Summer Reading Essay

Rich Cominskie
Mrs. Burt
Honors English 11
23 September 2010
Dual Character Analysis Paper
My choices of summer reading books consisted of A Lesson Before Dying and The Secret Life of Bees. I found both stories to be interesting and quite unique.
I found it to be a little difficult to find any obvious similarities between A Lesson Before Dying and The Secret Life of Bees. However, I did find some. In one instance, there is some sort of journal. In A Lesson Before Dying, Grant had bought Jefferson a journal to write any thoughts he had down. In comparison, Zach, from The Secret Life of Bees, bought Lily a journal to write all of her thoughts in. In both books, the main character has a love, or love interest. In both stories, the main character is trying to do something important. Lily is trying to find a new life, and get answers to her questions, while Grant was basically trying to save a life. Rather than a similarity between the main characters, both books have an intense emotional tug throughout them.
On the other hand, I found it quite easier to find differences between the main characters. First, there are the obvious differences. Grant is an African American, male adult, while Lily is a young, white female. Now, the not so obvious difference might be the priorities of both characters. Grant was more focused on himself than anyone else; he did help Jefferson, but only because of the constant pressure being put on him by his aunt Tante Lou. Meanwhile, Lily was right there with August to help her whenever she needed.
Throughout The Secret Life of Bees, Lily faces many conflicts, her biggest conflict being with herself. At home, her father, T Ray is very abusive, mostly verbal, but at times there were some physical moments. As a child, T Ray told Lily that she had murdered her own mother, and that her mother didn’t love her and was abandoning them both. Lily didn’t really completely believe her father, but she did question whether it is true or not....