The novel The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, is a story of a 14-year-old girl named Lily who loses her mother and goes on an extraordinary adventure in order to learn more about who her mother was. In the concluding chapter of the book, chapter 14, an epigraph is included that states: “A queenless colony is a pitiful and melancholy community; there may be a mournful wail or lament from within… Without intervention, the colony will die. But introduce a new queen and the most extravagant change takes place” (Kidd 277). The epigraph provides an insight as to what the deeper meaning of the chapter is. Lily, when she is young, loses her queen which is her mother and is devastated by it. However, when Lily meets August Boatwright, …show more content…
Ray, her father, shows up to August’s house to bring Lily home at the end of the book. All hope seems lost for her, and she believes that her new life is over and must return to her old life of sadness. August, however, talks T. Ray into leaving Lily with her and her sisters. Lily realizes that she truly is loved, and sees that she now has a new queen, and at the same time a new mother. Her life has become something beautiful. She still holds some feelings of sadness for losing her real mother, but is grateful to have a new queen in her life. The theme of The Secret Life of Bees is that everyone needs a queen that will love and protect them. This “queen” can be anything from a biological mother to a caregiver that loves deeply. If a human is missing a queen, their life will become exactly like the bees’ lives do when they lose their queen. Life falls apart with the deprivation of a queen. However, life will bloom and flourish quickly with the introduction of a new queen, whoever that might be. This is shown throughout the novel, and especially in chapter 14 when Lily begins to forgive her old queen and love her new queen