ipl-logo

How Is Diction Used In The Secret Life Of Bees

764 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Review essay on the secret life of bees

“But she’s white, August,” (Kidd, 87) and this quote sets the tone because the book was based in 1964, South Carolina when racism was a big thing towards blacks. Besides everything else that is going on in the world, a young girl named Lily is searching to see if her mother is still looking out for her in the world. In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kid used tone, symbolism and foreshadowing through out the novel. The tone that the author uses through out the novel is sadness such as when she did not know that she killed her mother. Then she uses many examples of symbolism through out the story; consistently she searches for a mother in woman around her. The foreshadowing she uses is the relationship between August and Lily, by Lily finding …show more content…

When Lily lost her mother and has T. Ray taking care of her, she starts questioning her mother of why she left them. “Your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back to get her things, that’s all,” (Kidd, 40). When Lily heard T. Ray say this to her, she was shocked with depression and thinking that T. Ray might of lied to her about what he said about her mother. The lesson is that Lily is depressed and questioning herself on why her mother decided to leave her. This is a specific scene because it shows that Lily is looking for an answer to see that her mother is looking out for …show more content…

Lily shows August the picture of the Black Mary with her mother and August tells her stories about her teenage years and her marriage. August brought out a box of her mothers belongings and there was a picture of her and her mother as a young lady and Lily as a baby. This made Lily change her perspective of her mother that she did actually loved her other than her not caring for her. The subtheme is showing that May cannot live without April or have the same feeling as she did before. August described them both as one soul; in two bodies living different lives together. Later on May ended her life in the river, and everyone felt depressed that they did not make her happy enough to forget about April’s

Show More
Related

Examples Of Juxtaposition In The Secret Life Of Bees

1542 Words | 7 Pages

Lily's creativity, activated by religious observance, allows her to be more creative. Later on in the passage, when Lily describes her outward expression, she notes that “[She] wanted to cry, but in the next instant, [she] wanted to laugh” (Kidd 71). Through the use of juxtaposition, Kidd carries out an image of Lily about to sob until she suddenly starts chuckling. By using the diction of “cry” and “laugh,” two words that completely differ in emotion, Kidd shows that the religious statue made her recall events of her past, truly making her analyze the type of person she was. Religion allowed her to have the trait of being self-aware allowing her to forgive herself for her past and move on because she knew that the religious statue could see good in her.

Read More

Examples Of Dialectical Journal For The Secret Life Of Bees

904 Words | 4 Pages

Journal #7 On page 182, Lily thinks to herself, “If August is the red heart on Mary’s chest, Rosaleen is the fist.” Lily believes August has the heart of Mary because she puts everyone before herself. For example, August tells Lily, “If it (the Caribbean Pink House) can lift Mary’s heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it” (147). August wanted to choose a different color, but what mattered to her more was her little sister, May. August believes that with all the pain and grief May suffers from she deserves to have things that make her happy.

Read More

Symbols In The Secret Life Of Bees

891 Words | 4 Pages

Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

561 Words | 3 Pages

so she asks August and she tells her everything. Giving Lily information about her mother is like when the bees give her honey. The bees are there to send, receive, and to watch Lily. Through the story Lily easily has one of the best bonds with the bees and it's because they protect her just like her

Read More

Essay On Rosaleen In Sue Monk Kidd's Characters

617 Words | 3 Pages

Rosaleen was an very strong role model in Lily’s life. The author Sue Monk Kidd portrays it in the novel in many ways. Lily’s mother passed away and left when Lilly was just a little girl sitting at only 4 years old. Since that day Rosaleen decided too stepped in and showed her all the steps in life, even if she was there housekeeper but they still created such a strong bond.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

731 Words | 3 Pages

Her father always told Lily that her mother didn’t love her. But Lily still longed to find information about her mother. Deborah left a picture from her passed and Lily thought if I am going to find answers about my mother; I need to go to this place. She wanted to know about her mother and she wanted to get away from

Read More

The Theme Of Loss In The Secret Life Of Bees

715 Words | 3 Pages

Although Lily did suffer a great loss from losing her mom, she gained so much more with the love and support that the Boatwrights and their group gave her. She has gained friends, someone to look up to, and the sense of family from all of them. Without the loss of her mom and the abuse of her dad she would never of gotten the experience of such powerful female role models and a new

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Rhetorical Analysis

1450 Words | 6 Pages

In this passage, Kidd characterized Lily as immature, and a primary trace of this characterization can be spotted at the very beginning of the passage, where Lily questions “How dare she? How dare she leave me? I was her child.” (Kidd 259). The interrogative syntax in this monologue suggests that Lily is still confused as to why her mom left her, even after August spent time explaining it to her.

Read More

Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

926 Words | 4 Pages

The main example in which Kidd used throughout The Secret Life of Bees novel was with the symbolism of Lily by bees. When this book was written its purpose was to represent racism within the US around the civil rights movement. But racism is really just taking two different parties which appear different but are equally smart, can perform the same tasks, and are emotionally equal, Caucasians and African Americans. So the real importance of the way Kidd uses bees as a symbol within the novel is to understand what Kidd is representing at a larger scale, not just within the story itself, racism present within the

Read More

Essay On The Secret Life Of Bees

644 Words | 3 Pages

Why do you think some people can recover from traumatic events and some can not? The Secret Life of Bees is a book by Sue Monk Kidd that is set in South Carolina in the 1960s. In the story Lily (the main character) runs away from home to get away from her father and finds out more about her mother that died when she was little. On her journey to seeking out more about her mother she finds the Boatwright sisters. Lily learns later in the novel that August, the oldest Boatwright sister, used to take care of her mother.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Rhetorical Analysis

1487 Words | 6 Pages

Also, because she “whispered”, it adds emphasis to the quote by adding a sense of defeat and vulnerability in her tone. It is shown that Lily wants to know the reason why her mother abandoned her unveiling the amount of emotion caused by her mother’s abandonment. These examples of tone help the reader have a

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Theme Essay

1401 Words | 6 Pages

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).

Read More

Mental Illness In The Secret Life Of Bees

705 Words | 3 Pages

Two of her sisters have this problem and it has genuinely affected August for better or worse. Lily’s father, T-Ray, deals with his mental illness by using violence and taking his anger out on Lily because of what happened with his wife Deborah. This causes Lily to feel unloved by her father. In the beginning of the story, Lily runs away from home to escape her tragic life with T. Ray.

Read More

Interracial Relationships In The Secret Life Of Bees

1919 Words | 8 Pages

Lily barely knew her own mother, and T. Ray, her father, abuses her and could care less. Lily gets to experience the parent-child love from Rosaleen. Kidd asserts that the interaction between different races can lead to loving

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Reflection Essay

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.

Read More

More about How Is Diction Used In The Secret Life Of Bees

Related Topics

Open Document