Jitterbug Perfume Research Paper

The beat movement was a movement that began in the 1950s and was centered “in the bohemian artist communities” of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York (Britannica). The people part of this movement, often called “beats”, rejected square values and “advocated personal release, purification, and illumination through the heightened sensory awareness that might be induced by drugs, jazz” and “sex” (Britannica). The beats, in their literature, would openly speak about the presence of things and ideas in society which were not normally spoken about. Throughout the epic novel, Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, it is evident that the beat movement had a major influence on Robbins and the novel as he does this too. This is supported by Robbins’s diverse set of characters, the openness with which he talks

Therefore, it is safe to say that psychedelia also had an impact on Robbins. The way the dematerialization of Alobar and Kudra is described by Robbins is similar to the experience a person might have on a drug such as LSD. Robbins describes that Alobar felt weightless as he let go “of his attachment to gravity” and that “he was becoming unstuck, he was sure of that—his bones were no longer wrapped in flesh but in clouds of dust, in hummingbirds, dragonflies, and luminous moths—but so perfect was his equilibrium that he felt no fear. He was vast, he was many, he was dynamic, he was eternal (Robbins 323-325).” Other characters are more openly depicted doing drugs, such as Priscilla and Ricki. Robbins narrates that Priscilla and Ricki “would lock themselves in the employees' washroom and smoke a joint or blow a line of coke” during their breaks (Robbins 12). By depicting the use of drugs and describing some of the character’s experiences as drug-like, Robbins partakes in the theme of hedonism, a key theme of the beat movement