Secret life of bees 2 and 3 Questions Essay

In life in general, every single human being needs a mother, even if they do not share the same skin color, circumstance, or even any biological connection. All an individual needs is an maternal touch from another. Even though Rosaleen acts as a mother when caring and raising Lily, Rosaleen’s rambunctious and somewhat crass personality prevents the motherly bond between Rosaleen and Lily. However, August Boatwright, a beekeeper from South Carolina grants Lily with the “mother’s love” that she had never received before that day. August gave Lily firm guidance when wandering through the darkness of her past, complete understanding and encouragement when faced with challenges, and criticized when needed. Early in the novel, Lily states “You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair...” (3). Yet, August presents Lily with wisdom rather than brushing Lily’s hair, teaching her about boys and dating, and so forth. “You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside” (306). For August, the typical motherly love that she exhibits is the one supplied by the Virgin Mary, the mother of God. August shows Lily the undying love that can exist everywhere but can only be made and seen by the Virgin Mary. “This is the autumn of

Once Lily accepts what she has done and learns that her mother's death did not make her a bad person, her conflict can finally be resolved. As a result of resolving her conflict, she is able to mature because of the struggle, just like other people are able to grow and evolve from their own mistakes. This is evident when she admits "Before coming here, my whole life had been nothing but a hole where my mother should have been, and this hole had made me different, left me always aching for something, but never once did I think what he'd lost or how it might've changed him" (Kidd 293). Lily finally realizes that her mother's death has not only affected her, but also her father, T. Ray, and the calendar sisters. Through the course of Lily's struggle, Lily learns a lot about life and matures into a wiser

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

Through use of indirect characterization, Lily’s words and actions reveal a pivotal part of her character: her clever intelligence. This first becomes evident after her African American friend, Rosaleen, spills a cup of her snuff spit on the shoes of a racist white man that was provoking her. The minister at her church is

Even though Lily has a low self esteem due to her appearance and the way she feels

In addition, after Lily’s liberation from T. Ray, another character pushed Lily to make a choice without even saying a word to her and that character was Lily’s mother, Deborah, who was dead and yet she still guided Lily to her next destination. Deborah’s largest contribution to Lily’s life was leaving behind a trail of love for Lily to follow, giving Lily someplace to go when she had no home. Lily immediately knows where to go after leaving her father's trammel, for she finds a picture of Deborah in Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily’s eagerness to learn more about her mother urges her to travel to Tiburon. Lily reveals her desperation on finding out more about her mother’s love towards her when she said, “ Well, think about it. She must have been there some time in her life to have owned this picture. And if she was, a person might remember her, you never know” (Kidd 51). Lily’s voice held a sense of hope as she believed that there was something in

Luckily for Lily, she comes upon the Boatwright sisters once she reaches Tiburon. Because of the fact Lily does not have anyone to share her love with, she is compelled to stay and live with the Boatwrights. At one point in the novel, Lily and August are having a conversation when August asks Lily “What else do you love Lily?”(Kidd 39). Lily then thinks to herself, “No one had ever asked me that before. What did I love? Right off the bat I wanted to say that I loved the picture of my mother…but I had to swallow that back”(39). Lily does not feel comfortable enough yet that she says, “ I love writing poems, just give me something to write, and I’ll love it” despite the fact that Lily really loves August (39). She loves August so much that she would rather stay in Tiburon with the Boatwrights than be with her own father T. Ray. The loss of Deborah results in Lily going to obtain love somewhere other than her own home. This is also why Lily takes Rosaleen with her. Rosaleen is a black nanny who used to work on T. Ray’s farm. She has been there for Lily in the past but she cannot always be there one hundred percent because of her race. Due to Deborah’s death, Lily does not have a mother figure, however, he journey to Tiburon with Rosaleen proves to be a success as she finds the Boatwrights and strengthens her relationship with her nanny, Rosaleen.

Not only is August caring and a good mentor, but she is also very accepting of Lily for who she is. Since the beginning of the book, August has always been an inviting and accepting character. August meet Lily when she showed up at her house, instead of turning her away August allow Lily to stay with them. “Well, you can stay here till you figure out what to do. We can’t have you living on the side of the road.”( Kidd ) August was just told that Lily and Rosaleen had run away from home. August welcomes them into her home and allows them to stay with her. As the book goes on many lies about Lily’s past are told. August knows that Lily is lying but never presses. When it finally comes time for the truth to be told, August never yelled, she just listened. When Lily is telling August about all of the lies she

Additionally, later on in the chapter the Daughters of Mary come over and held a Feast Day where they celebrated Mary Day. Lunelle who is part of the Daughter of Mary, even offers to make Lily a hat which adds to the excitement of the day and shows that Lily is starting to fit in with their celebrations.

At the beginning of the story, August welcomed Rosaleen and Lily into her home without knowing them or their intentions at all. When Lily was telling August lies, August already knew who Lily was, but still kept helping her. August became Lily’s mother figure when Lily had no woman or relative to call ‘mother’. She made Lily feel loved and cared for for the first time in a long time. August told Lily everything about her mother (Deborah) when Lily finally decided to tell August the truth about her past and family.

Lily comes to know three incredible women called the Boatwrights. Their names are August, June, and May. Lily became closest to August although she was close to May and June, also. Lily felt as though August had a comforting and consoling way about her. August once told Lily “Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough.” (Kidd 111). Her motivational life advice helped to guide Lily. Furthermore, August had to be the one to tell Lily that they had lost May; May had killed herself. Lily did not take the news so well. Lily claimed she had started to “shiver…[she] could feel the teeth in [her] mout, crashing against each other.” (Kidd 193).

During those times, segregation was still much alive, but besides their differences, Lily was still very attracted to him. On page 119 she thinks, “At my school they made fun of colored people’s lips and noses... I could pen a letter at my school to be read at opening assembly that would tell them how wrong we’d all been.’ This implies that Lily is straying away from her racist views and does not agree or understand the discrimination. Additionally, Zachary told her, “Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.”

“Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” (pg.148)

The Boatwrights in the novel are the family that Lily and Rosaleen have met in Tiburon, and who they are going to be staying with. There are 3 members of the Boatwrights and they are May, June and August, and they used to have a sister named, April but she passed away when she was very young. Lily and Rosaleen are in the town of Tiburon and they are trying to find any trace of Lily's, mother and where she could have been. In the novel Lily sees the exact same picture of a black Mary that her mother owned and it was on a honey jar. On page 63 it states "I found myself looking at a picture of the black Mary...I mean the identical, very same, exact one as my mother's." This is a key point in the story because it gives Lily and Rosaleen a clue

In this passage we begin to understand Lily's plan and why she feels the end is worthwhile. It is an account for her being in control and able to play everything to her advantage in order to get what she wants in the end, being her life and the money she will receive after marrying Percy. This is a reflection on herself and how the tables have turned in her favor in regards to high society. This allows us to see her outlook for the future and what she intends the end to be like following the logical path to marriage instead of the path of love.