Lily Dialectical Journal

Lily’s isolation time in T-Ray’s house and the death of her mother causes her to yearn for a motherly figure. The fact that T-Ray meanness overwhelms his fatherly figure and the fact that Lily killed Deborah causes Lily to look for someone or something that can provide her the same affection as a motherly figure. Thus, every time T-Ray becomes mean to Lily, Lily uses her mother’s items as a replacement for a motherly figure. She says, “I felt the wooden picture of black Mary underneath my waistband. I felt the waxed paper with my mother’s picture inside and her gloves stuck to my belly, and it seemed all of a sudden like my mother was there, up against my body, like she was bits and pieces of insulation molded against my skin, helping me absorb all his meanness” (24). Lily’s action to use Deborah’s items as a fictional motherly figure shows that she still feels the guilt over what she did to Deborah. Consequently, Lily is chained to her past.

Ray looked at Lily he realized that he couldn't stand her anymore because she looked too much like Deborah, which is when August offers him a way out of the uncomfortable situation. On page 298 she said "Mr. Owens, you would be doing Lily and the rest of us a favor by leaving her here...We love Lily, and we'll take care of her I promise you that. We'll start her in school here and keep her straight." August gives T. Ray a way out of taking care of his daughter and having to be reminded of Deborah and it also solves the major conflict of whether Lily and Rosaleen are going to have to back to Sylvan and stay with T. Ray or whether she will be able to stay with the Boatwrights. Adding on, just as T. Ray is about to leave Lily runs up to him, and asks him what really happened that day when her mother died and on page 299 it states "You didn't mean it, but it was you...Maybe he was telling me the truth, but you could never know a hundred percent with T. Ray." This also is a very important part of the novel because Lily realizes she lost her real mother but when she looks at the porch she has 8 other mothers. On page 302 it states "All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street." This quote is very important because it finally dawns on Lily that she isn't alone, and she doesn't just have one mother but eight of them. Furthermore, another conflict that is resolved, is about Lily breaking Rosaleen out of jail. On page 301 it states "He says they

Lily shot her mother when she was four years old. Her abusive father, T. Ray, says it is all her fault, even though it was she was still only four. He blames her for a lot of things and even tells her that her mother never loved her and that is why she left.

As readers first start the novel, the main character, and protagonist, Lily Owens is seen as a determined 14-year-old girl who will stop at nothing to find out more about her mother. After getting into a fight with T. Ray, Lily Owens thinks to herself, “That's when it came to me. What if my mother wasn’t leaving true? What if T. Ray made it up to punish me? … But I had such a moment right then, standing in my own ordinary room. I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open. In a matter of seconds, I knew exactly what I had to do -leave.” (Kidd 41) This quote gives the readers a sneak peek at how determined Lily truly is. She takes the risk of running away from her abusive father and the house she calls home. Once Lily runs away and breaks Rosaleen out of jail, she comes up with a plan as to how they will escape Sylvan. “‘We’re going to Highway Forty and

“The truth is your mother ran off and left you.” pg.39 T-Ray is speaking at this point int the novel and he is talking about Lily. You can see the conflict start to develop with the rising tension between T-Ray and

Lily lived her life knowing that she killed her mother instead of living her life to the fullest. Lily is trouble with so many emotion in her life that she doesn't relive that she needs to live the life that she was given.

T. Ray is smitten with Deborah: he worships her like a goddess and does everything he can for her. At first Deborah returns his affections, but later she is unable to love him and leaves him. Since the day she runs away his heart turns stone cold, allowing him to prevent getting hurt again or feeling her neglect. Deborah comes back 3 months after she runs away to get Lily and a few of her things. She does not plan to see T. Ray on her return but he finds her.

Over the years lily’s relationship with her parents have changed drastically. Lily has a good relationship her mom but then finds out about the truth and soon begins to hate her mom. In the beginning of the chapter lily puts her mom on this pedestal and adored her more than T -ray. Deborah would always appear in her dreams and that made lily feel close to her mom. Lily was living in such an abusive home with no one to really mentor her other than rosaleen, everyday lily wishes she had the chance to meet her mom and have those special mother daughter moments. “ I got my mother’s

As the story begins to unfold, Lily and T. Ray begin to dislike each other. Lily resents T. Ray because of what happened to her mother, which is the reason for conflict from her perspective. On the other hand, T. Ray understands that Lily killed his wife and dislikes her because of it. Despite their obvious distaste for each other, they do nothing to deal with

After Lily and August have a long talk about Deborah, Lily’s mother, Lily was very angry and upset. She could not believe her mother would abandon her. It made her feel unwanted and unloved. For a while she would sulk in the honey house and refuse to eat. After all the “Mary Day” celebrations

Since T. Ray is Lily biological father many would feel that T. Ray is the better fit to raise Lily. T. Ray is still at a point in life where he is still grieving the death of his wife. Lily is the only connection of his wife that he has left. Lily being with T. Ray can help them both cope with living the rest of their lives without Deborah but Lily reminds him so much of her mother that he takes out his anger on Lily. He should little concern in Lily’s personal growth. He was wanted Lily to feel the pain that he felt when Deborah left.

After Lily's encounter with T. Ray back in the honey house. Lily confronts T. Ray outside as he tries to leave with a question. What she wants to know is the same question that has plagued her mind since it occurred. Was it her? When T. Ray explains to Lily that she was indeed the cause of her mother's death, she is finally able to forgive herself and her mother for what happened. This is an imperative part of the story as this finally allows lily to forgive herself.

As the story went on, my impressions of lily completely changed. I felt bad for her at first. Then I went to liking her kind of as the underdog in the story. Then I started believing that she was greedy. Then I went back to feeling bad. So my emotions toward her were on a roller coaster as the story progressed. So let’s start at the beginning. She was raised by a single father (T-Ray) because her mom was killed. T-Ray forced was just not a great father at all. The punishment when she disobeyed was kneeling on grits for a long time. They would mess up her knees and make it hard to walk. She was forced to sell T-Ray’s peaches because he owned a peach farm. Along with that, he would just mentally abuse lily and she had to deal with that for all of her childhood.

August is a excellent parent-like figure in Lily’s life and T-Ray is not. August is very compassionate. She knows how to handle difficult situations. When Zach went to jail she knew how to calm everyone down. She made it seem like everything was fine. She was very mature about May’s death. She knew how to cheer everyone up after a devastating time. August also knew what to do when Lily told her about the truth about who she and Rosaleen really were. She knew how to handle the tender situation perfectly. August was loving to Lily after she heard the truth even though Lily had lied to her. August knew that once she told Lily her side of the story Lily would be shocked. She knew that all Lily really needed was to be comforted. She knew that she

We learn right off the bat in this book that Lily has a lot of issues. She drinks too much (and too often) and just can’t seem to keep it in her pants. Yes, she’s cheating on her too-good-to-be-true fiance and she’s not exactly trying to keep it a secret. In fact, she’s quite brazen in her choices. She’s also a product of some major childhood trauma and a family that, while lovable, didn’t exactly set the greatest examples. All of this made for a truly intense story that I couldn’t put