Rule of the Bone

I-Man is a middle-aged migrant farmer from Jamaica who has run away from his contract and lives in an abandoned bus when Bone finds him. I-Man is heavily invested in Rastafarian culture, which includes eating a special vegetarian diet known as Ital and smoking marijuana regularly, and he carries around a boombox and a Jah-stick (which is a walking stick with religious significance). He is descended from Ashanti warriors who self-liberated from the slaveholders that brought them to Jamaica.

To an outsider like Bone, I-Man’s peaceful nature contradicts his life in Jamaica, where he is a drug dealer capable of violence if needed. However, I-Man has reconciled what might be considered incompatible parts of himself through his religion, and he encourages Bone to do the same by letting him make his own decisions and not questioning Bone as a person. For Bone, this is a radical kind of acceptance. I-Man serves as Bone’s surrogate father and represents an authenticity that he longs for, particularly in contrast to Bone’s biological father.

Russ is Bone’s best friend at the beginning of the novel, and he invites Bone to stay with him at the bikers’ apartment. He is eager for the glamour of their life as homeless drifters, particularly as it enables him to commit crime, which gets him in trouble when he steals from the bikers. He’s loyal to Bone up to a point, but Bone comes to realize that Russ isn’t serious about the life they’re living because he has the option of going to his aunt’s house whenever he wants. Russ represents the person Bone could have been, particularly at the close of the novel, when he sees Russ in Jamaica and thinks he is a typical clueless American kid being picked up by Evening Star for hedonistic fun.

Doc, Bone’s biological father, is a man who has scammed his way through life, beginning with when he convinced Bone’s mother to get him a job at the clinic where she worked despite his having no medical degree. Doc uses their romance to get away with this but leaves when Bone’s mother finds out he’s having an affair. When Bone finds him in Jamaica, the version of him that he’s heard about from his grandmother turns out to be accurate: He’s a selfish, violent man who is only marginally interested in Bone. He’s also involved in the local drug trade, and he likely has I-Man murdered after I-Man sleeps with Doc’s girlfriend, Evening Star.