Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

In the second chapter of, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the relationship between Lily and the people in her life, as well as, her understanding the society she lives in, becomes further explained. T-Ray brings Lily home from the police station, infuriated since Lily is questioning why they are not trying to save Rosaleen as well. T-Ray becomes worried that Lily will try and get Rosaleen out herself, so he tells her to stay at home and warns her not to leave the house. After seeing how Rosaleen stood up to the people who weren’t treating her fairly, Lily does the same, which leads to him trying to hurt her physically. Since he fails to hurt her physically, T-Ray tells her the reason as to why her mother was packing the day of her

After deciding that living with T-Ray is worse than any other situation, Lily decides to leave. Right before her decision to leave, she claims that a voice had been talking to her and telling her what to do. “I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open”(Page 41). This scene from the story is important because it uses the jar as symbolism of Lily’s life, saying that Lily can do whatever she wants and there are endless opportunities. However, if she doesn’t leave T-Ray’s care, that the jar would always be closed, like her life would be closed off from opportunities. The next scene which is important in this chapter is when Lily goes to bail out Rosaleen and the cops say that Rosaleen is at the hospital. The police officer, Mr.Gaston, claims that Rosaleen fell and hit her head so she was transferred to the hospital for stitches. Lily automatically knows this is a lie, “Took a fall my rear end. I wanted to throw his boiled peanuts against the wall”(Page 45). Lily knows that Rosaleen is not getting the fair treatment, which she deserves. Although she does begin to speak up about the incident, she doesn’t do it in a way which proposes any real