The Secret Life Of Bees Analysis

A World of Love “People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It’s that hard. If God said in plain language, ‘I’m giving you a choice, forgive or die,’ a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.” (Kidd 277) Rough times and struggles are simply a part of life- something everyone is to endure. In the long run, these events don’t matter. How we handle the situation rather than the situation itself is what increases our character. When experiencing a trial, each person has two choices- forgive and move on or hold on to the hurt and remain bitter. Forgiving others is necessary to attain true peace of mind. But not always do people know how to handle situations such as these. In their novels Night and The Secret Life of Bees,

Elie and his family traveled from cut-off communities, to ghettos, then finally to concentration camps. When Elie enters the concentration camps, right away his family is broken apart. “He gave the order: ‘Men to the left! Women to the right!’ ... Eight short, simple words. Yet that was the moment when I parted from my mother. [...] And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever.” (Wiesel 27) Elie and his father manage to stay together until the end of the story, where Elie’s father is taken. He most likely died of old age and dysentery. His father dissapeared through the night, Elie never had the chance to say goodbye, “I awoke January 29 at dawn. In my father’s place lay another invlaid. They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may have still been breathing. There were no prayers at his grave. No candles were lit to his memory. His last word was my name. A summons, to which I did not respond.” (Wiesel 106) No concern of the Jews was taken into consideration by the *Germans in the concentration camps. The prisoners were stripped of everything and humilated day after day, “They took our hair off with clippers , and shaved off all the hair on our bodies. We were naked, our shoes and belts in our hands. The command: ‘Run!’ And we ran. [...] It was no longer possible to grasp

Lily seems to have a happy ending. The story ends “happily ever after”, the problem is solved right away. Lily’s life became bliss once she lets everything go. Lily was able to forgive herself and both of her parents. and as a result was blessed with a beautiful life filled with the love that she so needed and deserved. On the other hand, Elie held on to anger and bitterness and his experiences were made worse. Night ended on more of a gruesome and haunting tone. The story clearly hasn’t ended.Eventually, Elie is able to forgive his captors and all of those who had wronged him. As a result he was winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and has influenced the lives of countless others for the better. Rather than dwell on the past, Elie resolves to fix the world’s mistake, “For the world to remember and learn from the Holocaust is not Elie Wiesel’s only goal. It is equally important to fight indifferemce and the attitude that ‘it’s no concern of mine’ [...] Mankind needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet , threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A destruction only man can provoke, man can prevent. Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other.” (nobelprize.org