Yo Bones!!!

Rule of the Bone is a coming of age story about young boy named Chappie that leaves his home and gets into all kinds of horrifying and life changing experiences. At this point in the novel, Chappie, now referred to as Bone, has travelled to Jamaica with his new best friend and mentor, I-man.

In the story, Bone looks up to I-man as not just a friend but a father and a teacher. I-man starts teaching young Bone about rastafarianism. He teaches him about Jah and how only one person can know himself. He describes it to him as more than just a religion or following, but a whole other way of life. Bone really has no father as of yet that he looks up to, so he needs to go to I-man for some kind of guidance because even if he doesn't want to admit it, he's scared. He is terrified because he's a 14 year old kid living his life as a squatter. He wants someone to help him and tell him that he's gonna be ok. He's helpless and doesn't fully know how things work in the society around him.

Bone needs a father figure in his life because his biological father was forced to leave by his mom after trying to get back into the family and his step father Ken is a complete asshole and douche bag that would make Chappie touch his penis and jerk off when he was in the bed with him. But Bone wouldn't take that. At one point, Bone goes back home to find Ken alone in the remains of what used to be his house and Ken tries to fuck him. Bone doesn't just run away from him, though, as most of us would. He takes a gun he had kept in his backpack from an earlier adventure and points it directly at Ken. But Bone knows he can't just shoot him, Ken would have to egg him on one last time, he wanted him to call him "faggot" or "asshole" one last time so he could make him suffer for what happened to his childhood.

During his misadventures in Jamaica, Bone runs into his biological father. Now i know it sounds very convenient that his father just happens to be in the same area that Bone now resides and that even I-man knows him. It's a Deus Ex Machina type of situation, but he meets his father and starts to really like him, until he realizes that he's just another drug abusing asshole after one night of significant events. I won't spoil the ending, but by the end, Bone starts to come to his self-realization, like he finally found Jah. He discovered I-and-I.