Rule of the Bone
...d teenager (www.teensupport.org/symptoms_depression.htm). He engages in copious drug use, is prone to erratic and often violent outbursts, and has, he readily admits, “wicked low self-esteem” (Banks 4). This is mainly caused by the fact that he is profoundly isolated. The very few relationships he does have are marked by fear (Ken, the bikers), estrangement (his father), or, in most cases, emotional distance. Bone sincerely loves his mother and grandmother, but the trappings of adolescence—his growing interest in marijuana and heavy metal, his dubious fashion sense, his academic and disciplinary problems—seem to drive a wedge between them. Even Russ is held at arm’s length. Bone can relate to Russ, but he often feels uncomfortable revealing his true feelings to his friend; Russ, in turn, seems to use his position of seniority and experience as a means to control and manipulate Bone. When he gets caught shoplifting a negligee, ostensibly an attempt to get a gift for his mother but also a veiled cry for attention, we see that Bone truly lacks a voice; he feels that no one is listening or making any effort to understand him. “I felt (…) like I could say anything I wanted and it wouldn’t make any difference” (Banks 21.) When Bone meets I-Man, someone he can finally look upon as an equal and connect with in a meaningful way, he is temporarily lulled out of his depressed state. When the two reunite Rose with her estranged mother, Bone begins to think that reconciliation with his own family is possible. But when he returns home his attempts to get back with them prove even more futile. His family’s—more specifically, his mother’s—inability to understand him keeps his depression in check. Depression is often trigged by traumatic and life-changing events (www.teen-depression.info), and the root of Bone’s condition is most likely the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather all through childhood. While this abuse undoubtedly had a profound effect on him, it is hardly the focal point of Bone’s story. There are hints of it early on, but the reader isn’t made fully aware of it until the near midpoint of the novel. This isn’t because Bone denies or suppresses the abuse, as many victims do, but because of the lack of anyone to tell it to. His mother and grandmother never once try to understand where Bone’s deep-seated animosity of Ken comes from, and assume that Ken couldn’t possibly be...