'Biologists Discover Sophisticated' Signals In Honey Bees

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 beginning relating to bees sets the tone for the each chapter. The first chapter epigraph states: 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.” Man and Insects.

The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, is a bildungsroman novel about an adolescent girl and her maturation throughout her fourteenth summer. The novel takes place in the 1960s while the Civil Rights Act is still fairly new to people. Throughout the novel, protagonist Lily Owens struggles as she tries to find her way through obstacles thrown at her. As Lily experiences different events, good and bad, she matures and grows as an individual. Having grown up around a black woman in this time period, Lily had no bias toward one race or the other. But also having grown up in a primarily white town, she never saw the other side of the bias. As the story progresses, Lily learns that people will have biases against her, which is something

“There is nothing perfect,’ August said from the doorway. ‘There is only life” (Kidd 256). This quote from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd explains Lily Owens life, a young girl with an unloving father and a mother who abandoned her and was later shot and killed by her own daughter, Lily. Lily has a hard time finding her place in the world and understanding why her life is the way it is. She decides it is time for her to take charge of her own life. She finds herself in Tiburon, South Carolina with her nanny Rosaleen and three black women, August, June and May who unravel the story to her mother’s past. Lily’s story can be seen in different layers, the most significant layers are the religious, thematic and symbolic layers. These three layers are essential when trying to gain understanding of The Secret Life of Bees.

‘The Secret Life of Bees’ by Sue Monk Kidd is a wonderful and beautifully written story. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ includes loveable characters that each have their own unique personalities. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ also includes mystery and love, which makes it enjoyable. Although it’s not realistic, it’s still a really good read because of how the characters grow and develop throughout. Erin Collazo Miller’s book review on ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is right about all of these things mentioned.

"New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first locating her circle of attendants." (57) This quote is at the beginning of chapter three and not only foreshadows many things to come, but within the quote, two of the novel’s main metaphors are mentioned, bees and the queen, which is referring to society and a mother figure. Although this quote is largely interpreted as a metaphor for Lily looking for a new queen or mother figure, and perhaps August being that mother, I believe that it has another meaning as well. I believe that the Black Madonna also serves as a “queen” and mother figure to all the women in “The Secret Life of Bees.”

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and Rascal Flatts "I'm Movin' On", both adequately demonstrate that a childhood of guilt can result in difficulty forgiving oneself and others. Overcoming inner conflicts as well as finding a place of belonging and contentment is a result that comes with self-forgiveness. The Secret Life of Bees is a story of a young girl named Lily Owens who, throughout the novel, faces immense obstacles. This novel focuses on the blurred memory Lily has of the death of her mother. In the novel, the reader learns that Lily was only a young child during the death of her mother and her emotionally abusive father, T. Ray, often tells her that this death was all her fault. T. Ray implements the idea that Lily was the one to who had accidentally shot her mother with a gun which causes her to grow up living with the guilt and shame of this traumatic event that took a very valuable life from her. As the plot intensifies, Lily and her strong-willed black caretaker, Rosaleen, decide to escape T. Rays sadistic tendencies and abusive behavior. After deciding to run away from T. Ray, Lily soon finds the Boatwright sisters who had a strong connection with Lily's mother before she died. While meeting the Boatwright sisters, Lily says, "I felt like she knew what a lying, murdering, hating person I really was. How I hated T. Ray, and the girls at school, but mostly myself for taking away my mother" (Kidd 71). This quote shows the destructive effect of being blamed

Setting of Novel: The Secret Life of Bees took place in the 1960s in Sylvan, South Carolina

I chose to read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd because when I read the back of the book, it seemed to portray an interesting plot. When reading it, I knew I was right. I feel that certain people could relate to this and I know that situations like these are happening all around us even as we speak.

In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the Cold War to demonstrate the tension of the Civil Rights Era. For instance, “‘What happened?’ I asked. “Did they drop the atom bomb?’ Ever since we’d started bomb drills at school, I couldn't help but thinking my days were numbered” (19). Lily uttered this statement because the news broadcast on the television agitated Rosaleen. Alternatively, what Lily thought was the start of another war, was actually the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As for the Cold War, this was a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from around 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In fact, most Americans worried that the Soviet Union would drop

In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees there is a psychological allegory present, which is proven by the characters in the story. The psychological allegory is based on the theory by Sigmund Freud, this theory states that in the human brain there is three major psychological portions, the id, the ego, and the super ego. The id is the portion that induces selfishness and hatred and other “bad” actions, the super ego is the opposite of the id, putting others before ones self and caring for others, the ego is the perfect balance between the two and is almost always the psyche portrayed be the protagonist. In this novel it is T. Ray who illustrates the id, through his bad treatment of Lily, his lack of

In life, relatively anything can happen for a reason. Whether it occurs upon our own actions or not, instances may arise for a new change. Within the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, our main protagonist, Lily, is tested by making a life-changing decision to either return to her father, T. Ray’s captivity, or stay with the Boatwright sisters, whom she befriended on her runaway adventure. Even through tough times Lily has endured with T. Ray, when it was time for her to decide who should receive custody of her, she was still hesitant, despite knowing what her circumstances may be if she were to choose T. Ray. Even though T. Ray is Lily’s biological father, unfortunately, is not up to par to provide her with the necessities that this fourteen year-old girl needs. I strongly believe that Lily should live with the Boatwright sisters, due to many factors they can provide that makes Lily a better person.

All Lily knew for certain was her mother was gone, so all she was left with was her abusive father T. Ray.  Lily explains “T.Ray because “Daddy” never fit him” (2).  After years of making her kneel on grits, being slapped around and screamed at, one day Lily got into an argument with her father about her mother not caring about her when Lily heard a voice “Lilly Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). That afternoon Lily decides she has had enough with T. Ray and it was time for her to leave. The author shows that Lily had it up to here with her father and knew that she deserved better than she was being treated and was ready to persevere through more obstacles in the future. Another character that shows great perseverance throughout the novel is August Boatwright.  August is a middle-aged African American woman who lives in Tiburon, South Carolina with her sisters May and June.  August chose at a young age not to get married because that would mean she would be giving up her independence.  Lily explains, after knowing August for some time, “all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured” (78). Here the writer

It was a normal, peaceful Wednesday morning in Tuscon, Arizona. Four landscapers were called to tend to a yard for a ninety-year-old man. One of them turned on his lawnmower. Almost immediately, the vibration of its engine had disturbed an enormous hive of approximately 800,000 Africanized bees nearby. The noises appeared to be a threat to the colony. As a result, thousands of them swarmed the men, injected their venom, and clogged their orifices up, such as their ears and nostrils. There were so many bees that one of the first responders had described the sky getting dark from the flock, although it was sunny out. From this attack, one man died and another received one hundred stings. This one of the many examples

In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the characters go through the struggles of discrimination and racism. In the beginning, Rosaleen offends some of the biggest racists in town and they end up running away to the calendar sisters, that neither of them knew anything about. In the end the become close friends and even end up living with them. Rosaleen is a major character in this novel. She has been Lily’s (the main character) nanny for since Lily was born. Throughout the novel, it shows how much closer they become. At the start she was awful at comforting others but by the end she is able to understand emotion is very good for Lily and the other characters.

The Secret Life of Bees begins in the town of Sylvan, South Carolina and tells the story of 14-year-old Lily Melissa Owens. She lives on a peach orchard with her neglectful and abusive father, T. Ray. They have Black maid named Rosaleen who is a companion and caretaker of Lily. The book opens with Lily's discovery of bees in her bedroom and the story of how she killed her mother. The eve before her birthday Lily sneaks out into the peach orchard to visit the box of her mother’s belongings which is buried there however before she can hide them T. Ray finds her and punishes her. The next day Rosaleen and Lily head into town where Rosaleen is arrested for pouring her bottle of tobacco spit on three white men. Lily breaks her out of prison and they begin hitchhiking toward Tiburon, SC, a town Lily had seen on the back of a picture of a black Virgin Mary which her mom had owned. They hitch a ride to Tiburon and once there, they buy lunch at a general store, and Lily sees a picture of the same Virgin Mary on a jar of honey. She asks the store owner where it came from and he gives her directions to the Boatwright house. They then meet the makers of the honey: August, May and June Boatwright, who are all black. Lily makes up a wild story about being recently orphaned. The sisters welcome Rosaleen and Lily into their home. They are then introduced to beekeeping and the Boatwright’s way of life. Lily learns more about the Black Madonna honey that the sisters make. She begins working