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Character Analysis Of Lily In The Secret Life Of Bees

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A young girl, who killed her mother and wants to know more about her, changes the 14 year old’s life for a long period of time. In the novel, Lily has lived with some heavy burdens on her shoulders. She has to overcome these things and tell the truth even if she doesn’t want to. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, “The Secret Life of Bees,” Lily has a coming of age moment when she tells August the truth about everything. She decides to tell August the truth as shown through these things: telling her she is unlovable, how she was angry with what she heard, getting the items she has had. Lily has a coming of age moment when she realizes she is loved. “You are unlovable, Lily Owens.Unlovable. Who could love you? Who in this world could ever love you?”(Kidd 242). The voice inside her head was telling her things that she started to believe. She had no idea that she was wrong and so were the voices. “I am unlovable.”(Kidd 242). She said this out loud while talking to August. August goes on to tell her that she has no idea what she’s talking about. She gives all the reasons why she is lying to herself. After all this, Lily ends up realizing she is loved and is thankful for August. …show more content…

“I know, Honey. Your mother was Deborah Fontanel Owens.” (Kidd 236). This shocked Lily because she was not expecting to hear that from August. She was choked up and could not find any words because it was so sudden. “You knew she was my mother all along.” (Kidd 235). She was upset and angry with what she had just heard. Lily was feeling like she had been betrayed by the ones she thought would not lie to her. Meanwhile, Lily had been lying to them. Overall, she heard some things she could not believe and was angry but kept talking and figured everything

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Lastly, August gives Lily a new perspective on Deborah, her mother. When Lily encounters the three sisters, she lies about who she is out of fear that they would know her mother. One of the sisters, May, confirms this when Lily asks if she knew Deborah. Later on in the story, August has a talk with Lily and reveals that she knows who Lily is. Lily finds out that Deborah did run away, and Lily becomes angry.

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Lily’s idolization of her mother is shown in how she describes Deborah’s belongings. A photo, which she see’s her mother's beautiful, gloves that Lily holds as if it were actually hers, and a photo of the black Mary which she keeps close. Right before Lily finds out T. Ray was right in saying Deborah left them Lily says she never believed him and she wants to prove him wrong. Characters with flaws are a lot more sympathetic and likeable to the reader instead of the perfect flawless unrealistic ones. Kidd got the reader to understand these flaws with how August tried to explain the situation to Lily, “All she did was cry for a week.

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She has grown up without a maternal figure and only a callous father who abuses her. Therefore, she has never grown up to be the woman she was meant to be. In the middle of Chapter One, Lily demonstrates her immaturity by needing to somehow prove that bees were in her room when T-Ray doesn’t believe her. When Rosaleen, the African American worker in T-Ray’s house, is arrested because she stood up for herself when racist white men fought with her when she tried to vote.

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At the end of that month, T.Ray got his phone bill and saw that his call with Lily came from a lawyer’s office in Tiburon. He traveled there, asked the secretary Miss Lacy, and found Lily and Rosaleen. He lashed out at Lily with a knife like she was her mother. After that August interfered and gave him an easy way out so that Lily could stay and go to school in Tiburon and T.Ray would leave her alone. All of these events put an imprint on who Lily became.

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In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.

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In the story, Kidd’s use of characterization successfully reveals the theme that people's lives are more complex than they appear. Kidd demonstrates this theme using the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah. One character that Sue Monk Kidd uses to portray the theme, is the main character Lily. In the beginning of the story, the author shows that Lily can be both mature and immature at times. An example of her maturity in the text is when she says, “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).

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and she knows that. She had “yellow eyes, pink teeth, red fingernails, and dark hair on her arms and chest” (225). The doctors called her a “Freak of nature”, and they thought that she couldn’t hear them because of the “mewing” she did. (225) Just hearing that I am sure made her feel even worse than she had before. It wasn’t hard to see that she was different.

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The character of Lily Owens evolves and changes as any young woman would throughout the course of her life. Lily begins the book as an insecure, detached, and unaware teenage girl. We see how Lily changed into a wise young woman as she solves the mystery of her mother’s life. Towards the end of the book Lily transforms into a young woman who is much more confident, happier, and vicarious. Lily has learned about love and biases.

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