Compare And Contrast The Secret Life Of Bees

The book The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd is a commentary on racism in the United States in the 1960’s as told through the eyes of Lily, a young white teenage girl growing up in South Carolina. While I did not like either version of the movie or the book, I felt that while the movie attempted to capture the motives of the author Sue Monk Kidd, the movie lost the depth of the meaning that the author was attempting to convey in the book, a love story during a difficult period. In addition I thought the plot line was boring with barely any action and I didn’t feel any emotion or sadness for the characters. A careful comparison between the two reveals an attempt for the movie to capture similarities from the book but instead reveals

They both showed how much discrimination there was in the 1960’s. They both did a good job showing how whites were also discriminated against by the blacks. In both the movie and the book June says to August, “But she’s white, August.” Lily had never had to deal with that kind of discrimination. In both the movie and the book Lily was really surprised that the Black Mary statue was in fact actually black. Lily described the statue as, “ She was black as could be, twisted like driftwood from being out in the weather, her face a map of all the storms and journeys she’d been through. Her right arm was raised as if she was pointing the way, except her fingers were closed in a fist. It gave her a serious look, like she could straighten you out if necessary.” Mary was much more commonly depicted as being white. When Lily asked why it was black June got very offended because she thought Lily was being racist when really she was just

In the book Zach took the blame for one of his friends for hitting a police officer with a bottle while in the movie this scene was replaced with Zach getting arrested for bringing Lily into a black only movie theater. I believe the director changed the scene because possibly more compassion could be felt for a police officer being hit with a bottle while being arrested for merely seeing a movie seems completely unjust. However it was one of the only parts of the book with action so when the movie version took that scene out it made me enjoy it less by making the movie even more