Examples Of Prejudice In The Secret Life Of Bees

Ray was Lily’s abusive father that does not care about Lily’s clothing, sleepovers, or even football games (8). (SS) When Lily calls T. Ray and he cannot answer a simple question about her, she tries to convince herself that it does not matter by telling herself, “Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry. So what if he doesn’t know the color you love best? So what?” (160). (SS) Lily has the idea that she is “unlovable” and wonders “who could love her” (242). (SS) But little does Lily know that a very significant figure will come into her life and will show Lily what being loved by a “family” member feels like. (PS) August Boatwright, an African American beekeeper, shows Lily her empathetic heart right when Lily walks through her door. (SS) When Lily comes to the Boatwright household seeking for a place to stay, August opens up her home to Lily, exclaiming, “Well, you can stay here till you figure out what to do. We can’t have you living on the side of the road” (72). (SS) August could have turned Lily away and told her to find another place to stay, but she graciously opens up her home to Lily. (SS) In the same way, when Lily faints of embarrassment during a Daughters of Mary gathering, August acts as if it is her fault by telling Lily, “I should’ve turned on the fans in

Lily shows her non-racist side in the very beginning of the book, after Rosaleen has been put in jail for spitting on a very racist white man’s shoe. She willingly sneaks into jail and attempts to free Rosaleen, but gets sent home with the racist and mean father, T. Ray. She once again tries to free Rosaleen, and this time sneaks into a hospital to free her. Lily is successful this time, and runs away with Rosaleen.

The equality between the blacks and whites was a slow progression in American history. The majority of white people were prejudice against black people causing many disputes. In the novel Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens, who was a young white girl who was able to overcome the social constraints against black people, like the Boatwright sisters. Firstly, even though Lily is a different race than the sisters, they allow her to stay in their home and care for her. Secondly, Lily felt more comfortable with the Boatwright sisters than her father. Thirdly, Lily and the sisters develop a mutual respect for each other. As a result, the relationship between Lily and the Boatwright sisters shows that the colour of skin does

Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her

Rosaleen was Lily’s maid while she was living with her father, T-Ray. Lily runs away from home with Rosaleen. At first Rosaleen doesn’t know where they are going and eventually Lily tells her. This quote is said by Rosaleen when she finds out what is really going on. “I get it. You ran off ‘cause of what your daddy said about your mother. It didn’t have nothing to do with me in jail”(Kidd 53). This quote is significant because it makes Rosaleen think that Lily doesn’t really care about her. Eventually August and Lily talk about Lily’s mother. Rosaleen and August knew about Lily’s mother. This quote is said by Lily while she was getting comforted by Rosaleen. “I wish you’d told me what you knew about my mother”(Kidd 264). This quote is significant because Lily realizes all the secrets that were hidden from her. Rosaleen taught Lily that the truth isn’t always great through keeping secrets from

Authors tend to display their personalities and personal stories throughout their work. While the words on the paper may read one thing, the deeper connections and references hidden in the writing leads to even more nail-biting questions. Sue Monk Kidd was influenced to write her novel The Secret Life of Bees by the dreadful experiences she faced during her childhood, an early passion of literature, and finally her exploration of religious beliefs. Her childhood was most notably affected in the summer of 1964, when she witnessed public cruelty to blacks that, no doubt, haunted her for the rest of her life. Clearly, her first hand experiences that summer played an important role of setting it as a Civil Rights backdrop in The Secret Life of Bees.

According to Lily “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know anything about life.” (2) The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd is a coming-of-age written novel. Sue Monk Kidd also wrote other books such as, the Mermaid Chair, and the Invention of wings. This novel took place in 1964, in South Carolina in two towns called, Sylvan and Tiburon, during the civil rights movement. The protagonist and narrator of this novel is Lily Owens, she is 14 and is rejected by her parents. T. Ray Owens (lily’s father) is the antagonist, which is cruel. In this novel there is cruelty that you will see throughout the novel and parts of the novel you will experience a show of hope.

In the book The Secret Life of Bees the author brings to light the Jim Crow era in which Lily, the main character, lives in and is influenced by the world around her.

Lily has grown up witnessing racism and has even experienced it first hand. Rosaleen is Lily’s maid, and has been since Lily was little. When Lily says, “I love you.” to Rosaleen, it comes out as a shock to Lily. She has always appreciated Rosaleen and is thankful for all that she does to help out around the house, but after everything they have gone through together, Lily realizes how much she truly loves Rosaleen.

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, how people treat other people because of race can be found throughout almost the whole book. How people view another person's race is a big part of society. It is unfortunate that people of a certain race treat other people of a different race poorly. One example of race injustice is when Lily meets Zach, she is shocked that he is attractive because in her mind, black people were not supposed to be attractive. When Lily first meets Zach she thought, “If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome.

As Lily arrived within the Boatwright home, June treated Lily poorly. August and June had a discussion that Lily overheard about Lily’s wellbeing within the home. From the converstation Lily overheard June say, “But she’s white, August” (Kidd 87). Lily hearring this made her feel discriminated against for the first time in her life, especially because she felt June didn’t even know her. This was a major discovery for Lily overall bercause this has never been a problem before in her life, but has rather witnessed it the other way around. Because of June’s reverse racism she showed toward Lily, dinner was one of the most uncomfortable times for her as she had to endure June. Lily says, “Somehow even me being white imposing on their hospitality didn’t seem reson enough” (Kidd 119). Lily’s reponse to June’s disfavor for her shows the extent of racism with her. Throughout most of her time in the Boatwright home, June made Lily feel unwelcomed until they had a breakthough moment with the waterhose. June eventually appoligized to Lily saying, “I’m sorry for being hard on you when you first got here” (Kidd 226). This shows that June recognizes that she was wrong for her treatment toward Lily. By the end of the novel, Lily finally felt welcomed with many mothers in her home including June. Along with June’s reverse racism is traditional racism demonstrated through the relationship of Zach and

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd describes the bond between blacks and whites during the 1960. The story begins at South Caroline in 1964. During the time, white people discriminate black people. Lily who is the white girl live with her father T. Ray. When she was 4, she accidentally killed her mother.

The Civil Right Act occurred in 1960 which allowed African-Americans more rights. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees many characters challenges and uncover the meaning of accepting taboo ideas. Set in 1964, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees suggests that accepting taboo actions does not necessarily compromises a person’s moral compass and can lead to an awareness and understanding of the world.

A conflict in the Secret Life of Bees is society not letting Lily and Zach be together. This conflict would be Lily and Zach vs. society. The beginning situation in The Secret Life of Bees is when Zach came back from vacation and Lily is attracted to him. The conflict intensifies when they go to deliver the honey by themselves and spend time together and become closer. Lily knows that blacks are not allowed to be with whites because of the societies opinions. Even though Lily knows that society will not accept it, she still spends time with Zach.

Bees are not just needed to satisfy the needs of most people's sweet tooth they have been put on earth for a purpose without them the life cycle of plants will have been shifted not only affecting the plants. It is a domino effect once one dice falls they all fall. Bees are needed to help the plants reproduce. The bees help plant reproduction “Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts of a flower of the same species, which results in fertilization.” ( Native Plants and Ecosystem Services). If all the bees are stay within the same kind of follower, by the bees doing that it causes what is known as cross-pollination. Cords-pollination is needed so that the plant can make a seed that will be efficient. Bees do not just help the plants in their reproduction.