Rule of the Bone

I-Man’s Jah-stick is a religious symbol, but it’s also a testament both to I-Man’s philosophy and capacity for violence, because he has embedded needles into the head to perform the “miracle” of stinging anyone who touches it. I-Man’s religion is about knowing oneself, and so for I-Man, there’s little difference between a miracle and having agency in the world, particularly in a world that has disenfranchised and undermined his people for centuries. When I-Man dies, Bone takes up the Jah-stick and uses it to perform a miracle of his own, placing a curse on Jason for killing his friend and sending him into the fire. Here, the stick takes on further meaning, as it’s a mantle being passed from surrogate father to surrogate son.

When Bone ransacks the Ridgeways’ summer home before shooting out the window and leaving, one of the things he takes is a stack of classical CDs. At first, he thinks he will sell them, but he carries them with him for the remainder of the novel. When he is contemplating suicide, it’s the thought of hearing classical music that stops him short, which he doesn’t understand at first. Later, he puts the CDs on when he is about to confront his biological father, and he compares them to I-Man’s reggae music. Both for Bone and for the novel, the classical music symbolizes moving into adulthood and embracing the positive aspects of one’s heritage. This is particularly true in contrast to I-Man’s reggae: Bone is looking for his own spiritual music while realizing that reggae does not fully belong to him, and listening to the classical music inspires him to see that there are ways for him to be connected to his own culture without indulging in the ugliness he sees at its root.