One of the themes presented by Sue Monk Kidd in, “The Secret Life of Bees” is pushing boundaries. In the book, Lily runs away from her abusive father and stays at a beekeepers house where she would be safe. This beekeepers house is a black family and while she stayed there and everyone was constantly pushing boundaries. The story relates to the article written by Nadra Kareem Nittle which was called, “How the Freedom Riders Movement Began”. This article was about a group of people called freedom riders traveling together to end the Jim Crow laws or other known as, racist laws.
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
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).
How the decisions one makes can affect others in The Secret Life of Bees In American author Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, fourteen-year-old Lily Owens abandons her abusive father, Terrence Ray, with her caretaker Rosaleen. They set off on an adventure to find closure after her mother’s tragic death, and end up in Tiburon, South Carolina. She is taken care of by the Boatwright sisters, August, May, and June, who takes her under their wings and teaches her about their religion, while she learns about her mother’s life.
Throughout the duration of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret LIfe of Bees, the characters of her novel undergo various difficulties. The novel revolves around Lily as she learns about her past and tries to discover more about her long-dead mother. Additionally, the novel features extensive character interaction as Lily and her companion Rosaleen take residence at a farm in Tiburon, South Carolina, and meet three sisters: May, June, and August.
“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.
This clearly identifies one of the novel’s main themes of how perceptions are individualized
Chapter 1 The five aspects of a quest are: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there. A book that uses the aspects of a quest very nicely is the secret life of bees. (a) The quester in this story is a young girl named lily owens who fights with her father and does not have a mother because lily accidently shot her when she younger.
The effect of economy is clear and significant to the story. The dominant social class, which are the white males, are shown to have more power. During this time period, white men were typically supported by the black community, such as people like Rosaleen, a black servant on Terrence Owen’s (Or T-Ray) Peach Farm and the caretaker of Lily Owens (T-Ray’s daughter). Rosaleen was one of many whom, “Worked as one of his pickers,” (2), and without the many laborers like Rosaleen, none of the work would have gotten done on the peach farm.
Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.
The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd follows Lily, a white girl, after running away with Rosaleen, a black woman, to the Boatwright house. During the story, the insight that we should find love becomes increasingly obvious. To begin, we should find love because it builds resilience. Having the love of others helps in staying resolute during hardships. Toward the beginning of the book, Rosaleen tries to register to vote and ends up going to jail.
The theme of segregation is of significant importance in the novel the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the films Selma by Ava DuVernay, The Help by Tate Taylor, and the documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America by Stacey Peralta. I chose this theme as it plays an important role in all texts and greatly contributes to the main problems and situations in each. Although the Civil Rights Act supposedly ended all state and local laws requiring segregation the year before the film was set in 1964, there are still many cases of it seen in Selma, such as restaurants that solely serve white people or not allowing black people to vote. A lot of white people featured in this film were segregationists; unable to accept the fact that the era of
The Secret Lives of People The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, is an interesting story that connects human lives to bees. The story takes place in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement and fourteen year-old Lily Owens leaves her abusive father and her home in Sylvan, South Carolina to go to Tiburon with hopes to find information on her mother. Throughout the story, Lily struggles with many internal conflicts and also meets several mother figures along the way.
Who is... That Girl?! (cue theme song) The 1950’s and 1960’s was an amazing time for television, kids would rush home to watch their favorite adventure show, women would pause their chores briefly to watch the drama unfold on their preferred soap opera, and men would come home after a long day of work, plop their butts down on their couch, and watch sports recaps and news shows for hours on end.
“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.
