Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Many people may wonder how bees are like humans in ways.

In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel “The Secret Life Of Bees”, Lily is a young girl whose mother died when she was a child. She is than being taken care of by T-ray who is a terrible father, as he doesn’t help Lily take care of herself. Lily has a mother like figure though whose name is Rosaleen, the families “maid”. 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

She would brush it into such a tower of beauty, people all over heaven would drop their harps just to admire it. You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair, my hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions, and T-ray naturally, refused to buy me bristle rollers, so all year I’d had to rollit on Welch’s grape juice cans, which had nearly turned me into insomniac. I was always having to choose between decent hair, and a good night sleep. (found on page 3)

Another way in which bees symbolize Lily is that some bees don’t like leaving their hive and Lily didn’t want to leave because her mom wasn’t there. when Lily tried to let the bees free, they didn’t leave because they don’t have heir queen bee to lead them. Lily wanted to get away from T-ray but she was scared because she didn’t have her mom to guide her.

Lily says “I’m catching bees to show T-Ray,he thinks i’m making them up.” The jar symbolizes T-Ray and the bees symbolize Lily. Lily was happy and free until her mom passed away so now she feels like she is alone even though she lives with T-Ray. Just like Lily, the bees were free until they were captured without their queen. Now that Lily is on her own she at least has Rosaleen who is like a mother to her. Rosaleen has raised Lily since her mom passed and she helps her through hard times.Rosaleen also helps Lily lie and escape from

Lily mourns for her mother several times throughout the novel. She always had some of her mother’s items throughout her time to help her cope during the reading. She didn’t leave her own home without said items. She didn't leave her own home without the items to remember her mother. Like the bees in the jar they needed time to mourn for their queenlessness like lily with her mothers items lily uses the items to cope then leaves her jar and flees. “That night i looked at the jar of bees on my dresser. The poor creatures perched on the bottom barely moving, obviously pining away for flight.” (27). The bees in the jar barely moving symbolize their mourning. The mourning of lily is very much like the bees in the