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Analysis Of The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

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In The Secret Life of Bees, author Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement to highlight the racism of the time period and explain why white people in Tiburon had trouble with the concept of Lily staying at a colored house. Although Lily is comfortable at August’s pink house, she is unable to be sheltered from the racist views from the outside world. One day while watching television, she learns of “an integration parade in St. Augustine that got attacked by a mob of white people…” (88). Here, Lily is being informed of a Florida parade in which activists marched together in support of integrating the public schools. Their peaceful demonstrations were violently crushed by Ku Klux Klan members, who believed that white
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One of the themes presented by Sue Monk Kidd in, “The Secret Life of Bees” is pushing boundaries. In the book, Lily runs away from her abusive father and stays at a beekeepers house where she would be safe. This beekeepers house is a black family and while she stayed there and everyone was constantly pushing boundaries. The story relates to the article written by Nadra Kareem Nittle which was called, “How the Freedom Riders Movement Began”. This article was about a group of people called freedom riders traveling together to end the Jim Crow laws or other known as, racist laws.

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161 Words | 1 Pages

Sue Monk Kidd indirectly characterizes Rosaleen through speech , in The Secret Life of Bees, as brave in order to reveal that she cares about Lily enough to stand up to T Ray and be like a mother figure to Lily. An example of this is when Rosaleen defends Lily and her new baby chick, “ she said and looked him up one side and down the other ‘You ain’t touching that chick.’ ” (Kidd 11).In this scene, T Ray was threatening to kill Lily’s baby chick that she had recently acquired. Since Lily was only 8 years old she could not defend herself against her father, so Rosaleen is brave and steps in and acts as her mother in protecting her, and what she cares about, from her ill-tempered father. The author does this in order to explain to the reader

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193 Words | 1 Pages

Through indirect characterization, Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, displays Rosaleen as an obstinate character in order to exhibit the southern racism at hand. For example, Rosaleen is indirectly characterized when she comes into contact with the town’s most notorious racist, Franklin Posey, and will not apologize for standing up for her beliefs. Recalling the event, she exclaims, “‘he hit me till the policeman said that was enough. They didn’t get no apology, though’” (46).

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940 Words | 4 Pages

Bees hide an entire colony within their hives, they hide little cities and communities. The book, The Secret Life of Bees, shows a lot of symbolism that relates to bees. In this book, written by Sue Monk Kidd, a 14-year-old named Lily Owens has memories of pulling the trigger on her own mother as a child. Her abusive father who goes by T-Ray makes her life miserable. Lily runs away with her caretaker Rosaleen to the Boatwright sisters, whom live on a honey farm.

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334 Words | 2 Pages

The Secret Life of Bees Journal Entry 1 “I wanted to tell T. Ray that any girl would love a silver charm bracelet, that in fact last year I was the only girl at Sylvan Junior without one…”-Lily Owens Chapter 1 pg. 21. In the book so far, the main character is the type of person who is lonely trying to find ways to belong in certain environments and find him or herself and at the same time they aren’t afraid to keep trying.

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1796 Words | 8 Pages

Chapter 1 The five aspects of a quest are: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there. A book that uses the aspects of a quest very nicely is the secret life of bees. (a) The quester in this story is a young girl named lily owens who fights with her father and does not have a mother because lily accidently shot her when she younger.

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1052 Words | 5 Pages

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance” -Samuel Johnson. This quote encompasses one of the underlying and pivotal concepts that I have learned this semester. This is the idea of perseverance. Perseverance has various forms and it shows up in every single book we have read this semester. I think that this quality is crucial to progress in both physical and spiritual life.

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“The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

The theme of segregation is of significant importance in the novel the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the films Selma by Ava DuVernay, The Help by Tate Taylor, and the documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America by Stacey Peralta. I chose this theme as it plays an important role in all texts and greatly contributes to the main problems and situations in each. Although the Civil Rights Act supposedly ended all state and local laws requiring segregation the year before the film was set in 1964, there are still many cases of it seen in Selma, such as restaurants that solely serve white people or not allowing black people to vote. A lot of white people featured in this film were segregationists; unable to accept the fact that the era of

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2539 Words | 11 Pages

Coming-of-age activities changed and stayed similar over the years showing how teenagers growing up is different in specific time eras but can be seen as similar too. Coming of age is a transformative period in a person’s life when transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Usually, this person will go through an event that requires them to use new skills and has responsibilities that they did not have as a child but now will have in adulthood. Experiencing loss and having a newfound perception of parents serves as necessary coming-of-age activities that can shape an individual's identity and growth as they transition into adulthood. Lily is featured in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

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2839 Words | 12 Pages

Title Growth, change, and self-discovery are humanity’s focus. We are constantly moving, developing, and improving ourselves and our environment. Human art and literature reflect our values, and identity is key in the works we create. In The Secret Life of Bees, a novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, the character Lily goes through many ups and downs in order to find her identity, values, and interests, and to develop relationships. We learn about ourselves through characters, and Lily teaches us to discover ourselves through our view of ourselves, our interests and goals, and through our relationships with others.

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1311 Words | 6 Pages

How the decisions one makes can affect others in The Secret Life of Bees In American author Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, fourteen-year-old Lily Owens abandons her abusive father, Terrence Ray, with her caretaker Rosaleen. They set off on an adventure to find closure after her mother’s tragic death, and end up in Tiburon, South Carolina. She is taken care of by the Boatwright sisters, August, May, and June, who takes her under their wings and teaches her about their religion, while she learns about her mother’s life.

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983 Words | 4 Pages

“A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love” (Connie May Fowler). This quote reflects the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd because the protagonist in the story, Lily Owens, her mother have died when she was four years old and she didn’t feel loved by her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, until she met the Boatwrights family with the housekeeper, Rosaleen, and stayed with them. The Boatwrights family are the three black sisters who are August, May, and June. This novel took place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily grew up and where she found the answer to her questions.

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425 Words | 2 Pages

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, and it is the idea that the only thing that makes an action right or wrong are the consequences resulting from that action. In other words, the action is only right if it produces the greatest net well-being, or happiness, for all parties. Deontology is the concept that there are at least some other factors of an action that determine if it was right or wrong, not just it's consequences. These are two conflicting ethical standpoints, which can cause disagreements, when applying them to a scenario. We can take a look from both views and determine how we would act in a certain situation and compare the results.

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