Essay On Stages Of Grief In The Secret Life Of Bees

Maturing, gaining independence, and having to juggle different responsiblities in life is a very crucial step in transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Coming of age is when children mature into adulthood through teaching experiences. Two ways that coming of age can be demonstrated is through loss or through the presence of parents. As stated in the article Stages of Grief, there are many different stages of grief that individuals progress through after a loved one dies. In the book The Secret Life of Bees the main character Lily accidentally shot her mom when she was 4 years old. Throughout her life she went through different stages of grief such as bargaining and eventually acceptance. She also searched for answers about her mother’s

She was naïve and thought that her mother’s death was entirely her fault, which as one can imagine was a very heavy weight to carry as she was transitioning into her teenage years. As she began to see her father’s true self she had to make life-long decisions that taught her quite a bit about the real world and how not everyone is kind and accepting. She had to discover who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do with her life outside of what other people said. In search of her mother’s past, she decided to break Rosaleen out of jail and run away to Tiburon, a town that was written on the back of one of her mother’s pictures. As Lily and Rosaleen arrived in Tiburon with no plan Lily began to realize the consequences this plan may bring. “ I spent the next mile in deep worry. I had no plan, no prospects of a plan. Until now I’d mostly believed we would stumble upon a window somewhere and climb through it into a brand-new life.” (Monk Kidd 60) As Lily and Rosaleen arrived in Tiburon with no plan Lily began to realize the consequences this plan may bring. In the quote, one can see Lily’s naïvity and immaturity about the world outside of her small town. With Rosaleen being a black women in 1946 it was quite difficult to find a hotel that would allow them to stay. This is important because they could

The perception of ones parents can help to show what to do or what not to do. As people get older, they also have to make the decision on whether or not to agree or to disagree with ones parents. This is demonstrated in Romeo and Juliet as they fell in love with each other against their parents wishes. They had to make the tough decision to disobey their parents in order to spend the rest of their lives happily together. At the beginning of the story, Juliet was obedient towards her parents and listened to whatever they said. By the end, she found her voice and chose that her parents opinions were not her opinions. She decided that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Romeo and she would risk her relationship with her family in order to do so. Juliet says, “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” (Shakespeare II.II.36-38). In this quote, one can see how Juliet says she will risk being disowned by the Capulet if that means she can be with Romeo. This is important because Juliet’s parents were rivals with the Montagues, Romeo’s family. When Juliet said she would “no longer be a Capulet” this was a serious betrayal to her family. This shows that Juliet changed throughout the story because in the beginning of the story, Juliet was very obedient to her parents