Secret Life of Bees

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The Secret Life Of Bees( chapter 1) The journey of Lyli in the Secret Life Of Bees Through her life journeys Lily learns to appreciate the small things in life and to thank those who care. The devastating tragedy of losing a your mother at an early age can drastically affect that one person's life. It can impact the way someone thinks, corresponds with others, and the way someone handles them emotionally. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees Lily Owens loses her mother at the early age of four. During Lily's journey she finds comfort and support in the women that she meets. Throughout the novel Lily goes through many changes because of the impact of the motherly figures of the Black Mary, Rosaleen, and the Calendar Sisters. Lying on her bed, Lily waits for the return of the bees that have begun to live in the walls of her bedroom. The year is 1964; Lily is about to turn fourteen. She lives alone with her father, Terrance Ray, and their black housekeeper and nanny, Rosaleen. Lily cannot bring herself to call her cruel, aloof father “Daddy,” so she calls him T. Ray instead. Rosaleen warns her to watch out, because “bees swarm before death.” Lily insists on telling T. Ray about the bees, so she wakes him up, even though she suspects it will only anger him. It does. Lily reminisces about her mother, who died when she was four years old. Lily intimates that she had a significant, albeit accidental, role in her mother’s death. Then Lily recounts the last memory she has of her mother: December 3, 1954—the last day her mother was alive. In the memory, her mother begins to fight with T. Ray as she cleans out a closet. Lily distinctly remembers her mother’s smell and the overpowering feeling of wanting only to be with her. Her mother responds to T. Ray’s yelling by pulling out a gun. They tussle, and it falls to the floor. Lily remembers bending to pick up the gun and
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