Personal Narrative: The Secret Life Of Bees

Bernard Beckett once stated, “Human spirit is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it is fragile. It can be blackened by fear and superstition” (“Brainyquote”). Lily was constantly thrown with problems and needed to catch them with different solutions each time. Sue Monk Kidd employed indirect characterization, symbolism, and allusions in The Secret Life of Bees to show the underlying theme of struggle. Lily became stronger with every setback that Lily faced and overcame the fear of her problems. The literary devices were employed throughout the novel to show the various methods Lily coped with the prolonging struggles she endured.

Picture being the cause of a life-changing event including the loss of the woman who gave birth to you ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ was by Sue Monk Kidd. The main characters are Lily Owens, T Ray Owens, Rosaleen Daise, and August and June Boatwright. It is 1964 in Sylvan, South Carolina, and Lily Owens, a fourteen-year-old white girl, lives on a peach farm with her father, T. Ray, who is both neglectful and abusive. There are Bees that seem to be at home with her, often visit Lily. Lily Owens takes part in on the desperate search for answers about her mother lead to the discovery of how powerful love can transcend through a strong female community, overcoming racism and how a tiny bee may teach bigger life lessons.

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 Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees, an open jar symbolizes Lily’s opportunity to escape T. Ray’s repression. For instance, after a fight with her father, Lily noticed the bee jar was empty and she “...heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). In this example, the jar represents her situation, and Lily is the bee that escaped. Previously, T. Ray restrained Lily like a jar imprisoning a bee. When the jar opened, a new opportunity presented itself and Lily grasped the chance at freedom. She decided to run away similarly to the bee leaving the jar. Soon after this realization, Lily escaped from T. Ray and the yoke he forced upon her. This author provides Lily with an alternative to enduring her father, thus advancing

“What is bound will be unbound. What is cast down will be lifted up. This is the promise of Our Lady” (228). Mary, known in the book as Our Lady of Chains, is an important aspect of Lily Owen’s epic quest. Though her journey is not that of legend, her quest is epic in its own right. Through her own sense of spirituality, Lily is able to overcome all obstacles in her way. Lily Owen’s journey in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kid functions as a literary quest as she struggles to overcome her abusive father, her own guilt, and her anger towards her mother on her journey self-discovery.

In 1964, civil rights were granted to African Americans when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act (20). Even though this was meant to give African Americans equality, racism refused to die in the southern states. Throughout the novel “The Secret Life of Bees,” the idea of racism is questioned, put to the test, and eventually proved to be irrational. The author, Sue Monk Kidd, achieves this through telling the life of Lily Owens and the people around her.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a novel about a young girl named Lily Owens who comes of age caused by many difficulties and obstacles in her life, such as living with the constant reminder that she killed her own mother. Throughout the novel there are many examples of racism, but she learns to overcome that and see everyone equally. What attracted me to the novel was the plot of the story and the conflict between Lily and her father. What kept me engaged were the many conflicts that arose during the story. It made me want to continue reading to find out how they resolved every conflict.

The secret of bees, my opinions were questioned more than once. Several of the statements I completely agreed with, while others I disagreed strongly.

In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the protagonist, Lily Owens finds that her past chases her into the present. Lily lives with her abusive father, T. Ray and her colored housekeeper, Rosaleen. After Lily reaches the last straw with T. Ray, she sets out to find out about her mother, who was accidentally killed by Lily herself at a very young age. The Secret Life of Bees captures Lily Owens in her most vulnerable state where she’s taught she’s not capable of anything, yet battles racism and her father’s abuse by changing her attitude, having moments of realization, and experiencing multiple recurring events

I am at the halfway point in the novel The Secret Life of Bees. Written by Sue Monk Kidd, the story is extraordinary so far as it instantly had me with the setting, Southern Carolina in 1964, I knew I would be interested. The story is written in first person by the main character, Lily Owens. It is almost like her own written story as she mentions she would like to go to school to be a writer. This is shown in her narrative when it almost seems like she is trying to address the reader as she is telling the story to us. She says a lot before thinking it through. She writes it as it just came to her mind. From her bluntness, you can still tell she has a good sense of humour.

Without doubt, the plot of this book surely does rise, twist, and fall. Throughout the story, the hurdles Lily face become higher and higher, therefore she must surpass them one by one. The book starts out with it’s initial situation when me meet Lily, the withdrawn teenager with no companionship besides her abusive father and her nanny, the latter of whom, she actually gets along with well. Lily, in her isolation, claims that bees dance around her room at night. Trying to tell her father about these bees award her with nothing but shouting. The plot of our story rises when Lily and Rosaleen head out to Tiburon, so that Rosaleen can vote as an African American woman. Lily tags along so that she can atleast get out of the house on her birthday.

In the 1960s United States started some problems. They treated color people different from whites. In the book “The Secret Life of Bees” the author talked about the civil right which is related to Jim Crow that happen in the 1960s.

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to grow up without a mother? In the young adult realistic fiction novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the main character, Lily Owens, runs away from home because of her mean father in order to find out more about her mother. Lily runs away with Rosaleen, her housemaid, after they got into trouble with three racist white men on their way to town. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina where they stay three black beekeeping sisters. Lily ends up finding out more about her mother while she stays at the sister’s house.

Back then it seemed like every day I received death threats. Eloquently worded and anthrax sprinkled letters that consisted of only one completely capitalized word scribbled over and over again, "HONK, HONK, HONK, HONK," and occasionally pipe bombs delivered to my doorstep inside of whipped cream pies. It was easy to avoid getting blown up by clowns when their bombs were hidden so stereotypically.

One hot, HOT day I was comming out for recese. I was steping on crunchy leaves. I then steped on something sticky, "SQUISH".I picked up my shoe, Isteped in "HONEY"! Then under a tree I saw a HIVE.