The Secret Life Of Bees Essay

Sue Monk Kidd has carefully crafted a book rich in symbolism with special emphasis on bees. Each section’s heading features the inner workings of this communal society (Emanuel, Catherine, B. 3). An epigraph at the beginning relating to bees sets the tone for the each chapter. The first chapter epigraph states: The Queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness.” Man and Insects.

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

The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, is a bildungsroman novel about an adolescent girl and her maturation throughout her fourteenth summer. The novel takes place in the 1960s while the Civil Rights Act is still fairly new to people. Throughout the novel, protagonist Lily Owens struggles as she tries to find her way through obstacles thrown at her. As Lily experiences different events, good and bad, she matures and grows as an individual. Having grown up around a black woman in this time period, Lily had no bias toward one race or the other. But also having grown up in a primarily white town, she never saw the other side of the bias. As the story progresses, Lily learns that people will have biases against her, which is something

I chose to read The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd because when I read the back of the book, it seemed to portray an interesting plot. When reading it, I knew I was right. I feel that certain people could relate to this and I know that situations like these are happening all around us even as we speak.

In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees there is a psychological allegory present, which is proven by the characters in the story. The psychological allegory is based on the theory by Sigmund Freud, this theory states that in the human brain there is three major psychological portions, the id, the ego, and the super ego. The id is the portion that induces selfishness and hatred and other “bad” actions, the super ego is the opposite of the id, putting others before ones self and caring for others, the ego is the perfect balance between the two and is almost always the psyche portrayed be the protagonist. In this novel it is T. Ray who illustrates the id, through his bad treatment of Lily, his lack of

Written by Sue Monk Kidd the novel "The Secret Life of Bees" traces the life of a 14 year old girl searching for love and care. The story begins in a peach farm in Sylvan, South Carolina but travels toward and ends in Tiburon, South Carolina. The city of Tiburon unleashes many truths that lily has wondered throughout her life. The town brings her what she has been longing for since she was a child.

Every girl goes through a time when she is trying to find herself- find out who she is. Every girl tries to build a personality; a sense of self. She is filling in the puzzle of her with puzzle pieces that don’t have a determined shape. The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd is a book about this searching. The main character, a teenage girl, is going through this time when she is trying to find out who she is. In The Secret Life of Bees, this girl, Lily Owens, is living unhappily. Her mother was killed when she was very young, and her father is cruel. Lily decided she had had enough and runs away. The Secret Life of Bees is a story about a girl who is finding herself, finding out who she is and who she wants to be. This leads to a journey where she finds a place where she can thrive, and develop her sense of self.

1964 was a year of great progress in the Civil Rights Movement, bringing about change to the lives of many. In order to cope before and after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, a great number of people focused on the religious aspect of their lives, an aspect that is 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 the potential of gaining insight into the novel by examining its thematic, symbolic, and religious aspects.

The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, is about a teenage girl named Lily who lives in South Carolina during the 1960s. Throughout the story, Lily struggles with the guilt of killing her mother Deborah as a child. This guilt leads Lily to run away from her father and go looking for any information she can find about her mother. She comes across the Boatwrights who know about Deborah and tell Lily about her life. August steps in as the mother figure in her life and helps her blossom into a bright young woman. Much of this information is a surprise to Lily. Lily goes through changes mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Sue Monk Kidd uses literary devices to show the guilt Lily feels. Kidd uses the techniques of simile, imagery,

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.

I am at the halfway point in the novel The Secret Life of Bees. Written by Sue Monk Kidd, the story is extraordinary so far as it instantly had me with the setting, Southern Carolina in 1964, I knew I would be interested. The story is written in first person by the main character, Lily Owens. It is almost like her own written story as she mentions she would like to go to school to be a writer. This is shown in her narrative when it almost seems like she is trying to address the reader as she is telling the story to us. She says a lot before thinking it through. She writes it as it just came to her mind. From her bluntness, you can still tell she has a good sense of humour.

Without doubt, the plot of this book surely does rise, twist, and fall. Throughout the story, the hurdles Lily face become higher and higher, therefore she must surpass them one by one. The book starts out with it’s initial situation when me meet Lily, the withdrawn teenager with no companionship besides her abusive father and her nanny, the latter of whom, she actually gets along with well. Lily, in her isolation, claims that bees dance around her room at night. Trying to tell her father about these bees award her with nothing but shouting. The plot of our story rises when Lily and Rosaleen head out to Tiburon, so that Rosaleen can vote as an African American woman. Lily tags along so that she can atleast get out of the house on her birthday.

In the 1960s United States started some problems. They treated color people different from whites. In the book “The Secret Life of Bees” the author talked about the civil right which is related to Jim Crow that happen in the 1960s.

I’m not sure how Kim choose The Secret Life of Bees for her students. I’ve never read the book, but I’ve seen the movie. The book/movie definitely addresses the topics on the role of women, along with the issues of racism and faith. The book is set in 1964 in South Carolina at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Jim Crow Laws existed and ‘separate but equal’ plus the struggle for equal voting rights. These can and are sensitive and hard topics to address, but worthy.

The book I read was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. It takes place in 1964 and is about this 14 year old girl named Lily Owens. It tells the story about her childhood and her mothers death, also how her dad had changed after her mother left. She goes on quite a journey with Rosaleen, one of her dads pickers for his peach farm, to Tiburon, South Carolina. She decided to go to Tiburon because it was written on the back of a picture that once belonged to Lily’s mother. They go to the Boatwright sisters home and the sisters take them in and care for them as their own. Lily later finds out that her mother had also stayed there and finds the truth about her mothers death.