The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

When is breaking the law or defying an authority’s wishes ever a beneficial action? In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens is motherless and stuck with a father who doesn’t give two pennies about her. In the summer of 1964, when Rosaleen, the slave who cares for her, gets thrown in jail, Lily makes what she feels are the right decisions. Their journey to live in a Pepto-Bismal pink house and meet the calendar sisters, August, June, and May, is the peculiar solution for Lily so that she may know who she can be and what is in her heart (Kidd 67). The author, Sue Monk Kidd, creates a theme in The Secret Life of Bees of how rebelling against authority can, under certain circumstances, be beneficial. After Rosaleen, while in jail, is

While there, Lily comes for Rosaleen and persuades her to leave, “‘You’ve got to get out of here,’ I said, untying her wrists. ‘I can’t just leave,’ she said. ‘I’m still in jail.’ ‘If you stay here, those men are gonna come back and kill you. I’m serious. They’re gonna kill you, like those colored people in Mississippi got killed. Even T. Ray said so.’” (Kidd 46-47). Rosaleen is in a dangerous situation, and Lily doesn’t know what else to do for her but break her out. Using a multitude of falsehoods and sneaking around, they escape. After fleeing their little town, Lily and Rosaleen hitchhike to a place Lily knows her mother once visited (Kidd 51). They are fugitives from the law, and Lily is far from T. Ray, her father. However, this turn of events isn’t so bad. T. Ray is not at all caring or nurturing, Lily had relied of Rosaleen and the faint memory of her mother for any feelings of

In the beginning of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily has a hard life. Through her well meaning actions, she takes a journey that turns her life around. Lily breaks the law by taking her caregiver away from harm. She ignores the common idea of racism and looks at who people are. This enables her to grow close with many wonderful people who she would have otherwise been expected to shun. Lily leaves the person who makes her life miserable, her father, and finds a new family full of goodness and love. Her desertion of the old life she had lets her have happiness. It is not too often that being rebellious and unlawful will lead to greater joy and a true family, but this novel illustrates the idea that there will be times when you must look at the big picture of life. In certain cases you will have to solve problems and follow your heart. You have to work at having a good life, and whatever is required to make that happen should be a