Secret Life Of Bees

Everyone has a secret life that they keep hidden from the rest of the world. Lies are told on a daily basis in order to keep these lives stashed in the dark. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees are the ones that have the most secret life of all. They each have their own specific role to play deep within the hive. It's obvious that the author had meant for some of her characters to portray the roles that these buzzing insects have to dutifully fulfill every duty. Lily and Zach are the field bees, August is a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is the Queen bee.

In society today there are still forms of segregation prevalent to the eye. Whether it’s in workplaces, schools, etc. it is still seen today. Of course, sometimes no one means to self- segregate himself or herself, sometimes it may even be subconscious. It is not intended to be mean spirited or subjective to anyone, it simply just happens. Even though people may not realize it within themselves, people still hold on to racist beliefs.

When a parent dies, any child will cling to the other parent for emotional support and comfort for dealing with such a loss. In Lily’s case, she wanted her fathers support more than anything but he was cold, abusive, and stuck in the past, that he wasn’t able to give her anything except for take his anger out on her, when she disobeyed him. Although if someone does not get that support from the other parent, and if someone else is there that is understanding and kind, its amazing to see how much you can start to really rely on them and grow a close relationship. When Lily deals with the loss of her mother and the poor treatment of her father, she doesn’t know what to do with herself, she has a load of all different kind of emotions, and it really harms her well-being. Lily deals with guilt because she has visuals that she was the one that killed her mother, and on top of that she has her father telling her that her mother left her and she just abandoned her, making Lily feel unimportant and then at the same time guilt. Rosaleen is the closest role model that Lily has for a mother, Rosaleen cares and sticks up for Lily but Lily doesn’t really have the mother-daughter connection with her. Although Rosaleen provides comfort for Lily, she helps her with her father and in return Lily defends Rosaleen as well as save her life from the hospital after she got beaten.

In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the Cold War to demonstrate the tension of the Civil Rights Era. For instance, “‘What happened?’ I asked. “Did they drop the atom bomb?’ Ever since we’d started bomb drills at school, I couldn't help but thinking my days were numbered” (19). Lily uttered this statement because the news broadcast on the television agitated Rosaleen. Alternatively, what Lily thought was the start of another war, was actually the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As for the Cold War, this was a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from around 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In fact, most Americans worried that the Soviet Union would drop

Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the separation of black musical culture from white culture in her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, when comparing Elvis and Fats Domino to Miles Davis. This allusion helps clarify Lily’s provincial views and her limited knowledge of black culture. Although she tries to relate her understanding of music to Zach’s, Lily must realize that they share little in common in that field.

Personally I think that the title, The Secret Life of Bees, fits the story. The title means more than just bees. When the bees fly into Lily's room at night then escape, they are trying to tell Lily to escape from T. Ray. Lily figures out this and follows their message by leaving and going to live in Tiburon with the Boatwrights. The bees appear again when Lily starts helping August with the beekeeping. These bees are like hidden messages or symbols to Lily. They give her realization and remind her how much she is growing as a person.

Sue Monk Kidd portrays the time and place in the Secret Life of Bees by displaying Rosaleen working in the peach farms, then taken in to work in the house, giving the task of a housekeeper and Lily's nanny. Around ten years after, Lily turning 14, Rosaleen learns how to read and write her own name in order to turn in her ballot voting for J.F. Kennedy. Attempting to vote, Rosaleen and Lily were ambushed by a trio of white racists men, resulting in physical abuse of Rosaleen.When the police arrived, the white civilians claimed assault against Rosaleen, who is taken into jail charged with assault, theft(of a “church fan”), and abuse. Lily, caught up in between, also ended up in jail, to be later bailed out by her furious father. Determined, Lily breaks Rosaleen out of jail after finding out just how much Frank [he assaulted Rosaleen in jail so crudely that she had to go to the hospital] despised African Americans and fled to Tiburon, searching for clues about her mother Debera Owens. While finding shelter in a home with August, sister of May and June, May passes away. When the police questioned Lily's decision of staying with "colored people," he claimed that she didn't have

For our summer reading project, we read a novel by Sue Monk Kidd titled, The Secret Life of Bees. Throughout the book, we learn about a young teen girl named Lily and her experiences of trying to escape an abusive father and free her nanny, Rosaleen. The author uses many clues to establish the setting and time period of the novel, which happened to be in the early 60's. The story starts in a farm home where Lily's dad has Rosaleen take care of Lily during the day as her nanny. When the Jim Crow Laws were in place, it was common to have an African American nanny in the household to help with the children and chores. Another prime example is when Rosaleen decides to go cast her vote which hasn't been allowed to her before, and when she does she is arrested for disrespecting white males. The author establishes the time period by drawing attention to the Civil Rights Acts and showing a huge contrast between how African Americans were treated versus whites and the conflicts between race rights in this time period. The author expresses this with officers and unfamiliar characters showing disrespect toward Rosaleen.

It is hard to imagine a person who feels as though nobody loves them. A person who has no support system and constantly feels out of place. Lily strives to be accepted by someone, she feels unworthy of kindness and affection and does not understand the reason for her poor treatment. Throughout The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily’s various relationships throughout the novel ultimately strengthen and shape Lily as a person, helping her to move forward from her past struggles.

She also begins to understand emotion better, and think about it. “‘What…. do you love, Lily?’ No one had ever asked me this before. What did I love?” (Kidd 139). Under T. Ray’s care, Lily was still developing her sense of self and beginning to feel deeper, but T. Ray didn’t really allow her to feel or be who she was. When Lily is finally freed from T. Ray’s stifling attitude, she has the freedom to explore being a teenaged girl, and to figure out who she it with Rosaleen, August, May, June and Zach. In the story, Lily is finding out who she is, and how she feels. This new awareness of emotion is imperative to that search. Lily is becoming more aware of her emotions in this

Through this novel we see Lily grow, we see her come of age and mature. Her search for her mother lands her in a place she would have never expected to go but where she was always meant to be. She fills the void of her lost mother with all the amazing women she now has in

Lily has grown up without a mother because she died due to an accident caused by Lily, and not a day goes by where Lily does not feel guilty for killing her mother. One day, Lily discovers some of her mother’s belongings, and in her mother’s possessions, Lily finds a picture of a black Mary. Throughout the novel, Lily carries this picture of black Mary with her in order to keep a piece of her mother with her. The picture eventually helps Lily find a place where

The novel is written in Lily’s point of view to show Lily’s growth and maturation. Lily blames herself for her mother’s actions and it is not until the end of the story that she accepts the fact that she has no control over the death of her mother. After T. Ray finds Lily, he decides to leave her with August and the Daughters of Mary because she is better off. As T. Ray leaves, she looks back and says, “And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street” (302). When Lily is looking back at August and the Daughters of Mary, she realizes that they all have a role as her mother. Up until this point in the novel, Lily constantly feels the guilt of killing her mother on her conscience. The novel is written in Lily’s point of view to show her growth. In the beginning of the novel Lily feels lost, guilty, and abandoned. By the end of the novel, Lily feels like she has found her home with August and the Daughters of Mary. They accept her for who she is and love her unconditionally. Lily’s maturation is displayed when she comes to the realization that after living in the racist South, she too has grown up with a little racism in her heart. She realizes this when August surprises her with all the knowledge she has about life and

Sue Monk Kidd bases the story, The Secret Life of Bees, in the south in 1964 by talking about how the Civil Rights Act had just been signed, and from the character Rosaleen, showing that black people could now vote as long as they were able to sign their name perfectly. This is one of the big ways that the Civil Rights Act influenced Lily because someone so close to her wanted to vote, and that caused many problems.

There are plenty of great books published every year, however there are few that become classics. Classics are the few great books that everyone should read at least once. One of those books is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.