The Relationship Between Rosaleen And Lily In The Secret Life Of Lily

(TS) In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens does not have an empathetic relationship with her parents as a result of the loss of her mother and an abusive father; however, Lily gains a new family figure, August Boatwright, who shows her the true empathy that is present between a parent and their child. (PS) Lily Owens’s absence of a mother and a “real” father causes Lily not to have a relationship with her parents that is filled with affection for one another. (SS) When Lily lost her mother, Deborah Fontell, she was told that she had shot and killed Deborah. (SS) Lily would say, “I would meet her saying, ‘Mother forgive. Please forgive,’” and she would kiss my skin till I grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame”

Rosaleen’s Character in The Secret Life of Bees There are many important characters in The Secret Life of Bees that help Lily on her journey to find out about her mother. “Side characters” such as Zach, August, May, June, and Rosaleen, all help Lily to grow and change and to learn more about her past and her mother's past. Rosaleen is an important character in the story, she acts in as Lily’s stand-in mother before she runs away with Rosaleen to Tiburon. At Tiburon she stays with Lily in the honey house for most of the time while they try to survive together, and after a while Rosaleen is show to be less of a mother and more of a friend to Lily, sticking by her side through thick and thin. Rosaleen is mainly important because of the lessons she taught Lily about racism in the real world and dealing with problems.

The devastating tragedy of losing a person's mother at an early age can drastically affect that person's life. It can impact the way someone thinks, corresponds with others, and the way someone handles themselves emotionally. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees Lily Owens loses her mother at the early age of four. During Lily's journey she finds comfort and support in the women that she meets. Throughout the novel Lily goes through many changes because of the impact of the motherly figures of the Black Mary, Rosaleen, and the Calendar Sisters.

Rosaleen is going into town to sign her name to be able to vote. Lily begs to go with her into town and she decides to take her into town. They tell T-Ray it is to get her fitted for a bra. On the way to town, they run into trouble. The printed version of The Secret Life of Bees displays the first bout of trouble is from taking shelter and to rest in an all-white church. They are caught by the preacher and told to leave due to Rosaleen not being allowed inside the church. Later, Rosaleen is confronted about taking the paper fans from the church. The movie version displays Rosaleen taking her spit can and writing her name across the feet of a white man. This causes Rosaleen to be beaten by a group of men. The police take her to jail and then to the hospital due to her injuries. Lily conducts a plan to break Rosaleen from the hospital and they run away

First of all, The Secret Life of Bees is a 1960’s novel based on a child named Lily, who was bossed around and treated unfairly by her dad T-Ray, which he himself had a black maid named Rosaleen working for him since before Lily was born. Lily and Rosaleen had a very special relationship that had loyalty, trust,

In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, a young girl named Lily struggles with growing up with only a harsh father and a housemaid while trying to find her own place in the world. At the age of four, Lily accidentally shoots her mother while trying to help her in a fight against Lily’s dad. Ever since that day, Lily has a difficult time trying to be a lady and trying to cope with her somewhat abusive father. One day, when Lily is fourteen, the housemaid Rosaleen is sent to jail for pouring dip spit on white men’s shoes but later gets assaulted by the men and is taken to the hospital where Lily goes to sneak her out. In order to help incorporate the story’s title into the story, the author has written epigraphs, that are about bees, for every chapter in the book. Chapter two’s epigraph says “ On leaving the old nest, the swarm normally flies only a few metres and settles. Scout bees look for a suitable place to start the new colony. Eventually, one location wins favor and the whole swarm takes to the air”(34). This epigraph parallels the story because of the similarities in how bees move on and look for somewhere to start their new lives and how Lily and Rosaleen try to start their new

Sue Monk Kidd has introduced very complex, yet simple characters that can be easily related to by many readers of the novel. Rosaleen has a tough exterior, but truly cares for Lily Owens, as T.Ray Owens is unpleasant, and considered to be abusive toward Lily. Further on, we have Zachary Taylor, a handsome, charismatic football player while working for August in her honey house develops feelings for Lily, as there’s June Boatright with a heart of gold, yet is distrusting in regards to Lily at first. These character are just a few of the many that entail the plot, and make them relatable. Although, like I said Sue Monk Kidd has developed many character that we can relate to, I believe I relate to Lily Owens the most in “The Secret Life of Bees.”

Lily and Rosaleen are both fighting and seeking a better life that doesn’t involve cruelty. What really got them moving out of the town they are living in is the danger they would face if Rosaleen got caught escaping from jail. Lily said to Rosaleen,

Organization Safe Voices lists that, "More than 1 in 4 teenage girls in a relationship (26%) report enduring repeated verbal abuse." (Safe Voices). With it stating more than 1 automatically jumps to at least half, half of teenage girls have been revealed to verbal abuse in a relationship; no matter it being, platonic, familial or romantic. In The Secret Life of Bees verbal abuse is highly prevalent throughout the novel, the abuse is mainly taken in by protagonist Lily Owens. The main abuser is her father T. Ray, with a constant demeanor of Lily being a dumb blonde girl, he constantly calls her numerous obscene names such as "you act no better than a slut" and "why you little bitch" (pg. 27&39, Kidd). While no adolescent should have to endure that mental beat down, Lily later uses that to better herself and she learns herself value while overcoming the repeated verbal abuse from her

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.

I think she included facts about the bee culture as symbolism of Lily's life. Lily is like a bee in a large colony. In the beginning she is isolated from the “queen” (or a mother) and so she begins to go crazy. In the end though she finds a “queen” and finds herself as part of a “colony”, or team. One bee quote from chapter nine says, “The whole fabric of honey bee society depends on an innate ability to send and receive messages,to encode and decode information.”-p.165. This is the chapter when May commits suicide. This shows how when May didn’t receive the message that Zach was in jail she collapsed. It also shows how because May could not decode whether it was the sadness of hers or others, therefore she committed suicide. Another example is the bee quote from chapter thirteen which says, “A worker [bee] is just over a centimeter long and weighs only sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself.”-p.257. This shows that even though Lily is only 14 she can carry the weight of knowing she killed her mother, and knowing her mother left her, yet still live her life

Many people say that you need to read the book before you watch movie based on the book because the movie is always different. The movie for The Secret Life of Bees is no exception to that rule. The Secret Life of Bees is about a 14-year-old, white girl, named Lily Owens, living in 1964. While Lily was just 4 years old, her mother, Deborah, died, and her only memory of her mom is hazy and unsure. In her memory, Deborah was packing a bag to leave her abusive husband T. Ray and take Lily with her. Before they could leave though, T. Ray tried to force her to stay, and she grabbed a gun. T. Ray knocked it out of her hand, so Lily wanted to hand it back to her. Then she accidentally shot her mother, and she died. In the summer of ‘64, Lily ran

In view of that, relationships between characters in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ are clearly similar and different to ‘The Secret of Bees’. Lily explains her relationship by saying, “Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy– who I called T. Ray because ‘Daddy’ never fit him” (2). This quotation from ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is by Lily, narrating her relationship with Rosaleen and T. Ray. Rosaleen treats Lily like her daughter as she compliments Lily and gives advice on her decision of fashion school. Comparatively, when Lily tells her father T. Ray about the swarm of bees in her room, T. Ray does not believe her daughter and instead threatens punishment. This quote states Rosaleen genuinely cares for Lily as she thinks for her best while T. Ray does not treat her own

The Secret Life of Bees delineates an inspirational story in which the community, friendship and faith guide the human spirit to overcome anything. The story follows Lily Owens, a 14 year old girl who desperately wants to discover the cause of her mothers death. Her father T. Ray gives her no answers, which leads their maid, Rosaleen, to act as her guardian. Together, Lily and Rosaleen run away to Tiburon, South Carolina and find a welcoming community. It is in Tiburon that Lily learns many life lessons, including many about herself. In her novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd explores a theme of spiritual growth through Lily's search for home as well as a maternal figure.

The Secret Life of Bees begins in the town of Sylvan, South Carolina and tells the story of 14-year-old Lily Melissa Owens. She lives on a peach orchard with her neglectful and abusive father, T. Ray. They have Black maid named Rosaleen who is a companion and caretaker of Lily. The book opens with Lily's discovery of bees in her bedroom and the story of how she killed her mother. The eve before her birthday Lily sneaks out into the peach orchard to visit the box of her mother’s belongings which is buried there however before she can hide them T. Ray finds her and punishes her. The next day Rosaleen and Lily head into town where Rosaleen is arrested for pouring her bottle of tobacco spit on three white men. Lily breaks her out of prison and they begin hitchhiking toward Tiburon, SC, a town Lily had seen on the back of a picture of a black Virgin Mary which her mom had owned. They hitch a ride to Tiburon and once there, they buy lunch at a general store, and Lily sees a picture of the same Virgin Mary on a jar of honey. She asks the store owner where it came from and he gives her directions to the Boatwright house. They then meet the makers of the honey: August, May and June Boatwright, who are all black. Lily makes up a wild story about being recently orphaned. The sisters welcome Rosaleen and Lily into their home. They are then introduced to beekeeping and the Boatwright’s way of life. Lily learns more about the Black Madonna honey that the sisters make. She begins working