Beatrice The Bees: A Narrative Fiction

Kathy Holcomb Prof. Robert Weber English 112 April 14, 2009 The Secret Life of Bees Critical Essay Sue Monk Kidd has carefully crafted a book rich in symbolism with special emphasis on bees. Each section’s heading features the inner workings of this communal society (Emanuel, Catherine, B. 3). An epigraph at the

Little Bee is Cleave’s best known novel in which a young girl becomes a refugee when she escapes the destructive nature of an oil conflict in Nigeria, and with much strength, learns to adapt to a new environment in the United Kingdom. This novel is inspired by the conditions Cleave

philosopher who believes that society would be better by emphasizing the importance of feminine values versus the masculine, deeply influences Kidd’s writings. These principles are greatly displayed in the plot and theme of The Secret Life of Bees. Lily’s desire for a mother, and

August’s home mirrors a beehive. Just like every beehive, Augusts home also has a queen bee. August says that Black Mary is the mother of all the women in her household. Lily is encompassed by a strong sense of feminism in the beehive. This inspires Lily to become a strong independent woman like August. Choosing not to marry, August also helps Lily realize that you do not need another person to support you. Just like a beehive, the bees preform rituals that keep their members healthy. When May committed suicide, August preformed rituals to help her with her grief. The actual beehives surrounding the bee farm are especially important to Lily because by the

The setting of this novel is the south in the 1960s. This was a racially charged time particularly in the south. African Americans were making substantial progress fighting for their rights. Everyone should be educated about momentous historical events. Two significant events in the novel were the Jim Crow Laws and the Civil Rights Act, which both provide ample opportunity for a history lesson. The novel also educates students about different cultures. Lily lived with an African American family in the south, and the novel details many aspects of southern culture. This is a beneficial lesson because it can teach students about life outside of their own and allow them to feel and understand what may go on in someone else’s life. Because The Secret Life of Bees portrays a different time period, culture, and family life than tenth graders at Magnificat, it can be extremely

“Lets imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee into a hive. Usually the first thing we would have to ge used to is the darkness”(Kidd 82). The bee is an insect that spends all day working: working to create a home, working to spread pollen and working to create honey. A bee's life and the society of bees can be closely related to the life of humans. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the author conveys her lessons about human life through the imagery of bees.

Significance of the title The title of this book is so significant knowing that the bees relate to all things in the story. The secret life of bees, is directed to the life that Lily did not realize she had. The bees signify the relation to all the people who helped Lily get to where she found who she was. The author wanted to convey a obscure perspective of life and that there many be more to life than you think. Reading this story can change you perspective of the title after getting to know the characters and what they had achieved in the story.

A beekeeper is a person who keeps and raises honey bees to harvest the honey for product to sell. Traditionally, beekeepers tend to be men for the consequences that come with the practice such as consist stings and the messy job of collecting and purifying the honey. But, in the novel, August is portrayed as the best beekeeper around. “Nobody around here had ever seen a lady beekeeper till her. She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. It comes from years of loving children and husbands” (80). She takes on the career of a man and becomes distinguished from the rest because of her excellence in her career. The Boatwright’s believed that “women made the best beekeepers 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting” (143). August not only practices the art of beekeeping, she also is the head preacher, a minister of sorts, in the Daughters of Mary church that she started. An organization that helps each other, has fun together, worship together, and stand powerful to any force that tries to deter their beliefs. They bring a sense of empowerment to Lily as she grows older. Lily, on the other hand, is taught to be the victim by her father. She has no real role models to encourage her. Her teacher tries to

In the book, The Secret Life of Bees, there is a significant bond within the female community in Lily’s life. These women not only teach Lily to love herself and others, but to pursue love. It is through the guidance of her community, Deborah. Rosaleen, the Boatwright sisters, and the Daughters of Mary, that Lily is able to gain strength and growth, mentally and emotionally. Her journey begins with two women who are Lily’s first mother figures, Deborah and Rosaleen.

I found one quote that is a metaphor. “The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness.” (Sue Monk Kidd 1) This metaphor in the first page of the book compares the death of the queen bee to the death of Lily’s mother. Lily’s mother, like the queen, kept the family together. After she died, Lily and her father fell apart just like the bees making unmistakable signs of

When Lawrence and Little Bee converse alone for the first time, Little Bee tells Lawrence that she is “only staying here to help her (Sarah)” (pg 185). At first, one would believe that Little Bee went to Sarah’s house because Sarah saves Little Bee’s life and so Little Bee feels gratitude towards her. Also, Sarah is the only person she had contact with in Britain. However, if one allows themselves to increase their analytical thinking, they are able to discover Little Bee’s reason, after leaving Andrew dead, as to why she wants to stay at Sarah’s house . The real reason, as one would discover, is that Little Bee wants to take care of Sarah and her son, Charlie. Little Bee leaves Andrew hanging in the air in the fear that if she did call for help from the neighbours, the police would come and take her back to Nigeria. Little Bee could have ran away and left to go to a different place after witnessing Andrew’s death but she stayed because she felt a responsibility as a result of the guilt towards Andrew’s family. Therefore, she decides to stay in the house and provide the care and the love Andrew would have wanted to provide them. Referring back to my story, the guilt I felt had also led me to a positive path. A while after my mistake of insulting Areej, I wanted to clean up the mess I had made, by helping her feel better. I was starting casual conversations with her, inviting her to join my

The sun shimmered brightly in the morning sky, sending rays of warmth on to the land below it. Birds started to chirp and the bees started to buzz. The bees began their work in the golden, honey-filled hive. Most of them flew out, wandering around looking for blooming flowers, to get sweet nectar. Other bees nursed the young, took part in the building the impressive hive piece by piece, or guarded their home. Everyday, the bees are making their colony stronger...but what does this mean? Each bee has a significant role in the hive, and a bee does its job so every bee in the hive survives. In other words, a beehive would not exist if the bees did not work together as a whole. The way a community of bees works is not only fascinating, but also similar to the human world. Sue Monk Kidd incorporates various concepts in The Secret Life of Bees, and uses bees to develop the significance of those concepts. Kidd makes connections between bees and how they represent

5. The bees in the story represent guides, they give comfort and they also represent Lily’s life in a sense. The bees represent guides or signs matter fact, because she followed the honey label to Tiburon and there she found out the truth about her mother. While in Tiburon she helps August with the bees. The bees represent exploration and personal growth because if she never found that label she would have never forgiven anyone or found out the truth. The bees showed her the right way and pushed her, all while being by her side and accompanying her. Also, most of the main actions in this novel involve the bees. For example, when she licks the honey off of Zach’s finger she found out that she loves him. In addition, the bees give Lily comfort

It was only when she turned and saw the swarm of bees flying towards her that she remembered where she recognized the noise from. The bees were everywhere, in her hair, under her shirt, stinging everywhere they could. She swatted out with both hands, attempting to scare them away but she only touched air. They were moving to quickly for her to hit them but that didn’t stop her from trying. She kept swatting even slapping at herself in an attempt to get them off. Nothing worked.

The importance of bees as a symbol is shown through essential mothers and everybody’s part to play. To begin, “I [August] want to get the hive requeened before one of the workers starts laying. If we get laying workers, we’ve got ourselves a mess,” (Kidd 287). This signifies the need for a mother. Without the queen fertilizing eggs, the bees die off; without a mother, people do not flourish. Lily demonstrated this well by running away to find a connection to her mother and fill the gap in her heart. She had little direction besides the wisps of memory from her mother and abuse from her father. Then, when the Boatwrights came