The People In Sue Monk Kidd's 'The Secret Life Of Bees'

T.Ray was always mean to Lily and the only person Lily could run and cry to was Rosaleen her nanny, All Lily wanted was for her father to love her and act like a father to her. Lily didn’t ask for all of his abuse and punishments. The reason T.Ray was always mean and punishing her because she accidently killed her own mother and T.Ray was madly in love with Deborah and married her before Deborah found out she was having a baby. He became really bitter because he lost his wife.

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.

He is taken aback and can only respond by saying “You look like her,” very quietly. Silence is again used at this moment to emphasize the acting used as T.Ray’s lip quivers and a single tear slides across his cheek. The tear is prominent due to the light reflecting off it directly into the camera and since there is no sound it is one of the only things to focus. At the end of this scene Lily runs out to T.Ray as he is leaving and asks him why he didn’t tell the truth

Ray permanently because of his harsh ways. For example, T. Ray always reminds Lily that it was her fault and she was the one who killed her mother. Deborah’s death causes Lily to feel guilty and embark on a journey to find out more about her mother’s life. Lily continues to link together her mother’s background with stories from different characters.

Moreover, Lily running away from her T.Ray is a difficult decision that many people today make, so they can live a safer and happier life. As a result of, Lily running away, it leads her to other events that mature her into adulthood. Lily leaves home and becomes more vulnerable to maturing into adulthood like growing awareness of the world. When Lily went to get Rosaleen it shows the readers what was going on in the world, “‘ I can’t just leave,’ she said, untying her wrist.’ If you stay here, those men are gonna come back and kill you, I’m serious. They’re gonna kill you, like those colored people in Mississippi got killed. Even T.Ray said so’”(Kidd 46 and 47). When rescuing Rosaleen, Lily experiences face to face how people are treated differently based on their looks and the fear people have to go through for their lives. Recognizing racism causes oneself to mature because it shows the world is not filled with rainbows and smiles. All the experiences that Lily goes through leads her to mature by herself.Finding and having support in Lily’s life leads her to become a mature adult. Rosaleen was an important part in Lily’s life for her to grow up in the excerpt,”I was the only one who knew that despite her sharp ways, her heart

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens struggles with the notion that she killed her mother and has to live with her abusive, neglectful father, T-Ray. Throughout, Lily searches for information about her mother and why she left her. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon new mother figures that play an important role in changing Lily to the person she is in later. The typical sequence of a hero’s journey includes a departure, initiation and trials, and reintegration into society. By the end, Lily Owens developes into a more mature, independent young women after experiencing a difficult childhood.

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

Lily’s first meeting with the black Mary occurs when she meets the Boatwright sisters: August, June, and May. At that moment Lily feels the nurturing of a mother and a deluge of emotions rain down on her. She could feel all sides of her, favorable and detrimental because “that’s what the black Mary did to me, made me feel my glory and my shame at the same time,” (Kidd 71). Lily, for being barely an adolescent, at first is not capable of grasping the concept of people being both angelic and corrupt. At the beginning of the story she sees T. Ray as the human embodiment of evil. Counter to her initial beliefs, Lily learns that people are not as simple as she wants them to be. This is largely the result of the mothering force of August, which is a more physical representation of what the black Mary embodies. The black Mary illustrates Lily starting to see the world from a multidimensional perspective. In the same manner as the black Mary representing a mother for Lily, she represents a mother-like figure to all the Daughters of Mary. While the other Daughters may not have been missing mothers, the black Mary creates a family-like binding between them, keeping them together throughout even them most poignant times. The black Mary is a mother to all and all Lily wants in the Boatwright house is to be seen as one of them. Ultimately, “they didn’t even think of me being different,” (Kidd 209). This acceptance

This quote shows that… EXPLANATION. Furthermore, this shows that throughout this book August Boatwright represents the best motherly figure. August exhibits multiple motherly traits such as caring for Lily, being a mentor for Lily, and always accepting Lily for who she is.

This make Lily furious and informs him that people like him should rot in hell when they die. “I remember thinking that he probably loved me in his own smalish way. He had feited me over, hadn’t he” In the end, Lily knows that T. Ray loves Lily in his own perspective. He looks at Lily for a while then he droves.

Lily even learns about the story of the Black Virgin Mary. In the book Lily stood up to her dad. T.Ray would admonish Lily in the worst ways. T.Ray would treat Lily like she is a cumbersome kid.

Even when T. Ray confronts Lily, August’s tone is quiet and she does not yell at him or make threats to him (Kidd 297). August is the matron of her little family, and she does so without being criticizing, demanding, or upset. The lesson we can learn from that is that you do not have to yell and scream and demand to be someone powerful and looked up

You must be proud.’ And he would half kill me.”(Kidd 15). T. Ray never accepted Lily as someone who loves to do anything for her education and this led to part of the unhappiness

Ray was stuck raising Lily. It pained him to see her every day. She looked exactly like Deborah, and was also responsible for the death of her. Later on in the book, T. Ray found Lily after she ran away, seeing her and where she was living reminded him of Deborah’s abandonment. He cracked and started beating Lily calling her Deborah, because they looked so similar, saying how she should have never left him. “He stood over me. ‘Deborah,’ I heard him mumble. ‘You’re not leaving me again.’ His eyes looked frantic, scared” (Kidd,294). T. Ray was already broken when Deborah left him, but then he was forced to be reminded by her every day when he looked at Lily and when the same situation happened again, he pictured Lily as his wife and he took his anger and sadness that he felt towards Deborah out on Lily. He eventually realized what he has done and believes that Lily is better off without him. He lets her stay with the Boatwrights as one last

Throughout the first half of the book, T Ray is indirectly characterized as an abusive parent. At many points of the story, Lily describes his actions to the reader or wishes for a loving father. To start things off, page 162 recounts when Lily made a card for her father for father’s day. She spent all night to make it perfect, just to find it under the remains of a peach, seemingly regarded as trash by her father. This particular event shows he does not overly care about her or the time she spends trying to get him to love her. Next up, the Martha Whites punishment, where the receiver if forced to kneel on grits that feel like glass shards, is the main punishment he delivers upon Lily. Even in the first chapter, she allows the reader to know