Skinner, 1

Josh Skinner
Dr. Decker
Lit 450
31 January 2015
Chappie the Anti-Hero
Chappie is an interesting and tragic character. Chappie begins the narrative as a punk and
a petty criminal. We see him recounting (bragging about?) the story of his theft of coins in order
to score drugs. There is not much to his character at the beginning, but he progresses. He moves
from status of petty thief to real criminal by forcing his will upon his mother. After coercing
her into giving him money, even though he has committed no crime in the eyes of the law,
Chappie recognizes that it was a turning point for him. He graduated to real criminal when
"(his mother) looked at (him) in (a) strange fearful way, like she didnt recognize (him) but
almost did. In that situation, he got this sudden new feeling of power and didnt even feel
guilty for it. When his mother reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty and passed it
over"(Location 42), Chappie in a real sense becomes Bone.
Even though he goes on to do some pretty horrendous actions, there is good reason to see
him as heroic throughout a large part of the narrative. He fights for good, as well as he
understands it. Problems arise due to the fact that he is plagued by his own demons. Because of
abuse and abandonment, Chappie has a skewed view of people and a moral compass that is stuck
on respect as he defines it. He wants to help, and he wants to respect others. This gives him a
great sense of empathy towards some but not always great direction. He does not want to force

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himself upon anyone, even for their own good. This is seen with Froggy and, to a lesser degree,
with Russ towards the end of the book.
After seeing the treatment Froggy received from her captor and realizing that she was
sold into her state, he decides to help. His empathy overrides his desire to respect her freedom.
"I decided then and there that if I was going to help her Id have to take Busters place so to
speak and tell her myself what she really wanted and then go ahead and get it for her. That
wasnt my style, I usually let people do what they want to do or even do nothing if thats what
they want but this time I was fully prepared to take over her decision-making powers and rule
her myself at least temporarily"(Location 243.8). Froggy reminded Bone of himself in many
ways and he desperately desired to help.
Bone interacts much the same with Russ at the end of the narrative. Standing afar off,
Bone recognizes the situations in which Russ is about to find himself. Bone contemplates being
a hero, stepping out and helping Russ. But in order to do that, beyond exposing himself, he
would have to force his intentions upon another. The greatest gift that Bone can give a person is
to respect him. And the greatest way that he can show this respect is to let him be free: free of
influence, free of coercion, free of imposition, free of abuse.
Bone is a hero, but not in the way that many would see as heroic. His actions are often
polluted with overt selfishness and recklessness, as well as with a poor sense of right and wrong
understandably derived from the situation in which he spent the majority of his youth. While it
would be easy to dismiss Bone as simply a criminal, his empathy is off the charts for those who
are needy and weak, and he goes outside his comfort zone in order to help them, specifically
Froggy. Rule of the Bone is a narrative of a broken person living a broken life but still doing
what he can do to help those around him.

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Works Cited
Banks, Russell. Rule of the Bone: A Novel. New York, New York: Harper Collins. 1995.
Print. (Electronic)