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In American writer Sue Monk Kidd's fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees, the reader is introduced to Lily Owens, a naive and unfortunate character longing for her mother's absence. Growing up with an abusive father, T Ray, Lily is kept miserable until a stroke of confidence allows her to run away with the only person on her side, Rosaleen. Through multiple influences and revelations of truth, she can develop individually with the help of her new family, the Boatwrights, transforming her into a profound and confident character. One of the major influences Lily undergoes throughout the book is the religious rituals August and the Boatwrigts assign her. An example of this is the observance of a religious statue, The Black Mary, worshiped by the
Freedom is the breeding ground of success or failure. The theme of freedom presents itself often in The Secret Life of Bees, By Sue Monk Kidd. It shows itself often with the protagonist, Lily. Lily is the daughter of T-Ray and Deborah, whom she accidentally killed when Lily was 4. Lily and the housekeeper, Rosaleen, run away after Rosaleen is beaten by racist whites, and end up at the Boatwright sister’s house, where they work off their debts by working on the honey farm.
Bees hide an entire colony within their hives, they hide little cities and communities. The book, The Secret Life of Bees, shows a lot of symbolism that relates to bees. In this book, written by Sue Monk Kidd, a 14-year-old named Lily Owens has memories of pulling the trigger on her own mother as a child. Her abusive father who goes by T-Ray makes her life miserable. Lily runs away with her caretaker Rosaleen to the Boatwright sisters, whom live on a honey farm.
Sue Monk Kidd applies indirect characterization in her novel The Secret Life of Bees to Lily, describing her as a free-spirited person in order to develop Lily’s growing desire to leave T Ray. One example demonstrated in the novel is found where Lily and Rosaleen watch President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act. Lily thinks about her opinion toward the wife of the President, ‘Lady Bird,’ while Johnson signs the act. “I did admire his wife, Lady Bird, though, who always looked like she wanted nothing more than to sprout wings and fly away” (20).
The Secret Life of Bees Journal Entry 1 “I wanted to tell T. Ray that any girl would love a silver charm bracelet, that in fact last year I was the only girl at Sylvan Junior without one…”-Lily Owens Chapter 1 pg. 21. In the book so far, the main character is the type of person who is lonely trying to find ways to belong in certain environments and find him or herself and at the same time they aren’t afraid to keep trying.
In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd incorporates the literary technique of allusion to assist the reader in delving into Lily’s thought process. Furthermore, to incorporate allusion, Kidd compares the message Lily interpreted from the arrival of the bees in her room to the plagues God sent to the pharaoh Ramesses. Lily ponders: Back in my room on the peach farm, when the bees had first come out at night, I had imagined they were sent as a special plague for T. Ray. God saying, Let my daughter go, and maybe that’s exactly what they’d been, a plague that released me (151).
Within the novel “The Secret Life of Bees” written by Sue Monk Kidd, the reader enters a journey exploring the hardships of the time period, as well as the power and the strength of women. The story, set in the Deep South during the 1960’s illustrates the struggle of Lily Owens, a fourteen year old girl with her parents and developing society. On a quest to unlock the truth and more information about her mother, Lily takes up residence with three African-American sisters where she is taught and encounters unfamiliar experiences that she would have never believed possible. Over the course of the novel, Kidd details the altering and dynamic relationship between Lily and her parents. Although minimal change occurs involving Lily’s abusive father,
The Civil Rights Movement was a time filled with racial discrimination and segregation. During this time of hate, it was difficult for many people to do the simplest simple life necessities. The Secret Life of Bees takes place during the thick of the movement when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Lily Owens is a 14 year old white girl from just outside of Sylvian, South Carolina. Lily lives with her dad, T. Ray Owens, and Rosaleen who is at the house the majority of the time working for T. Ray.
Although slavery was abolished in 1865, there was still segregation between blacks and whites. People of color weren't treated equally, but instead, were treated unfairly. In the book "The Secret Life Of Bees", Rosaleen, an African American housekeeper, goes into town to register to vote, before going, she overheard two white men threatening to make all blacks write in perfect cursive, "'Don't worry, they're gonna make 'em write their names in perfect cursive and refuse them a card if they forget so much as to dot an I or make a loop in their y.'" This declares that they were ignorant towards African Americans. During this time period, it wasn't simple to print their name perfectly in cursive, nonetheless, write their names at all considering
“The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence” (Kidd 1). Bees are a part of their own strong community with their queen as their leader; likewise in a family, the parents hold an important leadership role. This symbolism of community is seen throughout the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, where the protagonist Lily loses her sense of community when her mom dies. Bees and beehives come up from the beginning to the end of the story, symbolizing the state of Lily's community, whether she feels supported or alone. Kidd uses symbolism throughout the novel to support the theme that a loving and strong community can make you stronger.
The Secret Life of Bees takes place in the deep South, during the 1960’s. The setting of this story is very important, without it the story would be completely altered. If the setting did change the whole storyline would be different. The reason behind why the setting is so important is because all of the differences, which include; culture, time period, and location. One of the most important aspects of having the setting in the deep South is the culture.
The Effects Of Growing Up Realization can impact a person's life negatively and positively and as a whole someones character. Coming of age is the event that occurs when one starts to see how life really is throughout the journey of growing from experiences to construct an exceptional life to become a better person. The components that play into the characters' coming-of-age development are their perception of parents and their experience of loss. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the central character Lily goes through the development of really realizing who her parents are in the present time and how they acted in the past before and after her birth. In the second novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
A World of Love “People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It’s that hard. If God said in plain language, ‘I’m giving you a choice, forgive or die,’ a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.” (Kidd 277) Rough times and struggles are simply a part of life- something everyone is to endure.
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
“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.
