BUSy place

The hippie bus has gone through a radical change throughout the book. When the bus was under the control of the bong brothers, it was a nasty, smelly place that was not a happy place to be. It was a place to stay the night but not for long term living. When I-Man took over ownership of the bus, he transformed it into something new. It lost its terrible smell, was cleaned out. I-Man created a garden next to it and gave it plumbing and its own little kitchen. Russel makes the contrast stand out with his phrase "It was like the garden of Eden" (159). Russell explains of the bus being a garden of marijuana and how it is like a heaven for Chappie. I think I-Man is a great person. He acts a father figure towards Froggy or Rose as we later find out her real name. I-Man is a fantastic influence on the kids. He explains to them his own religion which gives Chappie a new sense of the world and a new insight on life. Later on, when it was the Fourth of July I-Man started to wig-out about the booms of the fireworks. This gives us the insight that his Jamaican past is one of unstable politics and one of a criminal status. He can decipher by sound if it is many guns which means that it is either the police or military. After hearing the sounds, he ran to a safe area which gives the implications that he was running from them, not wanting to get caught.

Jamaica and its past in a nutshell: Jamaica in the 1400s was a hunter-gatherer nation of native Americans that were soon plundered by the Spanish with the arrival of Columbus. In 1655, the British conquered the island and continued their plundering and enslaving with the people there growing mainly sugar. The slaves were later emancipated and slowly gained their political freedom after years of political and economic fervor. During all the fervor, the government kept changing under the British rule.


Haile Selassie: Truly named Tafari Makonnen, became emporer of Ethiopia from 1930-1974. He was looked at as the messiah of the Rastafarian movement/religion despite being an Ethiopian Orthodox his whole life.
Rastafarianism: A religious movement in Jamaica the views Haile Selassie as the messiah.It includes the spiritual use of marijuana and claims the origin of man is Africa.
(Nesta) Bob Marley: A Jamaican musician in the late 1900s. He is said to be the father of reggae music
Malcolm X: Actually named Malcolm Little, was an African American Muslim who stood up for civil rights and is said to be the most influential African-American of all time.

Banks, Russell. Rule of the Bone: a Novel. New York: HarperPerennial, 1996. Print.