In the Secret Life of Bees, Deborah and Terrence, despite rarely being in the book, and not at all in the Deborah’s case, have one of the most complex relationship in the story. Terence and Deborah are the parents of Lily Owens, and in the first chapter it’s established Deborah is dead, and Terrence refuses to have her name spoken. This is all perceived through Lily’s point of view so it comes off as this rule exists out of hate instead of grief. Later we get clues indicating this is not the case. Sue Kidd draws sympathy from the reader by starting off with the perfect dead mother picture then creating a more human image; in the end Kidd constructs a situation revealing T. Ray drawing in more pity than sympathy.
In the beginning, the author painted Deborah as a good mother who loved her daughter, then she humanizes her by
…show more content…
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. Later on we called it a nervous breakdown… I don't know the whole answer, but part of [her becoming so depressed] was her being out on