ipl-logo

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

652 Words3 Pages

The book “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd is a book about a fourteen-year-old white girl named Lily Owens who lives on a peach farm in Sylvan, South Carolina with her father T. Ray who is abusive and neglectful. Lily lives with a secret that many people do not know about, she believes she shot and killed, Deborah, her mother when she was just four years old. This memory has been haunting her for many years, and she would like to learn more about her mother. Ever since Deborah passed away, Rosaleen, Lily’s nanny, has been taking care of her. When the Civil Rights Act was signed, Rosaleen decided she would go and register to vote. Rosaleen and Lily walk into town, so Rosaleen can register to vote, but three white men start harassing …show more content…

Ray is at work one day, Lily sneaks out of the house to go and free Rosaleen. Freeing Rosaleen was not as easy as Lily thought it was going to be, but she manage to get it accomplished. Rosaleen and Lily decided to hitchhike to Tiburon, South Carolina, because she found a picture of Deborah's that had Tiburon written on the back. When they arrive at Tiburon, Lily finds the exact picture of Mary on honey jars in a grocery store. Lily finds out from the person working at the store that the honey belongs to the Boatwright sisters, a local black family of sisters. Rosaleen and Lily journey to the Boatwright sisters pink house where the sisters welcome them in to stay. At first, Lily lies to the sisters about her early life because she wanted to find out if her mother had stayed there. Rosaleen and Lily learn a lot of things about the sisters when they get there. Once they are there for awhile, Lily begins helping August with the beekeeping and Rosaleen stays in the house to watch over May. They soon learn, that the sisters and the Daughters of Mary have made up their own religion, where they praise the Black Madonna, and have their own worship services at the sister’s house. Lily soon realizes that they do not see her as white. They think she is the same as everyone

Show More
Related

Freedom In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

978 Words | 4 Pages

(Monk Kidd 299) Lily believes her life with the Boatwrights has offered her more freedom and will, and she wants to continue with her life with them, as she is more successful with the freedom she has with the Boatwrights. With the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and Rosaleen of legal age, she decides she will register to vote for the second time. The first time, she was beaten by racists, but this time, “‘I’m gonna finish what I started,’ Rosaleen said, lifting her chin. ‘I’m gonna register to vote.’”

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

696 Words | 3 Pages

Lily brought a chick home and it made a mess, T.ray threatened to boil the chick but Rosaleen saved it. Rosaleen was the only one defending Lily in her younger years and was always protecting her from T.R.A. Rosaleen was always there for Lily when no one else was. Even with Rosaleen helping Lily in her younger years, August filled the same role at the house, and even made a bigger impact on her for the short time she was in her life compared to Rosaleen. August taught Lily how to be a beekeeper while teaching her many life lessons, she was also the one to tell her about her mom and had a bigger role in that part of the book compared to

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1478 Words | 6 Pages

where Lilly is in search of clues for her mother from a picture she left behind. They end up at the door of August Boatwright and her sisters, May and June, who own the Black Madonna Honey farm. August welcomes them and cares for them and for the first time, treats the both with love and respect. August reveals that she cared for Lilly’s mother when she was young and that she had come to stay at the honey farm 3 months before she died. She reveals that Lilly’s mother ran away because she was depressed and troubled and that she had loved Lilly very much and was going back to get

Read More

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

181 Words | 1 Pages

In The Secret Life of Bees, the author, Sue Monk Kidd, alludes to the Freedom Summer Murders to create a conflict to start the rising action of the plot. In Mississippi in 1964, civil rights workers attempted to prepare and register African American to vote. In the novel, the radio broadcasters were discussing current events including the following: “...how police were looking for the bodies of those three civil rights workers in Mississippi…” (166). In the beginning of the story, Rosaleen heads to register herself to vote, but on her way, a few white men harass her about her skin color and her size. She then spits on one of the men, who in turn, start to beat her.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

561 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd is about a white girl named Lily Owens who ran away at the age of twelve with Rosaleen her colored caretaker. When the two ran away they started over in there new town down in South Carolina. Something that was mentioned throughout the novel is how Lily wanted to be just like her mother because she is extremely curious about her. Lily’s mother died in a tragic accident when she was a kid so she was left with an abusive father, T-Ray.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1420 Words | 6 Pages

Once they interact with the sisters, Lily lies about their intentions. She tells elaborate lies about how they ended up in Tiburon and their future plans. One of the sisters, August Boatwright, allows them to stay as long as they needed whereas June Boatwright strongly disapproves and May Boatwright seems unbothered. Upon living with the sisters, the Daughters of Mary are introduced to Lily and Rosaleen. All together they worship a black Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Chains.

Read More

How Did Mayella Ewell Have A Fair Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird

987 Words | 4 Pages

This story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the year 1929. A young white girl, Mayella Ewell, tries to seduce an African-American man, Tom Robinson. Later she accuses him of raping her. She knew she would win the case because she was a female and the jury would lean to her side, considering it was an all white jury. Also, the Ewells were known for being the poorest family in Maycomb.

Read More

Analysis Of The Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody

933 Words | 4 Pages

The book “The Coming of Age in Mississippi” is a well written autobiography by Anne Moody herself. It tells the story of how black people were treated after the Civil War of 1861-1865. Although black people were given freedom through the 13th, 14th and 15th constitutional amendments, white people still made sure that the black people do not get an equal right that is why they made the Jim Crow laws; the racial segregation laws enacted in United States between the years 1876-1965. The book is divided in different chapters in Anne Moody’s life: childhood, high school, college and the movement.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Lily Owens Character Traits

1166 Words | 5 Pages

Rosaleen works as a maid and a friend to May, and Lily works at the bee farm with a young man named Zack (who she quickly develops a crush on). After a sudden suicide by May, August and Lily become very close and after quite some time the secret wonder of her mother bubbles up and she can not hold the secret no longer and she must ask. But the answer she get is not what she was hoping for. After all the hope that her mother was alive was lost. All though the one fact she was holding onto her whole life was lost she discovered a new family with August and June making a better life than she could have ever expected making her journey complete and fulfilled.

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

1154 Words | 5 Pages

Lily’s mother is the cause of much of her grief, through her journey she imagines her mother in a way that does not accurately depict who her mother truly was. When she finds out what her mother actually was she, “I stood

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Gender Roles

1446 Words | 6 Pages

Lily didn’t know this as she had no pictures of her mother and had no idea what she looked like until after she ran away from her father's house and went to the Boatwright sister's house. There were three Boatwright sisters named June, May, and August and they ran a family honey bee company. Lily went to find the Boatwrights because of a picture she found in the box of her mother's stuff she found in her attic on the picture she found there was a black woman with the name of the town where the Boatwright sisters lived in the back of it. The Boatwright sisters lived in a town named Tiburon, South Carolina, which wasn’t that far from where Lily was first living until she ran away to live with them. After Lily finds out from August that she looks a lot like her mother she starts to realize why T. Ray treated her so badly and like she wasn’t even his daughter which is reinforced when he says “You look like her”(296).

Read More

Coming Of Age In Mississippi By Anne Moody Essay

1401 Words | 6 Pages

Anne Moody’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement is fueled by anger at the system she was raised to adhere to. The implications of black social rules reveal themselves in Emmitt Till’s murder, and the case spurs her interest in the NAACP, an organization banned in rural Mississippi. For Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi means to see the world through the lens of a poor black woman from the rural South. She becomes an activist and aligns with the intentions of the greater movement, but can’t shake the feeling that part of the problem is being ignored. Generational differences, Ideas about race vary greatly by generation, and this contrast catalyzed the Civil Rights movement.

Read More

Gender Roles In The Secret Life Of Bees

468 Words | 2 Pages

To start with Lily is raised by Roseleen, their black housekeeper. This isn’t all that uncommon for that time period, especially considering her MIA mother and her detached father. What is uncommon, however, is the fact that Lily runs away from her father and ends up at a house with three

Read More

Mental Illness In The Secret Life Of Bees

705 Words | 3 Pages

She finds herself in a small town called Tiburon in South Carolina, living with August Boatwright who was once her mother’s maid. After staying in Tiburon for a while, Lily calls her father, curious if he knows what her favourite colour is. They only spoke for a short period of

Read More

The Secret Life Of Bees Effect Of Love

1049 Words | 5 Pages

To illustrate, when the daughters of Mary gather around in a circle and they all go around to touch Black Mary’s heart, Lily tries to touch it as well but gets stopped: “I walked toward black Mary with my hand lifted. But just as I was about to reach her, June stopped playing. She stopped right in the middle of the song, and I was left in silence with my hand stretched out. ” (Kidd 111) As we later find out in the novel, June resented Lily’s mother, Deborah, because she was white. Furthermore, June wasn’t the warmest towards Lily in the novel which caused Lily to believe that she didn’t belong at the boatwright sister's house.

Read More

More about The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

Open Document