tory told by a shortfourteen year oldboy named Chappie, who endured a lot of pain and suffering. His fatherabandoned hisfamily when Chappie was five. When his mother remarried, he suffered fromhisstepfather’s abuse. Both his mother and stepfather were alcoholics andcompletelyignored him. To gain attention, Chappie got a Mohawk haircut, pierced hisears, andsported a nose ring. As an escape, Chappie started using drugs and stolehis mother’scollection of valuable coins in order to pay for them. This totallyinfuriated his mother andChappie decided to leave home. Following this, Chappie lived in anapartment above avideo store with heavy metal bikers. A fire broke out, and Chappie left theapartment.
Next, Chappie and his friend Russ, camped out in an abandoned summer house.
Chappieeventually left and helped a young girl named Froggy escape from a drugaddict andporno movie maker named Buster Brown. Chappie and Froggy then met up with areligious Jamaican named I-man. Chappie felt that I-man was his teacher inlife. Aftermeeting I-man, Chappie decided to send Froggy back to her mother. Chappiethenfollowed I-man to Jamaica where they dealt drugs to tourists. In Jamaica,Chappie raninto his real father who took him and I-man back to live at the”mothership”. At the”mothership”, Chappie ended up losing his virginity to his father’sgirlfriend. Finally,I-man got killed, and Chappie became a part of a sea crew and set out onanother voyage.
I think Rule Of The Bone is a great intriguing story. On one hand Icould identifyand relate to this teenage boy and share some of his feelings. However, itmade meappreciate the security of growing up in a stable home with parents whotruly care aboutme. This book made me realize that I usually take all this for granted.
However, I wasdisappointed with the ending of the book; I thought that Chappie’s life wasfinally heading in the right direction. I was very wrong! Chappie’s wholelife was miserable, and I feel that the author, Russell Banks, should havemade a happy ending for Chappie. It wasdisappointing to think that after all the hardships Chappie endured in hislife, that he justwent off on a boat with no more direction or hope of finding happiness inhis future. Hehad been born into a family of troubles and could not escape it no matterhow hard hetried. The ending just made me disappointed.
I was extremely annoyed with Chappie’s mother when she chose to livewith heralcoholic, pervert of a husband over Chappie. I feel that this isoutrageous that a motherwould not be absolutely ecstatic after finding her child who had beenpresumed dead. It isalso unbelievable that she would be unwilling to alter her lifestyle toaccommodate herown flesh and blood. The characters really didn’t lack personality, theywere all differentwhich was intriguing. The plot was interesting, but I feel that Chappie hadtoo rough of alife.
Chappie gives great descriptions of characters, which made me envisionthecharacters without any difficulty. “But Buster Brown is a man of contrastsI guess, a guywho at first glance seems to be taking care of a child that he later turnsout to be dopingfor his porn movies, a guy who wants to help kids who’re homeless and allthat but alsowants to suck and fuck them too, a Christian in a Christian van who turnsout to be a hasbeen actor with an English accent looking for kids to be proteges and turnsout to be awhite guy who likes gangsta rap and manages a band and calls them niggerswho turns outto be a doper on speed or coke or maybe crack and turns out to be takingcare of a poorlittle homeless girl, and so on in a vicious circle like that.” (Page 138)Because Chappiegives such great detail, it was very easy for me to comprehend what wasgoing on in thestory.
