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

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In the bildungsroman, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd shows the effects of racism: creating conflicts that separate and divide people, rather than bringing them together. The protagonist, Lily, learns first hand the effects of racism in her rural South Carolina town. The story is set in the 1960’s, and shows the progression of Lily’s growth from living in a racist community with her father and the notorious racists; to learning about racists views while living in the Calendar sister’s house; to eventually accepting all people, evidenced by her choosing to live with August and falling in love with Zach. The first time Lily experienced racism first hand is when her and Rosaleen both got arrested while in town. Rosaleen spilled her spit onto the racist man's shoe because he was making fun of her because she was colored but that got her sent to jail. On the way to the jail the racist man was …show more content…

“That’s when I knew I would never find a better friend than Zachary Taylor. I threw my arms around him and leaned into his chest”(Kidd 135) Lily starts to judge people for who they are not what they look like. She gets to know more people other than Dismissing them right away. “Lily, I like you better than any girl I have ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.”(Kidd 135) 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). Lily would even make up stories for people in her notebook to entertain herself so she can see what it could be like if these surreal things she writes about becomes

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And I took her away. ”(Kidd 8) Lily has had a rough start to her life with her father being abusive and neglecting to her and not to mention her shooting and killing her mom on accident. Lily had lost so much, but gained a great deal of parental figures when she and Rosaleen escape off to Tiburon. There they find August Boatwright and Lily’s life changes.

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She always stands up for what she believes in and she doesn’t let people get in the way of her finding more about her mom. In the story each event shows another way that lily is showing courage and kindness. For example when Lily said no she wasn’t going to go back with her dad to Sylvan and when she helped Zach do all the beekeeping

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This bias coming from Lily’s father is impacting her and even though Lily never tries to be prejudiced on purpose, she admits that she has a hint of prejudice in her. After spending time with colored people, Lily realizes she had been making flawed assumptions about how blacks weren’t as educated as

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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.

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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).

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To begin, the fact that Lily was white and Rosaleen was black shows the audience that racism was irrational. Even though at first, Lily thought all blacks were uneducated, we see her grow and learn. They bring characters like August that opened Lily’s eyes to a new world. When she begins to develop feelings for Zach it is a totally new world. In school she was taught that they were just trouble, but fell for him anyway and realized everyone was wrong.

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Here Lily transforms from a girl to a woman, learns about herself, and feels what it’s like to be a part of a community. At the end of the book there is a point where the

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She did realize in the long run her mom really loved and cared for her. While being at the Calendars Sister 's house for a while T.Ray showed up and told Lily, they were going home right away. Lily said that she refuses to go with him, then he says no one wants you here. In that moment, Lily figured out that August and everyone she met while staying in Tiburon really cared because the next thing she knew August was standing up for her and saying it would be a delight to have her live with them. Lily ended up gaining a new family without

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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

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The Evils of racism are one of the most important themes in To Kill a Mockingbird. In Maycomb County a big portion of the population are all racist people. Miss Stephanie Crawford said “ Next time he won 't aim high, be it dog, nigger, or Jem Finch!” (Lee 72) This tells us that people like Miss Stephanie Crawford compare the black people to dogs.

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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

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Based on this novel, the enforcement of racism will result in a lifetime of suffering. Rosaleen, the protagonist’s closest black friend, is negatively impacted by the experiences she encounters with three white nigger haters. As Rosaleen and Lily (main character of the novel) are entering the town of Sylvan, the three nigger haters begin judging Rosaleen due to her black appearances. Gradually, Rosaleen becomes more and more irritated with their insults.

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Love to Relation to Society Eudora Welty’s short story, Lily Daw and The Three Ladies is about a mentally retarded young girl who has decided to make a big life decision. This causes conflict with the three ladies that have helped taken care of her since her mother died, because they too have made a decision for Lily without her knowledge. The main focus of the story is love in relation to society. Welty uses lily and the three ladies to argue the strict societal values that the ladies follow and how lily is a free spirit.

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Unlike the three ladies we must think about the consequences of our actions, especially when we are making decisions for others. Lily no matter if she had a disability was still human and deserved to be happy and not sent off to a place where she would be lonely and possibly sad. Ellisville could have been a special institute to help these “feeble-minded” people but as it was mentioned in the story it had over crowding and it just seemed like it wouldn’t be the best place for young Lily to be at. The biggest significance of the story was that the ladies finally in the end realize the mistake they are making by sending Lily to Ellisville and that Lily received that happiness and got the chance to what she wanted to do with her life, which was getting

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(pg.3). This quote shows just how the questions were affecting her. The Norton’s were asking her questions that she had no idea how to answer because she was unsure of what they meant. The questions made her feel uncomfortable and hurt, however, they kept asking Carole about her race. Another example of racism in this short story is how close minded Betty is towards the idea of mixed children in this world.

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