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.
The Secret Life of Bees By: Sue Monk Kidd 1. Character List Lilly Owens is the main characters, narrator and the protagonist of this novel. She is fourteen years old and lives on a peach farm in Sylvan, South Carolina with her father who she calls T-Ray because they are not close and “daddy never fit him”. She also lives with their housekeeper Rosaleen. Throughout most of the novel, Lilly believes that she killed her mother when she was four years old during an argument between her and her father.
Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.
She later goes to jail for dumping her spit on some people who were being racist to her. Lily gets her out and they run away to Tiburon, South Carolina, the town that holds secrets of her mother. Bees symbolize Lily in many ways, ways you would probably not expect. One way bees are like Lily is bees can't work without their queen and Lily can’t work without her mother. She can’t look
In The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily starts off by just knowing that her mother wanted to leave T. Ray, but died before she could, however, by the end of the book, Lily gains a better understanding of what actually happened when her mother died. One night as Lily lay in bed, she imagines her mother forgiving her, and “she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame” (3). This suggests that lily thinks of her mother as a perfect, loving mother that wanted nothing more than to be with Lily and away from T. Ray. She also uses this fantasy of her mother to make herself feel better about killing Deborah. Later on in the book, Lily finally confides in August about her mother.
Nearly 20 million kids grow up without a mother. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Lily lost her mother at age four and had a father who hated her. Lily accidentally shot her mother at a young age, and ever since her father blames her for what happened. Lily decides to run away with her house maid, Rosaleen, and start a new life. Change can really affect a person, just like it did with Lily, T-Ray and May. Change is a crucial part of life.
In Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd alludes The Civil Rights Act of 1964 to display how racism still existed around Lily and was actively demonstrated. Throughout the book, acts of racism are shown directly from all sorts of people. The racism Lily lives among is displayed when Rosaleen has an altercation with three racist men in which one of them stated, “‘Where’d you get that fan, nigger?’” (32). The word at the end of the man’s statement is a vulgar, racist term referring to African Americans.
The theme of racial prejudice and injustice, is threaded throughout the course of Lily’s journey in The Secret Life of Bees. Racism is a type of prejudice, which in a nutshell, is basically a prejudgment based on generalizations and flawed reasoning, targeting a particular race. In other words, racial prejudice can lead to discrimination, stereotyping, irrational hatred, or suspicion, based on decisions before the facts were known. Lily exemplifies many of the white community’s prejudices about black people. Lily finds herself to possess prejudice at times, due to the influence created by the whites around her.
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.
Throughout the course of the novel Secret Life of Bees, Lily changes from a troubled insecure girl to a wiser, forgiving, and confident person. Lily’s father, T. Ray, isn’t much of a father in Lily’s life. She gets the thought to leave when T. Ray says, “’As long as you live under my roof, you’ll do what I say’” (26). This is when Lily thinks to herself that “I’ll find another roof” (26).
In the Bildungsroman, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily, the young motherless protagonist, exists in a life which lacks love and care, but with an act of rebellion, alters the entire course of her life. After enduring cruel punishments from a sadist father, Lily accepts this as the way of life she must live. However, after a crucial moment, Lily begins to consider the idea of freedom from her oppressive life; she realizes this when she and Rosaleen, her substitute mother, come under arrest for disrupting the public and Terrence, her father, would only take Lily out of jail. This is a pivotal moment as Lily a heated conversation with her father and exclaims, “You don’t scare me”(Kidd 38). Her brash action to rebel against her father
June discriminates Lily for being white “But she’s white, August.” We find out later it is because August was Lily’s mother’s maid. June finds it difficult to accept Lily because her family has treated August as the help and Lily is meant to be welcomed as a guest. Lily faces discrimination from June, which is based on the different social status they belong to. June sees Lily being the white master and her sister, August, being the help.
One thing that heavily affects her is that racism is now being aimed at here due to who she is associated with. Growing up in a white predominant town she has not faced discrimination for herself, only what she has witnessed with Rosaleen, her nanny. Being surrounded by African Americans, Lily gets called awful names. This type of discrimination that Lily was exposed to is what social scientists call “reverse-racism”. Reverse racism is an act of discrimination geared towards racial majorities instead of racial minorities.
The act of racial discrimination impacts innocent people's lives in numerous, negative ways; hence why multiple people, worldwide can not tolerate racism and discrimination. The novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, displays a wide range of scenarios where racism results in suffering. Rosaleen, a black woman, will never forget how three white men negatively impact her life; she will remain scarred unto death. Also, ever since the racial incident involving April and her twin, May, pain is constantly accompanying April; consequently, she commits suicide. Finally, when May loses April, she endures all the various sufferings of the world, including racial discrimination.
“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.
