Colony Of Bees Essay

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a book discussing the internal strife of a young white girl, in a very racist 1960’s south. The main character, Lily Owens, faces many problems she must overcome, including her personal dilemma of killing her own mother in an accident. Sue Monk Kidd accurately displays the irrationality of racism in the South during mid- 1960's not only by using beautiful language, but very thoroughly developed plot and character development. Kidd shows the irrationality of racism through the characters in her book, The Secret Life of Bees and shows that even during that time period, some unique people, were able to see beyond the heavy curtain of racism that separated people from each

The story introduces an anarchist bee (someone that rejects government) on page 28. It then goes on to explain how anarchism is a heritable trait, thus as the anarchist bees reproduced, more were introduced into the hive. The anarchist bees continue to spread their beliefs making readers hopeful that the bees will be able to escape their wasp rulers. When one anarsist bee is explaining to her sister about anarchy she says this: “In order to imagine a new existence, we must free ourselves from the structures of both our failed government and the unjustifiable hegemony of the wasps nests.” which foreshadows that the anarchist bees will escape and start a new life.

“I'm tired of carrying around the weight of the world. I'm just going to lay it down now. It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up” (210). Feminist theory is an extension of feminism in which literary pieces are examined to understand the nature of gender inequality and social norms. Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees examined through a feminist lens demonstrates the patriarchy found in Owens household, shows the advantages of all female community, distinguish that mothers play a major factor in any young female’s life, and the variety of roles women take on in the community.

In The Secret Life of bees you can learn a lot from the thematic layer. Three salient themes in this layer are forgiveness, hope and strength. Hope is shown when Zach talks to Lily about becoming a lawyer one day, “I’ve just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them’ ‘Bullshit. You gotta imagine what’s never been” (Kidd 121). Zach has hope that one day he will become a lawyer despite his skin color and what everyone else says about it. He doesn’t give up because of what society thinks, he stays hopeful. During this time period African Americans had to keep hope that one day the racism

Everyone has a secret life that they keep hidden from the rest of the world. Lies are told on a daily basis in order to keep these lives stashed in the dark. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees are the ones that have the most secret life of all. They each have their own specific role to play deep within the hive. It's obvious that the author had meant for some of her characters to portray the roles that these buzzing insects have to dutifully fulfill every duty. Lily and Zach are the field bees, August is a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is the Queen bee.

First of all, The Secret Life of Bees is a 1960’s novel based on a child named Lily, who was bossed around and treated unfairly by her dad T-Ray, which he himself had a black maid named Rosaleen working for him since before Lily was born. Lily and Rosaleen had a very special relationship that had loyalty, trust,

In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, a young girl named Lily struggles with growing up with only a harsh father and a housemaid while trying to find her own place in the world. At the age of four, Lily accidentally shoots her mother while trying to help her in a fight against Lily’s dad. Ever since that day, Lily has a difficult time trying to be a lady and trying to cope with her somewhat abusive father. One day, when Lily is fourteen, the housemaid Rosaleen is sent to jail for pouring dip spit on white men’s shoes but later gets assaulted by the men and is taken to the hospital where Lily goes to sneak her out. In order to help incorporate the story’s title into the story, the author has written epigraphs, that are about bees, for every chapter in the book. Chapter two’s epigraph says “ On leaving the old nest, the swarm normally flies only a few metres and settles. Scout bees look for a suitable place to start the new colony. Eventually, one location wins favor and the whole swarm takes to the air”(34). This epigraph parallels the story because of the similarities in how bees move on and look for somewhere to start their new lives and how Lily and Rosaleen try to start their new

“To know that a hive without a queen bee was a death sentence for the bees. They would stop work and go around completely demoralized”(kidd 286). In the quote stated above Sue Monk Kidd states that bees are solemnly attached to their queen. If she dies they feel a lack of guidance. Similarly in her book The Secret Life of Bee, Lily Owens has to live her life without a mother figure that can guide her through life. Because of an abusive father lily had no other option than leave the house and find a place where someone cared about her.in the novel secret life of bees author sue monk kidd uses the bee hive without a queen bee to portray how an individual's life is without the presence of a mother figure to provide guidance, love, and acceptance.

As Farber explains in his book “The Age of Great Dreams” the 1960s were a rough time for many types of people, color, homosexuals, woman, veterans, almost everyone that disagreed with the government had a tough time throughout the 60’s. At the beginning of the sixties everything seems to be fine. Automobiles were being sold, household appliances such as dishwashers, and ranges as well, almost everyone had money except for colored people. For African Americans the 1960s were not so easy going, they were treated unfairly even beaten and chased out of towns, and restaurants. Until mid 1960 African Americans were not allowed to vote. Once they were allowed to vote they had rules and limitations to be eligible to vote. It was the government's loophole

As Farber explains in his book The Age of Great Dreams, the 1960s were a rough time for many types of people. Including People of color, homosexuals, women, veterans, almost everyone that disagreed with the government, had a tough time throughout the 60s. At the beginning of the sixties, everything seemed to be fine. Automobiles, household appliances such as dishwashers, and ranges were being sold. For African Americans, the 1960s were not so easy going, they didn’t make as much money as the average family.

Introduction African Americans relentlessly fought for racial equality in the 1960’s, going to drastic measures to gain equal rights. Many people risked as much as their lives for equality; for others to recognize their hardships. Although the 1960’s stayed the same as seen through the wealth gap, the 60’s saw sweeping change as seen through events such as the Freedom Riders of 1961, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Therefore, these events prove that conflict cannot be solved without time and fortitude.

Being black and being young in the 1960’s is difficult; we know there is inequality and that we should be fighting but we are selfish and want to continue to breathe. The older generation is doing plenty of fighting but our younger one is scared because being black means being targeted. The fact that the evidence just keeps piling up doesn’t help us be brave; it sits on our shoulders as we walk out at dark, it holds us back as we open the front door, and it sits on us as we are cornered in alleys waiting for the inevitable.

In the fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, prejudice is abundant. In the book, a young girl named Lily learns of this prejudice through spending time with her caretaker, a black female, Rosaleen. There are many other themes shown throughout the text, but the main theme shown throughout the first 6 chapters is prejudice. The prejudice against black people becomes more and more apparent to main character Lily as she sees what her stand-in mother Rosaleen has to deal with. Prejudice is shown through the text with the nation’s reaction to the Civil Rights Act, Rosaleen’s altercation with white men, and Rosaleen’s unjust arrest.

From the beginning, the reader can clearly distinguish the main theme of racism in The Secret Life of Bees. Kidd first introduces racism in Chapter One when three white men insult Rosaleen on her way to town to register to vote. Lily describes the attack that follows narrating, “They lunged at her... Rosaleen lay sprawled on the ground, pinned, twisting her fingers around clumps of grass. Blood ran from a cut beneath her eye,” (33).

Before the 1950s, conditions for African-Americans were not good at all in many areas of life. When the Great