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The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

646 Words3 Pages

In the novel "the secret use of Bees" Sue Monk showed the importance mothers have in the roles they play in their daughters' lives and how it might affect them. "The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd, follows the transforming journey of the main character Lily Owens. Set against the backdrop of 1960s racial tensions, Lily's life is formed by the presence and influence of numerous mother figures who have a significant impact on her growth and development. These mother figures, such as Rosaleen, August, and the Virgin Mary, provide Lily the love, wisdom, and understanding she craves, allowing her to finally negotiate her terrible history, embrace her individuality, and find consolation in a new family. A fierce protector and a catalyst …show more content…

August, the beekeeping family's matriarch, becomes a loving mentor and a source of great insight for Lily. August's loving presence, paired with her great beekeeping skills, serves as a metaphor for the strength of community and the interdependence of life.“Well,” August said, going right on with her pasting, “you know, she’s really just the figurehead off an old ship, but the people needed comfort and rescue, so when they looked at it, they saw Mary, and so the spirit of Mary took it over. Her spirit is everywhere, Lily, just everywhere.” Throughout August, Lily learns about love, forgiveness, and the importance of accepting one's past. August's unconditional love and acceptance aid Lily in healing from her traumatic background, giving her the courage to face her fears and …show more content…

Lily, who is drawn to the image of the Black Madonna, finds refuge in the Mother Mary statue in the Boatwrights' honey home. Lily was shocked to find a little black statue of the Virgin Mary. The statue has an impact on her because, as stated in the statement, it appears to "understand" her; that is, it appears to know all about her hidden worries and concerns, for example, her guilt over her mother's death.” The lips on the statue had a beautiful, bossy half smile, the sight of which caused me to move both my hands up to my throat. Everything about that smile said, Lily Owens, I know you down to the core.” Lily looks to the Virgin Mary for guidance and comfort, trusting in her goodness and loving presence. Lily's spiritual bond with the Black Madonna serves as a conduit for her inner change, helping her to discover forgiveness, love, and redemption inside

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Lily's creativity, activated by religious observance, allows her to be more creative. Later on in the passage, when Lily describes her outward expression, she notes that “[She] wanted to cry, but in the next instant, [she] wanted to laugh” (Kidd 71). Through the use of juxtaposition, Kidd carries out an image of Lily about to sob until she suddenly starts chuckling. By using the diction of “cry” and “laugh,” two words that completely differ in emotion, Kidd shows that the religious statue made her recall events of her past, truly making her analyze the type of person she was. Religion allowed her to have the trait of being self-aware allowing her to forgive herself for her past and move on because she knew that the religious statue could see good in her.

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The next day, Lily goes to meet August by the beehives. August shows Lily a beehive that’s missing a queen bee. As they look at the hive, August reminds Lily of the story of the runaway nun. The point of the story, August claims, was that in Deborah’s absence, the Lady of Chains could be a mother for Lily. She adds that Mary isn’t just a statue: she’s something inside Lily.

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Lily’s mother was stripped of her limits by Lily’s father and her sense of independence was gone. As Lily’s mother said, the more she accepted her husband's apologies, the more her tolerance for the abuse went up, which ultimately resulted in Lily’s mother being somewhat of a villain while her father was alive. Lastly, Lily’s dad plays the role of an antagonist perfectly as he shows the reader what a negative force looks like. Lily continuously shows the reader of the book the violent temper and the mental and physical abuse that they had to encounter with Lily's father.

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

Almost every child has thought about running away from home at least once in their life, if not more. Although this usually is an empty threat, for Lily Owens, the protagonist in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, it was a milestone. The summer of 1964 marked the year she finally realized there was nothing holding her back from escaping her abusive father. As she leaves home for her journey, she takes her African American, motherlike housekeeper with her, who was in jail for insulting some racists. Together, they find their way to three beekeeping sisters, one of which helps Lily to finally understand what happened to her late mother.

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In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.

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839 Words | 4 Pages

(374) When Lily says this , she is realizing all the mother figures in her life and how important they are to her and how she needs them to shine over her like a moon. It is important for Lily to have as many mother figures in her life as she does since her actual mother died when she was young and she carries the guilt with her that is was her

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Lily arrives at the Boatwright sisters house and sees the statue of the black Mary for the first time. While she is viewing the black Madonna, she gets mixed feelings of hating herself and adoring herself and begins to feel guilt. “Everything about that smile said, Lily Owens, I know you down to the core. I felt she knew what a lying, murdering, hating person I really was. How I hated T. Ray, and the girls at school, but mostly myself for taking away my mother”(71).

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The author of the Secret Life of Bees chose to use Lily, the young white female protagonist on the precipice of adulthood, in order to better tell this story. Lily serves the role as narrator, and we see the story through her eyes – providing a unique insight that no other character in the story would give, being an outsider in Tiburon, as well as her journey of self-discovery that is at the core of this book. Several passages of the book would have been changed through a different perspective, such as when Lily overhears June and August arguing over her arrival. By changing the point of view away from Lily, you lose her confusion and “righteous indignation” over being turned away due to “being white” (Bees 87), something that she has never

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Lily also learns the important concept of communication, one of the necessary characteristics of bees. For a long time, Lily lacks the courage to ask June, August, or May about her mother. However, after seeing May use graham crackers to lure cockroaches out of the house, something her mother did, Lily finally decides it is time to confront May. By asking May about her mother, Lily finally receives the confirmation that her mother did know the calendar sisters. Similar to bees, Lily’s world “depends on communication– on an innate ability to send and receive messages” (165).

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

The Secret Life of Bees introduces Lily, a typical teenager with a troubled past, who bases her life around an image of her mother, a pair of white gloves, and a picture of a African-American Mary with an address. As Lily and Rosaleen run away from her father and the law, they are taken away to a whirling world of bees and three ladies who open Lily’s eyes to a new world of forgiveness and what it means to have unconditional love. Sue Monk Kidd’s heroine Lily Owens undergoes a transformation from being a

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Losing a loved one helps you to rethink everything. If you want something in life, you have to fight for it. Right? In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, we learn what a grieving process can really do to a person. Main character, Lily Owens, loses her mother at a young age and further along begins to realize that maybe her whole life could be a lie.

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Lily wants to know about her mothers life and Dorothy wants to know how to get home. In the book, The Secret Life of bees, Lily leaves home and ventures out to find out more about her mother and her life. "She must have been here some time in her life to have owned this picture. And if she was, a person might remember her. Lily basically follows the clues left by Debora, her mom, using the Black Madonna picture and the town written on the back of it.

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Continuously reminded by her father that Lily’s mother was always planning to abandon her, Lily is determined to find the truth behind her father's claim. The hopeless, yet faithful protagonist Lily eventually overcomes her angst and fury to once again feel tenderness and warmth in her desolate life. In the beginning of the novel, Sue Monk Kidd shows how Lily’s

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American writer Sue Monk Kidd’s fiction novel, The Secret Life of Bees, is set in the interracial landscape of the American South in 1964, where 14-year-old Lily Owens is left to navigate a life of longing based around the blurred memory of her late mother. After fleeing her abusive home with her caregiver, Rosaleen, Lily finds herself living with the Boatwright sisters, who she later discovers are the key to her mother’s past. With the Boatwright sisters, Lily learns about spirituality through the Black Madonna, the fundamentals of beekeeping, and most importantly, the importance of family. She finds herself in a home surrounded by female role models, and is able to fill the hole her parents left behind with persistent love and feminine guidance.

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Lexi Miller Mrs. Szabados Honors English I 22 May 2023 Symbolism in The Secret Life of Bees The Secret Life of Bees illustrates a captivating story of a girl suffering lots of loss, and has to learn to grow and forgive herself and others throughout the book. The backdrop is set in South Carolina in the 1960’s, contrasting a time of prejudice and the theme of equality with The Civil Rights Movement.

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