To be accepted means "The action or process of being received as adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group”(Oxford Languages). In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, acceptance is a significant theme as we see Lily change and discover herself through acceptance. The acceptance we feel determines so many aspects of our life, from our happiness to the love and the people we surround ourselves with, which is why I believe we should experience acceptance. Having acceptance can help us feel happiness. “Saw your girl in the peach stand reading up a storm. 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 …show more content…
“The daughters swarmed around Our Lady like a circle of bee attendants and rubbed the honey into the wood”(Kidd 269). August describes a swarm as a queen and a group of bees that leave the hive and find a new home. The beehive symbolizes community as they all work together for one goal: honey. The community that is the Daughters have followed their queen and begun their own beehive that they are accepting people into. They swarm Our Lady as she is their queen that they have chosen to follow. Additionally, when T. Ray comes to get Lily back from the Boatwrights Sisters home, the daughters appear. “I stood in the driveway with small rocks and clumps of dirt around my feet and looked back at the porch. And there they were, too. All these mothers.They are the moons shining over me.”(Kidd 302). The mothers Lily is referring to are the daughters that wait for her return on the porch. They are her mothers and her moon, as mothers are typically loving, attentive people and the moon is all alone in the sky. They represent that Lily has a community of people that will support her and she will never be alone when she is with them as they are her community. In contrast though, when Lily explains her relationships with people she says “I wore clothes I made for myself and home economics class,... outfits only the Pentecostal girls wear. I might as well have worn a sign on my back: I'm not popular and never will be.”(Kidd 8). Lily feels
consider the state of the world. With the ongoing world conflicts, social injustice, or the empathy that every person lacks, can a person ever achieve true peace? “The Secret Life of Bees” written by Sue Monk Kidd follows a young girl named Lily who embarks on a journey of self discovery and the search for answers to her mother’s life. She shows up on the doorstep of the Boatright sisters house, desperate for answers. With the acceptance of the past comes peace with the present. As Lily continued
Accepting our own identity is a fact of life. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is about a 14 year old girl named Lily Owens. The story takes place in 1964 in South Carolina. Lily finds her identity throughout the story, while learning a great deal about herself in the process. We should accept our own identity. Firstly, accepting our own identity gives us courage to stand up for ourselves. We can gain courage by accepting our own identity. An example of this is when T. Ray wants him and Lily
shared with the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. In her historical fiction novel, Kidd narrates the story of how Lily Melissa Owens, a motherless girl, was surrounded by change during 1964. Lily’s journey to find information about her mother leads her to August, May, and June, otherwise known as the Calendar Sisters. The events that happen at the Calendar Sister’s home bring change not only to Lily, but to many others as well. Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees is a novel filled with
At 14 years old Lily, the main character in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, broke Rosaleen, her caregiver, out of the hospital and they ran away from the life they knew. This was the beginning of Lily’s journey to find herself.The story takes place in 1964 in South Carolina as Lily runs away from her abusive father T. Ray. Throughout the story, Lily and the other characters learn a great deal about themselves and in the process find their identity. We should accept our own identity. First
Secret Life of Bees Essay Growing up changes you in more ways than you realize. It can be a good change like new privileges. It could be bad things like more responsibility. In the book The Secret Life of Bees all changes are experienced. Especially because the main character, Lily, has grown up without a mother. And the main problem in the book is about Lily growing up and trying to find out more about her mother and how she was killed. In the Secret Life of Bees growing up really changes the people
‘’The Secret Life of Bees’’ by Sue Monk Kidd is a novel about a girl named Lily Owens who was physically abused by her father after her mom was shot in an accident that Lily has been involved in. Later on, Lily takes off with Rosaleen, her caregiver, to Tiburoun, South California, where her mother held her past and where Lily wants to discover the truth about her. Kidd uses the theme to help develop the idea of why love is an important symbol in this novel. She uses literary techniques such as themes
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. Life Before Writing Born in Albany, Georgia on August 12, 1948, Kidd grew up in Sylvester, Georgia specifically in Worth County. Her father and English teachers encouraged
memories, Lily Owens finds comfort in the humming of the bees. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd writes about the life of young girl whose spontaneous decisions lead her to her mother’s past. Lily’s life has revolved around the lack of a mother. Her father, T. Ray, is a harsh and unloving peach farmer who punishes Lily unreasonably and does not fulfil his father like position. Lily’s adventure begins after catching a few bees in a jar. She empathizes with them as they are stuck and
your childhood self, your adolescence, when events in your life started to be a part of your identity? Identity plays a huge role in everyone’s life. Young, old, and in-between. Finding your identity means that you know who you are and those beliefs guide your life. You can do so many amazing things if you live with a firm identity and finding it may as well be one of your greatest accomplishments. The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, is a coming-of-age story about an adolescent girl named Lily
Even though people may not realize it within themselves, people still hold on to racist beliefs. This theme is developed immensely in Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees. The book is followed in the eyes of our main character, Lily Owens, a white girl from the heart of South Carolina in the year 1964. Lily is an insecure and isolated child having this way of life given to her because of her father, T-Ray, whom she refuses to call “Daddy” like any other normal child. Lily lives a restricted lifestyle
we take in life is the one that will give us the most prosperous life possible. These ideas are fundamental to living a great life and are often exemplified throughout The Secret Life of Bees, written by award-winning author Sue Monk Kidd. This book shows many situations that prove that we should foster love in our lives. To start, we should foster love in our lives in order to keep ourselves safe. In The
the book Secret life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd , the main character Lily Owens has two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences that affect the outcome of the story. As the story unfolds, Lily is faced with an abusive dad and a mother who she loves very much. At the young age of four, Lily, still being a child, accidentally shoots and kills her mother during a confrontation. Now, the young child has two huge, impactful life-changing forces to deal with the rest of her life. She struggles
n the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily a 14 year old girl is abused by her father and runs away. Throughout Lily's life she was sheltered from blacks and always thought of them as a lower class in society and her in a higher class because of her skin color. As a result she has limited respect for blacks. There are many motifs in this book that change the mindset of Lily, one of which is the Virgin Mary. The symbol the Virgin Mary is a huge impact on Lily's growth and development
Today I will be talking about the book named “The Secret Life of Bees,” written by Sue Monk Kidd. This book is about a young girl who has to deal with an abusive father and in return she runs away with her black babysitter to a beekeeper she believes may know the answers to her mothers dead. In this blog post I will be talking about the racial part of the book and discussing my opinions. The book mentions the race of the people many times because it is set in 1964, during the time in which many black
Many people in their life will feel compassionate towards another person or character in a novel because of their personality, behaviors and actions. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the protagonist, Lily, has a father referred to as T. Ray. In the beginning of the book, typical readers may label T. Ray as the antagonist because he is described as an abusive, cold hearted character. After reading and learning more about his past, T. Ray can eventually be considered a sympathetic character