Summary Of The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees is a heart throbbing and touching novel about a young girl named Lily Owens who goes on a long journey far away to find out the truth about her mother, and in the process, finding herself. Filled with apprehension and self doubt, Lily grew up with her abusive and cold hearted father after the death of her mother when she was just 4 years old. She didn’t know much about her aside from what she was told growing up. Lily grew up with the weight of her mother’s death on her shoulders. Subsequently after her 14th birthday, and having been beaten by her father one too many times, Lily runs away with her nanny, Rosaleen, to Tiburon, South Carolina. After stumbling across August Boatwright’s bright pink house,

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

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

Animosity for someone can be held for a long time, and is occasionally taken out on others. June Boatwright held a grudge against Lily’s mom because August, June’s sister, had worked for her family. Given the time, this is more upsetting for June. When Lily arrives, June is fairly hostile towards Lily, but later accepts her while wrestling in sprinklers. Lily shows her happiness about the situation when she thinks, “I wasn’t exactly sure of everything we were laughing about---I was just glad we were doing it together” (Kidd 169). This event occurring helps both Lily and June understand their issues adding to the faults in their relationship. Maturation takes time, no matter what age one may be. Lily and June begin understanding that both have been immature, but were able to accept it after they set their differences aside. Later in the novel, Lily’s father, T. Ray comes to the Boatwrights’ house to take Lily home. As Lily and T. Ray argue, Lily is reminded why she left home. In the beginning of this event, T. Ray is still determined to take her home, shown when he says, “You think I’m gonna walk out of her and leave you? I don’t even know these damn people” (Kidd 296). T. Ray is still in denial about Lily’s current situation, and the fact that she would rather stay with these women than go home with him. Although this should not be a surprise to him, he is still shocked and refuses to give up. That is, until he watches the

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

Lily’s isolation time in T-Ray’s house and the death of her mother causes her to yearn for a motherly figure. The fact that T-Ray meanness overwhelms his fatherly figure and the fact that Lily killed Deborah causes Lily to look for someone or something that can provide her the same affection as a motherly figure. Thus, every time T-Ray becomes mean to Lily, Lily uses her mother’s items as a replacement for a motherly figure. She says, “I felt the wooden picture of black Mary underneath my waistband. I felt the waxed paper with my mother’s picture inside and her gloves stuck to my belly, and it seemed all of a sudden like my mother was there, up against my body, like she was bits and pieces of insulation molded against my skin, helping me absorb all his meanness” (24). Lily’s action to use Deborah’s items as a fictional motherly figure shows that she still feels the guilt over what she did to Deborah. Consequently, Lily is chained to her past.

The setting of this novel is the south in the 1960s. This was a racially charged time particularly in the south. African Americans were making substantial progress fighting for their rights. Everyone should be educated about momentous historical events. Two significant events in the novel were the Jim Crow Laws and the Civil Rights Act, which both provide ample opportunity for a history lesson. The novel also educates students about different cultures. Lily lived with an African American family in the south, and the novel details many aspects of southern culture. This is a beneficial lesson because it can teach students about life outside of their own and allow them to feel and understand what may go on in someone else’s life. Because The Secret Life of Bees portrays a different time period, culture, and family life than tenth graders at Magnificat, it can be extremely

He was furious when he saw her. T- Ray pushed her around and screamed at her. He could not wait to get home so that he could punish her even more. August stepped in and asked if she could now take care of and be responsible for Lily. She knew that she could not let Lily go back to that horrible household. Lily was just starting to understand what life is really about, starting to mature and become a lady, and not have to worry about all the abuse from T- Ray. Her father gave his only daughter up in a mere second. He was done with her and could not wait to get Lily, his burden, out of his life. Before T- Ray left, Lily had to know what had truly happened to her mother even if it were their last words. These words would be what would help Lily to move on. She will never forget about her mother, but she will be able to think of things other than the killing of her mother. T- Ray knew that this time he had to tell her the truth, “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” (Kidd 299). Even though he just gave his daughter away, he has to care about her. T- Ray may have given up Lily, but he may have done it because he knew that she would have a better life being raised by people who can love and care for her. Knowing that she was the one to kill her mother was extremely hard, but this has helped her to let go of that hatred and show her how much she really does care about her mother no matter

Their acceptance bestows upon Lily the opportunity to confront her conflicted feelings regarding her lack of a mother figure. Eventually Lily fully opens up to the sisters about her struggles with motherhood, and they, in return, help her make peace with her past. In a moment of clarity Lily states to the Black Mary, “I live in a hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her. You are the mother of thousands,” expressing how now Lily is finally able to evaluate her present; she adopts the Black Mary and the Sisters as mother figures and through them finds the guidance she needs to begin to develop her identity (Kidd 164). Through her contemporary identity Lily is able to confront her abusive father T-Ray, and immerse herself with her adoptive lifestyle with the sisters life and their religion. Lily is able to embrace happiness through the authenticity she has found within herself through developing maternal relationships. Her journey implicates the immense value of mothers in child’s life. Her story expresses how mothers are artists, painting a vivid image of the world for their children and then teaching those children how to paint, so that they can develop their own sense of the world through their personal identity.

Lily who loses her mother at a very young age of four shapes her life around the indistinctive memory of her mother’s death. Lily has been profoundly affected by her own mother’s death; she believes that living with someone else’s death can be more painful than dying.

In the passage Kidd addresses the scars of loss and scarcity of love Lily has throughout the entire novel. She creates an impacting image centralizing on Lily’s sadness using a simile to exaggerate the intensity of finding out the truth of her mother's past. The scene takes place after Lily gets the courage to ask August about her relationship with Lily's mother. She learns more about her mom's separation

All Lily knew for certain was her mother was gone, so all she was left with was her abusive father T. Ray.  Lily explains “T.Ray because “Daddy” never fit him” (2).  After years of making her kneel on grits, being slapped around and screamed at, one day Lily got into an argument with her father about her mother not caring about her when Lily heard a voice “Lilly Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). That afternoon Lily decides she has had enough with T. Ray and it was time for her to leave. The author shows that Lily had it up to here with her father and knew that she deserved better than she was being treated and was ready to persevere through more obstacles in the future. Another character that shows great perseverance throughout the novel is August Boatwright.  August is a middle-aged African American woman who lives in Tiburon, South Carolina with her sisters May and June.  August chose at a young age not to get married because that would mean she would be giving up her independence.  Lily explains, after knowing August for some time, “all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured” (78). Here the writer

Sue Monk Kidd, creator of The Secret Life of Bees, in her warm fictional debut, wrote about a girl who had just turned fourteen(14) years old, named Lily Owens. Her story takes place just after the Civil Rights Bill has been passed. Like her narrator Lily Owens, Kidd is on a spiritual journey, by her captivating first novel [The Secret Life of Bees] about love and forgiveness. Lily Owens is Guided by bees and a group of women devoted to a Black Madonna. Lily embraces herself through religion and spiritual beliefs, along with racial equality. This draws Lily closer to herself and her problems and shows her the path she needs to take while she moves on through life while carrying her repenting dark secret, that

In the book, Lily is a fourteen-year-old girl who doesn't have a mother figure in her life, because of her mother dying, at an early age Lily is left with her unloving and irresponsible father, T-Ray, this is relevant to the book because throughout the book we see how Lily changed through having the correct and

The biggest pull factor that brought me to reading ‘The Secret Life of Bees,’ is the fact that it is set in a time when racial separation was very much still alive in America. So when I began my journey on reading the novel, it was quickly clear that I was going to thoroughly enjoy it. The story follows a young white girl, Lily, whose life revolves around unravelling the faded memory of her killing her mother, and her new life with her abusive father. It is the story of Lily blossoming into adolescence, in a time where racial separation is still a big issue. Lily’s journey to find something, anything, about her mother’s death is something I think is a large part of why this novel is so mesmerizing to read. Lily’s loyalty of trying to piece it together makes this story moving, but not depressing. I think it is uplifting, full of heart, inspiring, and warm. I think Kidd, the author, has perfectly captured the awkward restlessness of a teenager, longing for love, yearning to discover, but at the same time fearful of what truth could emerge. Seeing Lily’s almost desperate longing for any kind of a mother figure is something that truly broke my heart. It made me think about how I am so blessed in my life to have such a strong mother figure, and I hope no one has to go through life without some kind of motherly guidance. I often got the feeling of Lily’s deep desire for nurturance, which can be owed to the