Unconditional Love In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Unconditional love is typically portrayed in modern times as having a deep love for someone or something no matter the circumstances, but The Secret Life of Bees has a different perspective on not only unconditional love, but also the acceptance of that love. Being a book taking place during the Civil Rights Movement, acceptance and love for everyone plays an important role, not only for people of color as a whole, but also for the main character, Lily Owens. Written in 2002 by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees is about a young girl, Lily Owens, who runs away from her home in Sylvan with her housekeeper Rosaleen to Tiburon in an effort to find out more about her mother. There she meets and stays with the Boatwright Sisters, August, June,

Acceptance allows for unconditional love. Lily accepted that she could be loved, which allowed her to realize that she had a lot of people who unconditionally loved her, just like a mother to a child. When Lily was telling August about accidentally killing her mother, August had told her that she loved her, which was the turning point for Lily in realizing that people actually loved her. “I forced my mind back to the moment in her bedroom when I’d confessed the worst of human things. Upon hearing it, she said, I love you. Just like I loved your mother” (Kidd 245). After confessing to August that she had killed Deborah, August told Lily that she loved her, just like she loved Deborah, which allowed Lily to accept that she was loveable and others loved her. Lily hadn’t been told that someone loved her for a very long time, so upon hearing August say that she loved her, Lily was finally able to accept the reality that others loved her. Similarly, especially regarding the religious aspect of the book, there is

She went to several hospitals and hugged every patient with those diseases to show that it wasn’t contagious in that way. However, most people, especially people with HIV or AIDS weren’t certain that the princess wouldn’t catch it, so they tried to avoid touching her out of love and respect. For too long, they were considered dirty and unloveable until Princess Diana had enough empathy in her heart to show them love and acceptance. After she proved the stigma wrong, millions of patients with HIV and/or AIDS were finally reaccepted into society and they accepted the offer of love and apologies from people who once shamed them. Sue Monk Kidd noticed these groups being pushed out of society and labeled as unloveable, so in her way of apologizing and showing these people love, she wrote a book based on the beauty of accepting love. At the end of the novel, Lily is reflecting on how she has mother-figures in her life who loved her unconditionally. “And there they were. All these mothers. I