The book full of symbolism and hope, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, reveals a story of a young girl, Lily, searching for answers in Tiburon, South Carolina. Throughout the novel Kidd shows the feelings, emotions and personalities of each character. The whale pin, the Our Lady of Chains statue and the bee hive all symbolize something important to the people in the novel, which impact their everyday lives. The bee hive was one of the most symbolic features in this novel because it shows three things. One, the struggle the bees go through after their queen dies.
“Honeybees depend not only on physical with the colony, but also require social companionship and support. Isolate a honey bee from her sister and she will soon die” This strongly relates to April and May. May feels the pain and suffering of everyone’s problems and carries them around on her shoulders ever since she lost her sister to a suicide death. May later on takes her own life just like her twin sister. This shows that some people depend on each other and really need one another in order to survive in an emotional.
Setting and Character Development in “The Secret Life of Bees” Where we come from and where we are determining our sense of self, and our sense of the life we live. Our environment makes us who we are, and sometimes to change, we must change our surroundings. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, she portrays Lily’s coming of age through the use of setting as she transitions from the harsh and abusive environment while living with her father, to the loving, nurturing environment provided by the Boatwright sisters on their honey farm. Children of constant abuse are subject to depression, self-confidence issues, and other severe mental issues later in life. Lily was a victim of abuse and neglect at the hand of her father T. Ray.
In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, racism is portrayed in different ways from a varied range of characters. The main character, Lily discovers that before she starts to live with the Boatwright sisters, she is very racist toward black people. When first living with the Boatwright’s, one of the sisters June discriminates against Lily, which is what is called reverse racism. The churches, although were expected to be very accepting of everyone, were the worst people to discriminate against African Americans in The Secret Life of Bees. White people don’t like to believe that they practice identity politics.
Book report on The Secret Life of Bees Although the title is called The Secret Life of Bees, this book is not actually about bees. Lily was raised in a broken family. Her mother left her when she was little and her father did not represent the right father figure. The only person that actually loved Lily was ironically Rosaleen. The fact that Rosaleen truly cared for and loved Lily is ironic because Rosaleen is African American while Lily is White.
T. Ray scares Lily by saying that the men Rosaleen assaulted will probably come back and kill her. T. Ray tells Lily that her mother planned on abandoning her the day she was killed and this is the last straw for Lily. She stands up to T. Ray and while he was out in the peach field she packs her bags and the small box of her mother’s belongings and leaves a note telling T. Ray that he shouldn’t bother looking for her. Lily goes back to the jail to visit Rosaleen and is told she is now in the hospital and Lily knows that the white men must have come back and beat her up some more. Lily manages to break Rosaleen out of the hospital and they hitchhike to Tiburon, South Carolina
Lily says, “See my mother had died when I was little, and then my father died in a tractor accident last month on our farm in Spartanburg country…” (73). She lies so she can stay there and slowly learn about her mother. Lily is living a secret life just like the bees, “Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about.” (148). Just like Lily the bees also have a secret life. She realizes that she needs to tell August Boatwright about her mother soon.
Travis Greenwell AP Literature Mr. Goodlett September 14, 2009 Lily Owens: girl to young woman During the time of the civil rights movement, racism was at its peak in America. However, the journey of a determined 14-year old girl named Lily Owens takes center stage in the novel The Secret Life of Bees when she escapes from her abusive father in search of what happened to her deceased mother. She ends up in the household of three African American women who teach her key principles that contribute to success in life. Throughout this novel, Lily’s determination drives her to discover the truth about her mother while maturing in the Boatwright household. In this story, the main focus is on Lily’s journey to find everything she can about her mother and her longing for motherly love.
The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her very unloving father, to look for the secrets of her dead mother's past. The setting of the book is in South Carolina in 1964, a time when racial tensions were inflamed by the civil rights movement and white racists' frequently had violent responses to it. Throughout all this, Lily and her house-keeper, Rosaleen, find shelter in the home of the Boatwright sisters, three African American beekeepers who worship before the statue of a Black Madonna they call "Our Lady of Chains." In the Boatwright household, Lily finds love and acceptance and begins to come to terms with the guilt she feels over her mother's death. As a result of the experiences in her life and the way she interprets them, Lily is able to mature and grow, placing her firmly on the road to adulthood.
Mentioning where an individual sleeps conveys their innocence when an individual sleeps they are no longer in control and their mind takes over, they are innocent of their actions. Shakespeare demonstrates that when an individual destroys family ties they also damage innocence, the Secret Life of Bees mirrors the sense of familiar betrayal. Bythewood demonstrates the human need of an individual to have a connection beyond memory, this is conveyed through Lily speaking to her mother in heaven, "bet my hair must have annoyed you when it went off in 11 different directions." The use of speaking to her mother through her religion demonstrate her purity and innocence. T-Ray, Lily's father betrays her through lies, "god damn woman didn't give a shit about you".