The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry accurately portrays what it was like for an African American family to be living in the Southside of Chicago in the

T. Ray breaks the news that Lily’s mom had left Lily with him and had come back to pack up her stuff when the big argument between he and Lily’s mom happened. At that point, Lily has enough of T. Ray, so she starts to have a mini-mental breakdown. Amidst the chaos going on inside her mind, she hears a voice say, “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). That little voice means all the difference in the world to Lily. To Lily, it is as if her mother is saying to leave T. Ray and start a new life. Right then she knows that she has to

It doesn’t take us the readers long to find out that T. Ray is an abusive parent, but it does take us a little longer to discover why he is the way he his. Going in chronological order of the discoveries within the book, T. Ray’s main three sources of internal conflict which produces external conflict with his daughter is the result of his background of war, his wife running away and eventually dying, and his daughter running away as well. Working backwards, August’s introduction into the book and the knowledge she has on Lily’s family divulges quite a lot about T. Ray than Lily is aware of. As we the readers find out, T. Ray served as a combatant during the Vietnam War and returned to Tiburon in 1964, the year the book is set in. Drawing on contemporary knowledge, the Vietnam War was a highly controversial and overall bloody war that caused massive civil unrest. These facts mixed with whatever traumatic experiences that T. Ray endured during the war serves as the first source of

When a person is angry they tend to be cold and not think of repercussions. T-Ray seems to always be angry which is why he does not have compassion or think about Lily's feelings.

This is not a good sign for Lily because she does not have love, respect, or acceptance from anyone.

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.

Coming of age in Mississippi by Anne Moody tells the story of her life as a poor African American growing up in America in the midst of racism and poverty. When Anne Moody was four years old Anne and her little brother had to be left at home while her parents worked in the fields. They were babysat by their uncle who was mean to them and regularly beat her up. In an attempt to scare her he accidentally burned down their house, blaming it on Anne. This event had a tremendous effect on the family and eventually led to her father leaving her mother for a fair-skinned younger woman. Anne noted her mother’s hatred for the other woman in terms of race. She remembered the woman was usually described as “yellow”. This event points out how early Moody’s unique perspective on race began to form.

Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the separation of black musical culture from white culture in her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, when comparing Elvis and Fats Domino to Miles Davis. This allusion helps clarify Lily’s provincial views and her limited knowledge of black culture. Although she tries to relate her understanding of music to Zach’s, Lily must realize that they share little in common in that field.

T-Ray is very manipulative, and it is always towards Lily about her mother, Deborah. T-Ray laughs while he is telling Lily “You thinking your mother is your guardian angel. The woman could have cared less about you” (39). He knows exactly what he was doing and how it would negatively affect Lily. Lily has a moment of

Ever since the death of Lily’s mother, Deborah, T. Ray has made it physically and mentally difficult for Lily to cope and move forward in life. According to the novel, he tells Lily, “The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d come back for her things, that’s all. You can hate me all you want, but she’s the one who left you.” (Kidd 39) This indeed shows T. Ray’s inability to control his anger but also shows his cruel nature towards his own kin. Throughout the entire novel, T. Ray has led Lily to believe that Deborah intentionally left, even

As Lily starts understanding why T.Ray is the way he is, she starts to forgive him. When T.Ray came to Sylvan to get Lily, Lily decides that she has had enough of her father’s cruelty and decides to stand up to him. T.Ray does not like that Lily is finally standing up for herself, but then he realizes that it is best if Lily stays in Sylvan and lets her

In this story, Lily starts her journey by experiencing the first stage of a monomyth, pre-separation. Within the first few pages, Lily has a flashback of the most traumatic memory she has... killing her mother. The guilt from this memory haunts Lily throughout her life and is the primary reason of her unhappiness. This is the pre-separation stage because Lily is extremely miserable with her life and is unaware of what is holding her back. She currently lives with her father T-Ray, who only adds to her depression. Although Lily is his daughter, he does not treat her with any kindness or respect. This is shown through his abusive ideas of disciplining Lily both emotionally and physically. Kneeling on grits is one of the many cruel ways T-Ray

The Civil Right Act occurred in 1960 which allowed African-Americans more rights. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees many characters challenges and uncover the meaning of accepting taboo ideas. Set in 1964, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees suggests that accepting taboo actions does not necessarily compromises a person’s moral compass and can lead to an awareness and understanding of the world.

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

The late 1950s was filled with racial discriminations. There was still sections living as well as public signs of Colored and Whites. Blacks and Whites were not for any change or at least not yet. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, tells a story of a black family that is struggling to gain a middle class acceptance in Chicago. The family of five, one child and four adults live in a tiny apartment that is located in a very poor area. Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals is two key parts played out throughout the whole play. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends met to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter