ipl-logo

In The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk

628 Words3 Pages

By: Sue Monk
Brianna Smith

In the Secret Life of Bees by: Sue Monk, the main character, Lilly is a fourteen year old girl who lives with her father and their housekeeper, Rosaleen. Lilly’s mother died when she was younger, and she didn’t remember much about her. There are many sections in the book where Lilly felt unhappy because she didn’t have a mother like other girls her age. Lilly stated, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away (Monk 7). In the Secret Life of Bees by: Sue Monk the importance of mothers and the female community is shown. …show more content…

Lilly feels lost without her mother until she visits the Boatright house. At the Boatright house, Lilly sees the support that other women can provide for her and she begins to feel comfortable with other females in the female community. When Lilly first arrived at the Boatright house, she feels unsure about herself. Lilly said “Standing there, I loved myself and I hated myself. That’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time” (Monk 73). After arriving at the Boatright house Lilly began to feel welcomed because she was included in the group. Living at the Boatright house helped Lilly to finally feel like an empowered women. Before living in the Boatright house, Lilly felt insecure and she felt like her life was incomplete because her mother was not able to play a major role in it. I believe that if Lilly would have continued living her life with her father T.Ray that she would have been in a world of trouble because of bad decisions. Lilly is happy that she was able to get away from T.Ray and Mr. Gaston. Lilly said “When I put on my shoes and headed back, the light poured down in shafts, and I wanted it to always be like this—no T. Ray, no Mr. Gaston, nobody wanting to beat Rosaleen senseless” (Monk 83). The women in the Boatright house help Lilly realize that the female community is strong and that it’s an important part in her

Show More
Related

Lily Owens Quotes From The Secret Life Of Bees

743 Words | 3 Pages

The details were all Lily had left of her mother, a mother who loved her, without doubt. Deborah was the subject of each and every conversation. Every aspect of Deborah was perfect: beautiful, luscious hair, and her smile. There was nothing that could change how Deborah was, in her mind, up until T.Ray uttered the unthinkable, “The woman could have cared less about you.” ….

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

696 Words | 3 Pages

Lily brought a chick home and it made a mess, T.ray threatened to boil the chick but Rosaleen saved it. Rosaleen was the only one defending Lily in her younger years and was always protecting her from T.R.A. Rosaleen was always there for Lily when no one else was. Even with Rosaleen helping Lily in her younger years, August filled the same role at the house, and even made a bigger impact on her for the short time she was in her life compared to Rosaleen. August taught Lily how to be a beekeeper while teaching her many life lessons, she was also the one to tell her about her mom and had a bigger role in that part of the book compared to

Read More

The Lady Of Chains: Chapter Summary

109 Words | 1 Pages

The next day, Lily goes to meet August by the beehives. August shows Lily a beehive that’s missing a queen bee. As they look at the hive, August reminds Lily of the story of the runaway nun. The point of the story, August claims, was that in Deborah’s absence, the Lady of Chains could be a mother for Lily. She adds that Mary isn’t just a statue: she’s something inside Lily.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

561 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd is about a white girl named Lily Owens who ran away at the age of twelve with Rosaleen her colored caretaker. When the two ran away they started over in there new town down in South Carolina. Something that was mentioned throughout the novel is how Lily wanted to be just like her mother because she is extremely curious about her. Lily’s mother died in a tragic accident when she was a kid so she was left with an abusive father, T-Ray.

Read More

Who Is Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees?

863 Words | 4 Pages

T. Ray often makes Lily kneel on the grits for hours and as Lily tries to look (and become) like her mother, (out of his love for his deceased wife,) T. Ray mocks at Lily’s willingness to be smart and attractive. He also makes Lily work on his farm for hours, after school and over the summer so that she cannot read books (which is her hobby), and uses mean words for his daughter. “Although …peers, and …culture influence children, parents still hold more sway than they think when it comes to having an impact on a daughter's developing self-esteem.” (Gurian, 2014)

Read More

Summary Of The Secret Life Of Bees

2028 Words | 9 Pages

For most of Lily’s life, she has been haunted by the death of her mother, Deborah Fontanel, who died when Lily was four. Throughout the book, we get to see Lily’s the journey Lily took to Tiburon, South Carolina, is search of information about her mother.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1195 Words | 5 Pages

Living in the pink house with the Boatwrights provides Lily Owens, a fourteen year old girl from Sylvan, South Carolina, with an experience like no other. As the protagonist, she gets to become a master beekeeper from the teachings of August. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd inserts symbolism through bees by drawing connections between the jobs of the bees in the hive and the characters of the novel. There are also other symbols that help to make the story. The bees illustrate the journey of the characters to show that a broken person will sew up their cracks of despair, just as a bee in a hive can not work unless surrounded by the fellow bees.

Read More

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

522 Words | 3 Pages

This quest for understanding leads Lily to the Boatwright sisters, who offer her a sense of belonging and connection rooted in their shared history. For instance, August Boatwright becomes a maternal figure to Lily, guiding her through the complexities of her own identity while imparting lessons gleaned from generations of family wisdom. She told her to come sit with her as she told her a story that her “mother used to tell [the sisters] when [they] got tired of their chores” to hopefully help them continue going (Kidd, 90). Lily denied she was tired of her chores, but she still thought it was a “good story” and she should “just listen” (Kidd

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Kidd

961 Words | 4 Pages

Lily’s new found family gave her hope, helped her grow in strength and confidence, and discover truths that broke down her walls and impacted her positively. The day Lily ran away and busted Rosaleen out of jail they ended up in Tiburon where her life would change. In Tiburon, there was a pink house with three sisters named August May and June who raised bees and sold honey. They were the sweetest three women Lily had ever met.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1154 Words | 5 Pages

Lily’s mother is the cause of much of her grief, through her journey she imagines her mother in a way that does not accurately depict who her mother truly was. When she finds out what her mother actually was she, “I stood

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1097 Words | 5 Pages

Her wicked father has told her that she had murdered her mother, even though she was four years old. The battle of skin color outside symbolizes the conflict within herself. The loss of her mother deeply affected her both mentally and emotionally. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, its states, “Time folded in on itself then. What is left lies in clear yet disjointed pieces in my head.

Read More

Racism In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

667 Words | 3 Pages

Also Lily started to care for people no matter black or white. She Cared for her mom to the Calendar sisters, Lily did not just judge people she also cared for everyone she met in this story. “For days I carried the notebook everywhere. I wrote constantly. A made-up story about Rosaleen losing eighty-five pounds, looking so sleek nobody could pick her out of a police lineup”(Kidd 135).

Read More

Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

1493 Words | 6 Pages

August explains to Lily that “Our Lady is not some magical being out there somewhere, like a fairy godmother. She’s not the statue in the parlor. She's something inside of you” (Kidd 288). The use of simile in comparing Mary to a magical being, like a fairy godmother, adds a childish undertone to August’s dialogue, and shows that regardless of what Lily has been through, August recognizes that she is still a child, one in search of comfort in the absence of her mother. The symbolism of Our Lady being “inside” of Lily and not just “the statue in the parlor” gives her a sense of belonging.

Read More

Mental Illness In The Secret Life Of Bees

705 Words | 3 Pages

She finds herself in a small town called Tiburon in South Carolina, living with August Boatwright who was once her mother’s maid. After staying in Tiburon for a while, Lily calls her father, curious if he knows what her favourite colour is. They only spoke for a short period of

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 In The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk

Related Topics

Open Document