ipl-logo

Segregation And Discrimination In The Secret Life Of Bees

529 Words3 Pages

This past summer I read the novel the Secret Life of Bees. Set in 1964, around the time the Civil Rights Act was passed. The Civil Rights Act is basically like an embellishment upon The Jim Crow law. The law was enacted to pursue segregation between people of color and whites. When the Civil Rights Act was legislated it changed the law, giving civil rights to anyone and everyone regardless of their skin color. Which in this book you see an excellent portrayal of the acts of segregation and discrimination going on around this time. The author showed the struggles of Lily with an abusive father, but at the same time kept her white privilege protected. While her housekeeper, Rosaleen, a strong bold woman keeping herself in tact throughout the obstacles of oppression she faced as a black woman in this time of history, was a representation of what blacks across the country dealt with day by day. A good example of oppression now vs. then is …show more content…

I am going with the second, just my opinion. Think about it, we only just got rid of the confederate flag, and Americans know this is no flag of “Southern Pride”, this flag is a representation of slavery and oppression, blacks very own ancestors went through. Southern Americans want to keep this because of what? their ancestors apart of the KKK? What I find even more alarming is that there are still to this day organizations across the country like the Ku Klux Klan. Let that sink in. There are real people out there getting away with something like that, whilst a person of color can’t walk alone down the street without “looking suspicious”. Racism is not something to be ignored until it goes away, because that will never happen until we address

Show More
Related
1040 Words | 5 Pages

Suzanne Lebsock did a good job writing this book. She used factual historical interpretation to tell you about the way life was in the late nineteenth century when it came to the way black and whites worked together, while still remaining to tell you a good story. Suzanne keeps the reader thinking about the story and not only thinking about the history behind. One way she does this is by making you know the characters in the story. For most of the characters she introduces she puts a little picture on the page and gives a description about them.

Read More
269 Words | 2 Pages

On July the 2nd 1964 Lyndon Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House. Despite privately referring to African Americans as “niggers”. This was the act that made the biggest difference to the lives of black people in America. The Act outlawed racial discrimination and prejudice in employment. It also gave dark skin students the right to use any public services funded by the government, an example of this is schools.

Read More
687 Words | 3 Pages

Criminal intent is the committing of a crime despite the knowledge and awareness that such is wrong lawfully and morally. Crime is a constant in the novel The Secret Life of Bees. Nearly every mentioned character is a criminal based on the laws of the time: 1960’s. The story is about 14-year-old Lily Owens, who runs away with her black stand-in mother from her abusive father.

Read More
724 Words | 3 Pages

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1298 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1401 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
48 Words | 1 Pages

The Confederate flag, born from slavery and rebellion, continues to serve as a symbol of racism, discrimination, and white supremacy towards minorities. Despite the flag’s importance historically in Southern heritage and history, the banning of the Confederate flag is a necessary step to equality in the United

Read More
817 Words | 4 Pages

This powerful moving story is about a journey a girl named Lily takes to understand her ying-yang situation, were some of her life events resemble evil but become overtaken by hope. The book The Secret Life of Bees tells a story about multiple characters who overcome the negative events in there life. But they find a way to take evil and change it into hope. These characters found a way to change the bad into good because life isn't always a fairytale, it's just how we accept things with negativity or positivity. We are not welcomed with greatness in our life, we sometimes get greeted with worlds evil.

Read More
1919 Words | 8 Pages

A New Family: Interracial Relationships and Religion in The Secret Life of Bees In such a diverse world where different races come together and interact, the early 1960s reveal society’s surprised reaction to these relationships. Interracial relationships are strongly frowned upon during this time, almost as if they are illegal. Fortunately, over time, people begin to accept those with different backgrounds and can easily communicate with each other. Hardships are still present today, but society in moving in a better direction.

Read More
543 Words | 3 Pages

The issue of the confederate flag has been an important cultural discussion point for some years now, but has recently taken on even greater importance in light of recent hate crimes in South Carolina, as well as rampant police brutality and shootings across the country. Much of the discussion has been an argument between the two schools of thought being that either the flag is a symbol of cultural heritage and nothing more, and the other being that it is a symbol of systematic and violent racism that has no right being in a place of honor and reverence in today’s society. In a way both schools are correct. The Confederate flag is a symbol of southern cultural history; it also happens that that history is a history of systematic and violent racism, starting from the flag’s creation and on to its popular resurgence in the south at the time of desegregation and the civil-rights movement.

Read More
528 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is hailed by many as one of the most important legislations in the American history. The act was passed into law 52 years ago under a lot of pressure and resistance from white senators and African American activists. The act, which was largely known as the “Bill of the century” was aimed at bringing equality for blacks and whites and end racial prejudice. The act was targeted to revolutionize America where blacks and whites would eat together in the same hotels and enjoy similar rights in public places without any discrimination.

Read More
539 Words | 3 Pages

Her characters like Walter and Ruth are forced to live in a cramped house because they don’t have the money to move out. Walter has to work as a chauffeur driving people around all day for a low wage. Just like in that time period when African Americans could not get high paying jobs, this aided in the racial problem because it kept blacks from being able to move into white neighborhoods. Another method used to keep blacks out of White neighborhoods was contract buying. “When selling on contract, the speculator offered the home to a black purchaser for a relatively low downpayment- often several hundred dollars would suffice.

Read More
740 Words | 3 Pages

Social inequality is overlooked by many. It affects so many of us, though we have yet to realize how extreme it is. Lee argues in this novel how much stress social inequalities put on the black and white races throughout the 1930s. Although, social inequalities did not just affect different races, it also affected poor people and family backgrounds. These are proven in the novel multiple times through Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the Cunninghams when the book is looked at more in

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Black women are treated less than because of their ascribed traits, their gender and race, and are often dehumanized and belittled throughout the movie. They are treated like slaves and are seen as easily disposable. There are several moments throughout the film that show the racial, gender, and class inequalities. These moments also show exploitation and opportunity hoarding. The Help also explains historical context of the inequality that occurred during that time period.

Read More

More about Segregation And Discrimination In The Secret Life Of Bees

Related Topics

Open Document