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The Secret Life Of The Bees Lily's Guilt

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In the book, “The Secret Life of the Bees” Lily Owens suffers the guilt from the loss of her mother. Growing up was difficult for lily as she struggled with the abuse of her father and being socially awkward at school. Lily finds influential characters throughout her childhood years. Rosaleen her housekeeper is known in lily's life as her stand-in mother after lily's mother's death. Lily is often dreaming of being Rosaleen adoptive child. August Boatwright, A honey maker, takes Rosaleen and Lily in after running away from Lily's father. Lily learns that August had a true love for bees, life, and love. She always offers Lilly help and advice. August is a spiritual woman with hobbies and customs. Zachary Taylor or Zach is an African-American boy who is very intelligent and is aspiring to become a lawyer. Meanwhile, he helps August in the honey farms. After meeting lily, they become best friends and eventually develop feelings for each other. After being …show more content…

She was assigned to care for Lily shortly after her mother's death. “...came every day to cook, clean, and be my stand-in mother. Rosaleen had never had a child herself, so for the last ten years I’d been her pet guinea pig.” (Monk Kidd 2). Lily describes Rosaleen has her “Stand-in mother”. This is evident that she looks up to Rosaleen as her own mother. Rosaleen is very determined and quickly stands up for herself. “ I’m going to register my name so I can vote, that what.. Rosaleen lifted her snuff jug, which was filled with black spot, and calmly poured it across the top of the men's shoes...spelling Rosaleen Daise” (Monk Kidd 13). Rosaleen was a assaulted by a group of supremacist after telling them that registering to vote. Eventually, Rosaleen was arrested disturbing peace. With Lily witnessing the event, she was worried about Rosaleen but she knew that Rosaleen wouldn't step down without a

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In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily’s journey is related to our school motto: “Monstra Matrem: Show Thyself a Mother” because she was looking for a mother’s love. Specifically, the motto describes a request for maternal care and to live in the spirit of caring. For example, Lily describes her daydreams when she says, “I used to have daydreams in which she was white and married T. Ray, and became my real mother.” (Kidd 12). This quote shows how Lily wishes Rosaleen was her legal mother since she was the only female figure in Lily’s life at the time.

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Rosaleen fills in for Lily’s parents with her openness and determined

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In the novel by Sue Monk Kidd,The Secret Life of Bees, discusses the internal conflict of a young girl named Lily. When Lily finds her true identity she transforms into a strong and confident women which helps her face the world and all of its challenges. Lily from the beginning of the novel she felt as if she was” impersonating a girl instead of really being one”(9).This shows how Lily tried acting and doing all the things that girls really do instead of being one. In the middle of the novel Lily gets to Tiburon and when she first gets there she goes into the store and asks about the picture and leaves but leaves with a bottle of snuff without paying. This shows how Lily is changing and not acting the way she did before she left Sylvan.

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Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. ”-Thomas Carlyle. In the novel Secret Life of Bees, Lily is a harmless, kind hearted girl who has experienced much in the short life she has lived. The last time Lily has felt kindness, gentleness, and love was when her mother was alive. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life (2).”

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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.

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At this stage, Lily has really own known one African American: Rosaleen. While she cares for Rosaleen, maybe even loves her, Lily still sees Rosaleen is a domestic figure—as a woman who fits into the stereotypical role of a southern, uneducated housekeeper. Later, readers learn that August once worked as a housekeeper as well, but like Lily readers learn that August chose another life for herself. Lily believes that people have set roles, which they cannot transcend: black women work as housekeepers, black men do not become lawyers, and poor white women like Lily go to beauty

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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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The Secret Lives of People The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, is an interesting story that connects human lives to bees. The story takes place in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement and fourteen year-old Lily Owens leaves her abusive father and her home in Sylvan, South Carolina to go to Tiburon with hopes to find information on her mother. Throughout the story, Lily struggles with many internal conflicts and also meets several mother figures along the way.

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Lily has the strongest relationship with Rosaleen, in which she describes her: She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin. She lived alone in a little house tucked back in the woods, not so far from us, and came every day to cook, clean, and be my stand-in mother. Rosaleen have never had a child herself, so for the last ten years I’d been her guinea pig. (Kidd 2)

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Her major themes are motherhood, the transference of misery, dependence, bees as an example of human society, and race relations. Motherhood is totally one her major theme because the protagonist only wants to understand her true mother and wants to know if her she really loved her. Also, I like how one of the theme is the race relations in American history because Kidd pictured the life during the time in the setting. In addition, I feel like I relate to August because I would also want to help others who is needing it and believes something good will happen, always being

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