Summary Of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a book discussing the internal strife of a young white girl, in a very racist 1960’s south. The main character, Lily Owens, faces many problems she must overcome, including her personal dilemma of killing her own mother in an accident. Sue Monk Kidd accurately displays the irrationality of racism in the South during mid- 1960's not only by using beautiful language, but very thoroughly developed plot and character development. Kidd shows the irrationality of racism through the characters in her book, The Secret Life of Bees and shows that even during that time period, some unique people, were able to see beyond the heavy curtain of racism that separated people from each

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.

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.

Sue Monk Kidd is a writer from Southern Georgia. She is best known for her most influential piece of writing, The Secret Life of Bees, which has found its way into many classrooms across the country. Many of her fiction novels have tackled controversial and well known issues and themes of the South over the course of history.

In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, T. Ray is a frustrated and unloving character who makes an enormous impact on Lily’s character by making her feel self-conscious about herself and not worthy of being loved. T. Ray evokes hatred and disappointment in the reader by permitting this abusive and unfair treatment towards Lily. With his rough and furious exterior that is represented by grits on the hat, he is also proven to be filled with grief and hurt by his wife’s leaving and future death. To hide his heart-break and depression, he lashes out on Lily to build himself up.

“It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive” (qtd. in Suffering Quotes | Page). Judy Collins wrote this excerpt in her book Sweet Judy Blue Eyes with the inspirational message of everyone being together in their suffering as no one escapes suffering because it comes with being alive. Similarly, in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, every person suffers for one reason or another. Kidd applies literary devices, such as symbolism, indirect characterization and allusions, to display the suffering of Lily from T-Ray, Rosaleen from racism and African Americans fighting for civil rights. In employing these literary devices, Kidd creates the theme of every

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

Living in an abusive relationship can be really hard. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel “The Secret Life of Bees”, the main character Lily, goes through a tough time in life and has to make many hard decisions in life after her mother’s “death”. Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities, for example bees symbolize Lily and her mother in numerous instances throughout the novel. Lily’s life relates to a bees life in multiple ways.

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.

Women are often misrepresented in society. Women are usually shown as the damsel in distress, incompetent, fragile, vulnerable etc. Sometimes they are used as an object, almost as if they’re being used. Just as they’re being represented in society poorly, even in works of literature they are being shown as just a “beautiful face.” Society can also make people believe that women need to be married and have a male in their life in order to live but in reality, women are able to work and live without a male in their life.

“The Secret Life of Bees” by: Sue Monk Kidd was a book that really showed me how African American people were actually treated in the early 1960s. How they could actually be beaten just for not apologizing to a white person. They were treated very cruel by some people, but, not by all people. Lily Owens was a young girl in the year 1964; who lived in South Carolina. She loved African American people. She loved how interesting they were, and she adored the stories they had to tell. Her best friend was an African American woman who worked on her father’s peach farm. That woman’s name was Rosaleen, and she helped Lily feel better all the time when she was sad. Especially, when her father abused her. Lily thought Rosaleen was her only friend, until she ran away to a place called

Sue Monk Kidd’s three key literary devices go as follows: hyperbole, indirect characterization, and symbolism. Through her stellar integration of these devices, the reader is more interested in her reading, making for a more successful time in persuading them to agree with her theme. In her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, her desire to integrate these devices becomes transparent.

In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens, a 14-year old girl, runs away from her broken home in despair. She hopes to escape from her physically and emotionally abusive father, Terrance Ray. This was a rather hasty decision, stemming from a particularly bad episode. Her emotions boiled

Eighth to ninth grade is a big transition no matter where you go. Grades mean more, sports get more intense, and everyone gets more dramatic. But, the transition to high school also comes with a new level of maturity, and that should be reflected in the reading choices. I think The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a book that everyone should read at some point but there are some mature points that might not be the best for rising ninth graders. For one, the suicide committed by May could trigger some kids depending on their medical and personal backgrounds. Also 14 year olds reading about suicide may not be the best choice at any point. No matter what the age, maturity has to grow as the person grows, and going from middle school to