The Secret Life of Bees Essay
“Parents aren’t the people you come from. They’re the people you want to be, when you grow up.”-Jodie Picoult. Parents are the people who are there for their children and who children look up to. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens is raised by her abusive father, T. Ray, because her mother died when she was young. Despite Lily’s negative upbringing, her nanny, Rosaleen Daise, and friend, August Boatwright, fill in for Lily’s mother’s absence and her father’s poor parental influence. T. Ray Owens raises Lily with discrimination and violence which encourages her to be the opposite. Lily’s father is very sexist and teaches her that girls are not as good as boys. T. Ray does not want Lily to read books because reading leads to college and he thinks that college is a waste of money for girls. Lily has to deal with extreme violence and T. Ray’s bad temper. “T. Ray has slapped me [Lily]
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Rosaleen is Lily’s maid/nanny but she cares a lot more about her than most black nannies would have at the time. “You hurting?...Why don’t we sit down on the road awhile?” (28) Lily’s knees are raw from the grits T. Ray made her kneel on and, even though Rosaleen really wants to get her voter’s card, she puts Lily’s needs ahead of her own. Lily’s nanny is also very loving towards her. She buys Lily a bunny for Easter and when T. Ray tries to take it away and threatens to fire Rosaleen, she stands up to him in order to keep her child happy. Lily says that was the first time she really knew that Rosaleen loved her. Rosaleen is a very strong woman and Lily follows her example. When Lily’s friend, Zach, starts school at the white high school, students throw things at them because he is black but she stays by his side and does not run away. Rosaleen fills in for Lily’s parents with her openness and determined