Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

The secret life of bees is a novel of love and courage. A young girl is on a journey to find her mother and learns to love herself throughout the story. Lily, is the main character of the story and she is also the narrator. Kidd starts of the story with Lily lying in bed watching the swarming bees around her room. She lives with her abusive father, T.Ray, on a peach farm in Sylvan South Carolina. Lily’s mother had passed away when she was only 4 years old and she always had this feeling in the back of her mind that it was her fault. The last memory she had of her mother was when her mother Deborah was packing a suitcase and arguing with T.ray. The rest of the memory is a blur, and she isn’t so sure about it. But she remembers there being a

Rosaleen has been her housekeeper ever since her mother had passed. She was practically a mother figure to Lily, Lily looked up to her. Rosaleen had informed her that she is going into town to register to vote since the civil rights act had just been passed. Lily had heard that in Mississippi, colored people would get shot if they registered to vote, she insisted to go with her just in case anything bad happened. As they walk into the center of the town, three white men approached Rosaleen and they start pushing and shoving her. The cops show up and decide to arrest Rosaleen for “disturbing the peace.” Lily immediately went home to talk to her father. T.ray was furious and mentioned that Deborah never loved her and was planning to leave them before she died. Lily refused to believe T.ray and decided to pack her bags and run

She spots Rosaleen and warns her that the guys that attacked are going to kill her if she doesn’t leave the hostpital. Lily tells Rosaleen they are going to Tiburon South Carolina. She was curious to see if the writing on the picture had anything to do with her mother. Rosaleen and Lily hitchhiked to Tiburon. They stop at a store where Lily notices jars of honey with the same image of the black Virgin Mary on them. Lily asked the store manager where they came from and he informs her that they live right across the street. Lily and Rosaleen head over to the house and they find out that three sisters live there and produce and sell honey. August is the oldest, June is the middle child, and May is the youngest. Lily informs August that they are looking for a job to earn money to be able to fly to Virginia to visit her aunt. August was a little suspicious about her lie, but she insisted she stayed anyways. August taught Lily and Rosaleen how to use the equipment to make honey. Since August allowed them to stay, the least they could do was work for