The Secret Life Of Bees Book Report

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the reader learns of a girl named Lily Owens. Lily is the main character of the story and the book was written from her perspective. Lily is a fourteen year old white girl growing up in 1960's Sylvan, South Carolina (Kidd 2). Lily had been raised by her father who she calls T.Ray because “‘Daddy’ never fit him" (Kidd 2). He is unloving, cold-hearted and abusive towards Lily. Lily is also haunted by the memory of accidentally killing her mother when she was a child. After her mother died, her father hired a black woman, Rosaleen, to act as her "Stand-in mother" ( Kidd 2). (there needs to be something here) When Rosaleen insults several racist men and gets arrested, Lily manages to break out Rosaleen and escape her father and the police. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they meet the Boatwright sisters.

She deeply wishes to be forgiven for killing her mother, and she needs to know her mother loved her. She obsesses over a photograph of her mother and thinks of her constantly. She spends time looking for signs that her mother was sending her love (Kidd 215).(something something something) Lily sees August Boatwright, the oldest Boatwright sister, as a mother figure. She longs for August to love her. Lily once said "I wanted to make her love me so she would keep me forever" (Kidd 94). Lily continues to look for love in the people around her and finds it in the pink house in Tiberon. She is able to look around and see all the people who love her. She knows that she is loved and supported by August, Rosaleen, and the Daughters of Mary. She even sees love where it may not be. When her father decides to let her stay with the Boatwrights, he says two words before leaving "Good riddance" (Kidd 298). Despite this she still believes that her father left her there for her