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The Secret Life Of Bees Lily Owens Character Analysis

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Bee-ing
Hot summer days of South Carolina, the buzzing of millions of bees filling your ears and the scent of honey every step of the way. This is the set of Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees in which Lily Owens, the protagonist, shows the reader a series of emotions throughout a fascinating plot. The novel is based on the story of a fourteen year old girl who, as a child, was guilty for her mother’s death. Lily’s life has been a constant nightmare ever since because of her father’s cruelty, therefore she decides to escape to Tiburon, SC and learn the truth about her mother’s past. The psychological changes and living conditions of Lily Owens cause her to become more of a brave, caring and confident person than she is presented …show more content…

Entering August’s house for the first time, the statue of Our Lady made her curious and at the same time, brought distinct feelings inside her. Lily states that “Standing there, [she] loved [herself] and hated [herself]” (71). Lily experiences a mixture of feelings which brings a new outlook of her own personality. Instead of focusing on who she really is, the challenges she is presented with are more confusing than helpful. Lily has moments where she wishes that “[she] could, [herself], lie down in [a beehive tomb] and be reborn” (207). The protagonist feels the need to take a break from the world and maybe even restart her life. There are also times when the voices in Lily’s head scream “You are unlovable, Lily Owens. Unlovable” (242). The conversation with August about her mother’s death emphasizes the volume of this criticism, marking a breaking point in Lily’s life, which ultimately leads to the recognition of how much she is adored by everyone around her. August tries to calm Lily down by confessing that “... [She] loves [her]. Just like [she] loved [her] mother”(243). These words portray the key step to aid Lily realize her importance in the world, enhancing her confidence immediately.Lily learns to accept herself and with the help of the warmth surrounding her, the conflict with her inner self comes to a conclusion.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a work of art with a courageous, kind and passionate protagonist, who gives young readers a taste of the real meaning of tough life. The novel itself is full of lessons and wisdom, pieces of advice that could easily be applied in the everyday

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Lily's creativity, activated by religious observance, allows her to be more creative. Later on in the passage, when Lily describes her outward expression, she notes that “[She] wanted to cry, but in the next instant, [she] wanted to laugh” (Kidd 71). Through the use of juxtaposition, Kidd carries out an image of Lily about to sob until she suddenly starts chuckling. By using the diction of “cry” and “laugh,” two words that completely differ in emotion, Kidd shows that the religious statue made her recall events of her past, truly making her analyze the type of person she was. Religion allowed her to have the trait of being self-aware allowing her to forgive herself for her past and move on because she knew that the religious statue could see good in her.

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It doesn’t take a wizard to see Zach loves you. And every one of the Daughters loves you” (Kidd 242). August makes Lily feel better and clears her conscience about her mother. Later in the story, Lily gets confirmation she did kill her mother from T-Ray, but, because August talked to Lily, she was not completely distraught. In conclusion, August impacts Lily in a good way and helps her with her mom.

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Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.

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In Tiburon Lily finds herself with August, the women who took care of her mother and knew the answer to Lily’s most asked question. When she and Lily finally have their conversation about her mother, August reveals the grand answer. August states “No, honey, she came by herself. ”(Kidd, 251) By the time August tells Lily the truth about her mother, Lily gets emotionally destroyed.

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And I took her away. ”(Kidd 8) Lily has had a rough start to her life with her father being abusive and neglecting to her and not to mention her shooting and killing her mom on accident. Lily had lost so much, but gained a great deal of parental figures when she and Rosaleen escape off to Tiburon. There they find August Boatwright and Lily’s life changes.

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Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up.

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Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.

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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

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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

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The character of Lily Owens evolves and changes as any young woman would throughout the course of her life. Lily begins the book as an insecure, detached, and unaware teenage girl. We see how Lily changed into a wise young woman as she solves the mystery of her mother’s life. Towards the end of the book Lily transforms into a young woman who is much more confident, happier, and vicarious. Lily has learned about love and biases.

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