Secret Life Of Bees Character Analysis

Lily had a significant change on how she viewed race throughout the novel, Secret Life of Bees. Lily grew up in South Carolina in 1964, during the civil rights movement, and had the mindset that colored people were inferior to white people at the time. Lily’s mind changed after Rosaleen was put in jail and Lily realized she did nothing wrong. When Lily and Rosaleen run away they end up at the Boatwright’s house, Lily has a change in her mind set about race. Later, in the novel Lily meets a boy named Zach. Zach is a big impact on her change of mindset on race. Because of Rosaleen, the Boatwright sisters, and Zach Lily’s concept of race changes throughout the novel. Firstly, Lily’s concept of race changed when Rosaleen went to jail. In the novel, Rosaleen is arrested while she was going to register to vote. Rosaleen goes to a church to steal some fans which did not help her situation. In the novel, there is very unnecessary comments made to Rosaleen. Rosaleen had walked past a gas station on her way to vote and got into an altercation with some men (Kidd 32).

Zach wants to become a lawyer (Kidd 121). When Lily listens to how Zach feels about how he feels about becoming a lawyer and her mind changes on the concept of race. Zach makes her realize that if you want something bad enough and you work hard for it then you can do anything no matter what race you are (Kidd 121). Zach and Lily went to an auto parts store and had an altercation with the men that were standing around. Zach’s friend Jackson had gotten mad at the man and threw an “R.C. Cola bottle over the man’s head” (Kidd 178). Zach ended up going to jail because he would not tell on his friends, so the police arrested him because he was wrongly accused (Kidd 179). This upset Lily because she knows Zach did nothing but she realized because of his race he was treated much differently. Later in the novel, Zach becomes her love interest (Kidd