Humans react to extreme stress by creating different coping mechanisms; some become secluded and avoid people, while others stay active in society with the facade of everything being alright. In Chris Cleave’s novel Little Bee, which tells the story of a refugee’s quest (Little Bee) for a better life in England after fleeing Nigeria; this facade took the form of an “alter-ego” in which Charlie, Sarah and Little Bee all adopt some change to how they act and present themselves to other people. Charlie the youngest of the three characters experiences the most profound alter ego, but Sarah and Little Bee have subtle alter egos that are present at points of the novel. They all experience an identity crisis brought on by different stressful events and people, which prompts the creation of a new “alter ego” or facade as a way to avoid dealing with the problems they faced in their past, but ultimately as the story went on the characters realize that they can’t escape the past and they need to accept what has occurred and face the baddies they are running from. Charlie is the prime example of a character who has an alter-ego, as he both literally dons a costume and mentally identifies as Batman. Andrew's neglect of his family, due to his depression holding him hostage, made Charlie take notice and want to try and fight his internal “baddies,” which are a symbol of his depression. This created a hole in Charlie’s character in which he attempts to use the Batman persona to masque
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
In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens struggles with the notion that she killed her mother and has to live with her abusive, neglectful father, T-Ray. Throughout, Lily searches for information about her mother and why she left her. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon new mother figures that play an important role in changing Lily to the person she is in later. The typical sequence of a hero’s journey includes a departure, initiation and trials, and reintegration into society. By the end, Lily Owens developes into a more mature, independent young women after experiencing a difficult childhood.
In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, a fourteen-year-old girl Lily Owens along with her black housekeeper Rosaleen, escape to a town in South Carolina called Tiburon after Rosaleen got thrown into prison after insulting a group of racists. There, they meet a trio of black beekeeping sisters who take them in and teach Lily about beekeeping. Through these experiences, Lily has discovered many things. But these could not be shown to her without three influentials in her life. The three characters are Deborah Fontanel, Lily’s mother, The Black Mary Statue, a statue that symbolizes strength, and guidance for blacks and August Boatwright, a middle aged black beekeeper who comforts and guides Lily.
Every family has parents and maybe some siblings too, it is what makes the family a family. Some kids are adopted and some are not and some like Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees got to choose her family. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the theme that appears a lot is how much family means, even if it is chosen.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said “A woman is like a teabag, you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” Eleanor’s meaning behind these words was that a woman is much more than you expect her to be. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily, meets three African-American sisters who go through difficult situations throughout the book. After meeting the sisters, Lily begins to understand the importance of women in society. A woman figure in your life can help you with your problems. They tend to heal a broken person with their mother-like qualities. Some people don't see how significant women are to humankind.
People make decisions everyday from simple things like whether or not to eat breakfast or larger decisions like whether or not to take the new promotion at work. These decisions are usually dawned upon us suddenly and we look to others to help decipher which decision is the ideal decision. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Melissa Owens is actuated by a variety of characters to make both ambiguous and venerable judgments throughout the novel. She did not do this on her own for she had people in her life communicating with her to finalize the verdicts on her decisions. Some of the persuaders were T. Ray, May, June, August, Zach, the Daughters of Mary, and even her mother, Deborah Fontanel Owens. Saying that, they all
In the novel The Secret Life of Bees (2001), Sue Kidd creates a character, Terrence Ray Owens, that serves as the epitome of internal conflict. Kidd is able to show Terrence’s internal conflict through through a flashback from Lily’s friend August, and a series of violent actions inflicted on his daughter Lily. Kidd’s purpose in this novel is to display the ramifications of a broken home dynamic, in order to show how forgiveness to oneself and others is truly the first step to finding happiness.
“Look at me. I dive into one absurd thing after another, and here I am in the pink house.” (431). These are the words of Lily Owens in the novel The Secret Life of Bees which was written by Sue Monk Kidd. The story is about a fourteen-year-old girl named Lily who lives on a peach farm in South Carolina with her abusive father, T.Ray. Throughout the novel, Lily had shaped her life around her mother’s death. Searching for answers about her mother, Lily, and her mother-like figure Rosaleen escaped to Tiburon, South Carolina to find the Boatwright sisters. During this journey, Lily and Rosaleen develop deep relationships with the sisters. Staying with the sisters, Lily finds her answers about her mother. Whilst in search for knowledge about her mother, Lily unexpectedly finds a new place she can really
This quote shows that… EXPLANATION. Furthermore, this shows that throughout this book August Boatwright represents the best motherly figure. August exhibits multiple motherly traits such as caring for Lily, being a mentor for Lily, and always accepting Lily for who she is.
The idea of having a secret life is enough to intrigue almost anyone. With a title like The Secret Life of Bees, the reader cannot help but wonder what the secret is, and how it plays into the story. As children, we all read books that talked about an escape to a mystical place that allowed the characters to escape from reality for a while. In many cases, the reader viewed this as an escape they also desired, but most times could not fully relate to the character’s experiences. Nonetheless, the setting of the story was intriguing. Sue Monk Kidd uses setting to influence her characters by setting The Secret Life of Bees in the south, having it take place in the 1960’s, and by creating characters that depend on the setting for their happiness.
had passed away early when Lily was just a little girl , leaving her alone
Family can be defined as individuals who are related by blood, yet it is more so about our ability to care for a person or people and for them to care for us as well. This same theme is demonstrated by many literary texts throughout history. One, exemplary novel is The Secret Life of Bees. Within the book, there are many exchanges between characters that stresses the importance of family and how there are no limits when it comes to choosing who you consider family and who you do not consider family. The relationships that structure the storyline prove this life lesson to be true. The story follows the main character, Lily. Lily has experienced many trials in her early years of life. While these trials do not define Lily, they certainly
The Bee Movie is a film that shows the never ending struggle between good and evil. After Barry Benson leaves the hive and begins to talk to humans, he sees that the humans have been harvesting and eating honey without the bees’ knowledge. He finds out that bee farms exist and their only purpose is to make bees work and to take the honey from them; from Barry’s eyes humans are grossly mistreating the bees. When he first gets to the farm, Barry overhears two beekeepers talking: “They make the honey and we make the money” (Hickner, Bee Movie). The bees work extremely hard to make honey, so Barry is appalled that humans are greedily taking their entire life’s work. Because of this, Barry decides to file a lawsuit against all humans. The case is set up in a way that presents the humans as bullies and the bees as defenseless, harmless creatures. As Barry explains in his opening statement, the honey companies are “exploiting tiny helpless bees,” and back in the hive bee news anchors tell the public that humans are “packing [honey] and profiting from it illegally” (Hickner, Bee Movie). It becomes very clear that humans are evil and bees are inherently good. Also, during the trial, Ray Liotta suggests that “someone just step on [Barry] and [the people involved in the lawsuit] could all go home,” proving that humans do not care about bees (Hickner, Bee Movie). The theme of good versus evil is supported through the fact that the bees use honey, one of the movies motifs, for everything. They use it as antenna gel, soap, toothpaste, food, and they even fill pools with it; honey is an integral part of their daily life. It is everything they know and humans are taking it without their consent. As soon as bees are eligible, they start to make honey and they work until they die. Honey is literally their life’s work and the bees want a say in who gets to use it.
In Chris Cleave’s Little Bee and Incendiary, the characters Little Bee and the unnamed narrator respectively, undergo a traumatic experience in the early stages of the books. Little Bee is confined in an immigration detention center upon her arrival in England for not having legal documents to prove her age. Meanwhile, the unnamed narrator has her life blown apart by a terrorist attack that kills her husband and four year old son. Both characters lose the hope and faith in their world and adjust to their new lives accordingly. Little Bee disguises herself physically, verbally, and legally in order to stay safe from the dangers of her new life. The narrator combats her emotional breakdown by helping to investigate the instigator behind the
Little Bee, by Chris Cleve, is a novel that explores unthinkable evil, but simultaneously celebrates its characters in their ability to transcend all that weighs them down, including their pasts, their secrets, and their flaws. For the character of Little Bee, identity is inescapably tied to ethnicity, nationality, gender, race, and class. A representative passage of the book that explores Little Bee’s point of view (both its unceasing optimism and stark realism) occurs in the final chapter: Little Bee is awoken from a good dream, and then comes the ominous first sentence, “There is a moment when you wake up from dreaming in the hot sun, a moment outside time when you do not know what you are” (Cleave 258). Little Bee is questioning her