Lily ending up at her mother’s previous home was so unlikely, nearly impossible. In the real world, Lily would not have been accepted into their home so easily either. In conclusion, some parts of “The Secret Life of Bees” probably would not occur in the real
On the first page of the novel, “The Secret Life of Bees” the Heroine of the book, Lily Owens, declared that, “my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit,” (page 1) we as readers have no clue whatsoever what she is talking about. Lily seems like a child with a normal life but that can easily be proven wrong; at the age of four she happen to kill her mother without knowing it and has a father in which can be a bit brutal at times. Despite everything, Lily is a lady who loved to learn things about her mother every chance she got, it was clear she had love for Deborah, no doubt, even if she didn’t have any memories of her. An example that perfectly demonstrates this is the argument Lily and T. Ray had: Lily declared that Deborah wouldn’t
At first, Lily is new to many of the tasks involved with beekeeping and the black Mary. Slowly, she begins to know what needs to be done, and what is expected of her. She must pull her own weight, and help the Boatwrights with the honey-making business. This is much like what happens in a beehive.
Throughout the novel Lily is similar to the ‘workers’ by being a daughter figure of August and having the job of a bee hive worker. In chapter five, when collecting honey for the first time, August told Lily about bee yard etiquette before collecting honey. “I hadn’t been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called bee yard etiquette. She reminded me that the world was really one big bee yard, and the same rules worked in both places...” (Kidd 92)
"The Secret Life of Bees", by Sue Monk Kidd, is a first-person narrative through the eyes of 14-year-old Lily Owens, a white girl in 1964 South Carolina who runs away with her African-American maid Rosaleen in search of clues to reveal her mother's past. From the gecko, Lily discloses the abusive conditions of living with her father, T. Ray, since the violent death of her mother that she expresses was her fault and longs to find some answers that will help her move on. As further events unfold, Rosaleen and Lily manage to escape to Tiburon, a city she finds her mother had spent time in, and hunt down an African-American honey farmer, August Boatwright, to whom they find after stumbling across her honey jar with a Black Virgin Mary on it. August
Lily Owens is the main character in the book “The Secret Life of Bees”. Lily is the protagonist and also the narrator of the book. Lily was a 14-year-old teenage girl living in the fictional town of Sylvan, South Carolina in the time of 1964. She lives on a peach farm with her father who she calls T.Ray. her father(T.Ray) who beats, punishes, and abuses her.
The Character of Lily Melissa Owens in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd tells a story about a 14-year old Lily Melissa Owens. Lily is a white girl growing up in 1964 South Carolina in the midst of a period of segregation. When first introduced into the novel, the reader learns all of the troubles of Lily's life - being abused and mistreated by her father, being treated as if she wasn't a little girl, and being left with the burden of killing her mother. After running away from her father with Rosaleen, her black nanny, Lily comes to realize qualities about herself she had never noticed.
In the very first chapter of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily describes her mother, beginning what will be an overall theme throughout the novel. Lily suffers tremendous guilt for killing her mother, and at night she dreams of dying, meeting her mother in heaven, and asking for her forgiveness. Lily has little doubt that her mother will kiss her and forgive her for 10,000 years. Later in the novel, when August tells Lily
Imagine living your life with an abusive dad and without a mother because you killed her. This is what Lily had to live through as when she was a little kid her mother died and whenever she would ask her father he would say she shot her. In “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily is a 14 year old girl whose mother is dead and has a good mother figure named Rosaleen and a racist abusive dad named T-ray. August Boatwright has had the most influence on Lily’s life because when Lily was going through a lot of emotional problems like her thinking she was unlovable, August helped her think otherwise and other things like helping her go to school. August also convinced T-Ray to let Lily stay with them.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Point of view, narrative voice--Be specific about the narrator and include as many details as possible: This book is told in the first person. The narrator of the story is Lily Owens. Lily is a girl that runs away from home and lives on a honey farm. First person point of view was a good choice for this book because of the type of story it is. This story is a bildungsroman/coming of age story, and by having the story told from Lily’s perspective, we’re able to get a deeper look into her mind.
Therefore, the way August has most influenced Lily’s growth and development is by helping her cope with her trauma. Another way August has most influenced Lily’s growth and development is by showing her she’s loved and appreciated. There were multiple times throughout the story where August had taken Lily out to help her with daily routines and the bee’s. As stated in the text, "I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called "bee yard etiquette." " This inclusion suggests that August sees Lily as part of the family and values her
Throughout the Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens becomes more mature as she lives in the pink house and learns that all people are equal. She also becomes more mature as she learns more about her mother's past, and learns to forgive herself for her death. In the beginning of the book, Lily is selfish and immature. She says that “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” Through this, the reader sees how much Lily's life has been affected by her mother's death.
Written in a way almost unique to other writers, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees allows readers to escape into a world of love and comfort that can only be found within the Boatwright sisters and the Daughters of Mary. Representing a society of women that so differs from what Lily has previously known, having been surrounded by a culture with no regard for women and having hardly any understanding of her female potential, August and her circle open up Lily to a whole nother world of possibilities. Their doting on Lily, despite the racial divide, and lessons on the Black Mary fill in the maternal gap left by her own deceased mother, Deborah. It is because of her essential escape from Sylvan and T-Ray’s oppressive attitude, to the welcoming Boatwright clan, that Lily is able to make something new of herself and open
The Secret Life of Bees, is what many would consider a meaningful story of racism, humanity, and women’s rights. This story has a way of capturing one’s complete attention and making it tough to leave the book. One can easily relate to the characters and their pain as the author has made it her main mission to tell the story in the context of women and their profound vulnerabilities throughout the times. This inspiring story invites us into the 14-year-old Lily Owens’s life which has been greatly impacted by a terrible accident and a distorted memory of her mother Deborah. Lily’s world and development are forever changed when her mother is tragically shot by Lily accidently during a heated fight between her mother and father in a hot summer
In the Bildungsroman, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily, the young motherless protagonist, exists in a life which lacks love and care, but with an act of rebellion, alters the entire course of her life. After enduring cruel punishments from a sadist father, Lily accepts this as the way of life she must live. However, after a crucial moment, Lily begins to consider the idea of freedom from her oppressive life; she realizes this when she and Rosaleen, her substitute mother, come under arrest for disrupting the public and Terrence, her father, would only take Lily out of jail. This is a pivotal moment as Lily a heated conversation with her father and exclaims, “You don’t scare me”(Kidd 38). Her brash action to rebel against her father
