Chappie finds his Identity

Chappie Finds His Identity While Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places in
Russell Banks’ “Rule of the Bone”

In his novel, Rule of the Bone, Russell Banks' main character is a 14-year-old- teenager who loves to smoke pot and has little are no love in his life. The boy’s name is Chappie but this is just his name; it does little in revealing his true identity. Having been forced to leave his home, Chappie sets out on a journey that will eventually give him a sense of identity for his life. During this journey, Chappie will look for love in drugs, some dysfunctional friends, through an act of mercy, and by moving to a new world.
In the first pages of his novel, Banks introduces us to Chappie who is heavy into smoking weed and is desperate to find a way to support his habit. Chappie tells us: “Anyhow my life got interesting you might say the summer I turned 14 and was heavy into weed but I didn't have any money to buy it with so I started looking around the hou...