take a trip to the Matterhorn Peak in California to get in touch with their spiritual side , but Ray eventually returned to the partying and womanizing ways . Although , the type of mountaineering he encountered in Matterhorn Peak inspired him in his next mountain ventures . Japhy was to join a

monastery in Japan , so he and Ray spent the final couple of days together hiking on the Marin Trail to get back to nature . Consequently Ray spent the summer as a fire look-out in the mountains

, specifically for the United States Forest Service . In the mountains , Ray enjoyed the solitary life (Marcel

The mountains served a significant purpose in the writing of Jack Kerouac . He depicts the mountains to rise above the American landscape as magnificent entities whose peaks are touched by very few enduring and fervent souls , and as symbolic representations of achievement . Likewise he describes the mountains as the isolation of an individual from the masses of the working class in an industrialized capitalist American society (i .e . Ray working as fire-lookout . The mountains in Dharma Bums signify accomplishment by achieving a connection with nature , far from the lure of materialism ( Importance of Mountains in

Ray Smith 's journey was about personal freedom , while Jon Krakauer 's was about self-fulfillment . Into Thin Air 's Mt . Everest embodies pride while the Dharma Bums ' mountain embodies solitude . In the two stories both authors used mountains to illustrate exhaustive journeys . But the purpose and the duration of the journey were far opposite from each other . Contrastingly , the mountain was shown as an edifice that can lead to greed or peace-of mind . On a personal note , the great message conveyed is that it is nobler to have the courage to admit the one 's weakness , turn...