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The Secret Life Of Bees Identity Essay

2839 Words12 Pages

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Growth, change, and self-discovery are humanity’s focus. We are constantly moving, developing, and improving ourselves and our environment. Human art and literature reflect our values, and identity is key in the works we create. In The Secret Life of Bees, a novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, the character Lily goes through many ups and downs in order to find her identity, values, and interests, and to develop relationships. We learn about ourselves through characters, and Lily teaches us to discover ourselves through our view of ourselves, our interests and goals, and through our relationships with others. It is clear in this novel that we should allow ourselves to find identity. To begin, we should allow ourselves to find identity in …show more content…

Before, WIth T. Ray, she didn’t view herself positively, and thought that the source of her lack of self-confidence was because she didn’t have a mother. However, it was because she didn’t have a good person or good people in her life to show her how to love herself and others.The tone the author uses to describe Lily’s appearance shows the change. In the first quote the tone is disappointed, sad, and frustrated, whereas in the second quote the tone is peaceful, happy, and comfortable. She learned to love her body through her experiences with the Boatwrights. Her physical identity didn’t go through extreme change, but her mental view of it did. She wasn’t in a situation where she was capable of loving herself before she left, but later, she was, and it opened her up. Lily’s flower ‘bloomed’. She was able to be secure and confident in her physical appearance like she never was before, because of her newfound identity. ANother example of self-confidence and security as a result of finding identity is shown through the behavior of the bees, and the change in said behavior as Lily’s identity progresses. In the beginning of the novel, the bees are more sedentary, as shown when Lily traps …show more content…

Finding identity is an important part of our development as people. The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is one of many literary examples that shows human and personal development of identity. We learn that through identity, we can and will be able to be secure and confident in ourselves, develop our interests, and accept others in order to build healthy relationships with ourselves and others. We must all allow ourselves to grow and change, to experience new places and people, to find identity, and to build relationships. Our identities and our discovery and development of them allows us to self-actualize and to realize our

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