Analysis Of Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk

Summary- In the novel, Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk was about a young girl named Lily Owens, living on a peach farm in South Carolina. She shot her mother by accident when she was just a baby and now lives with her father, T-Ray, a harsh and strict father along with their housemaid, Rosaleen. Rosaleen was an African American lady who treats Lily like she is her very own child. She decided to go with Lily after she sneaks out of the hospital, to find information about her mother, as well as to get away from the raciest town. T-Ray lead them to the Boatwright Sisters. May, June and August Boatwright are African American girls who run a honey business. These African American women including Rosaleen teach Lily Owen everything

Racial discrimination is a significant problem still in today’s day. In fact there was an article published in April 2015 called “ The Skin I’m In”. It's about an African American man who had been discriminated not only by classmates and strangers but by authority figures also. He started off in Kingston attending Queen’s University. He noticed the police following him in his car. It became so bad that he was afraid to go home because he didn’t want them to know where he lived. He was walking home with his friend Sara, a white female after a party. An officer stopped them and he said “ Miss, do you need assistance?” She had to say no twice for the officer to leave. He decided to move to Toronto. There he had been “stopped, questioned and followed by the police so many times he began to expect it”. Facts were stated in this article saying how “ we Blacks account for 9.3 per cent of Canadian prisoners even though we only make up 2.9 per cent of the population”. He also stated how he was “ 17 times more likely than a white person to be carded in Toronto’s downtown core.” These facts and stories are disgusting. It proves the racial discrimination that society has for people who are just like us but have different features. This relates to Rosleen because the white men knew they could treat her differently just because of her color. That they could, talk to her and taunt her as much

I am not the type of person to sit down and read a book but when I read this book I was reading every morning and night, not because I had to but because I wanted to. I enjoyed this book because it related to today's society problems. The main, one being racial discrimination. This book shows two sides of race. In the beginning it reflects on how white people thought they had complete dominance over African Americans. For example “T. Ray did not think colored women were smart. Since I want to tell the whole truth, which means the worst parts, I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though, all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and this surprised me.” (Secret life of bees,78) It demonstrates how white people like T-Ray and Lily would judge people by what they were told as well as by colour. When Lily Owens and Rosaleen end up with the three Boatwright sisters, Lily is then living with African Americans as well as falling in love with a young African American boy. She was always taught back at home that they could never be attractive or do anything good with their lives but was proved wrong. The three sisters owned their own honey factory which was very popular and sold all round the town, even places outside of the town. The boy, Zack made Lily feel a way she has never felt