The Secret Life Of Bees Literary Analysis

Ray was Lily’s abusive father that does not care about Lily’s clothing, sleepovers, or even football games (8). (SS) When Lily calls T. Ray and he cannot answer a simple question about her, she tries to convince herself that it does not matter by telling herself, “Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry. So what if he doesn’t know the color you love best? So what?” (160). (SS) Lily has the idea that she is “unlovable” and wonders “who could love her” (242). (SS) But little does Lily know that a very significant figure will come into her life and will show Lily what being loved by a “family” member feels like. (PS) August Boatwright, an African American beekeeper, shows Lily her empathetic heart right when Lily walks through her door. (SS) When Lily comes to the Boatwright household seeking for a place to stay, August opens up her home to Lily, exclaiming, “Well, you can stay here till you figure out what to do. We can’t have you living on the side of the road” (72). (SS) August could have turned Lily away and told her to find another place to stay, but she graciously opens up her home to Lily. (SS) In the same way, when Lily faints of embarrassment during a Daughters of Mary gathering, August acts as if it is her fault by telling Lily, “I should’ve turned on the fans in

The novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, and the film, My Girl, share common themes. One of the common themes is coming-of-age. This means growing up and maturing through experiences and lessons learned. The main characters in the novel, and the film learn more as they grow up, and they learn from their consequences. Lily Owens, from the novel, and Vada Sultenfuss, from the movie, are very similar characters, and learn many of the same lessons.

Once Lily accepts what she has done and learns that her mother's death did not make her a bad person, her conflict can finally be resolved. As a result of resolving her conflict, she is able to mature because of the struggle, just like other people are able to grow and evolve from their own mistakes. This is evident when she admits "Before coming here, my whole life had been nothing but a hole where my mother should have been, and this hole had made me different, left me always aching for something, but never once did I think what he'd lost or how it might've changed him" (Kidd 293). Lily finally realizes that her mother's death has not only affected her, but also her father, T. Ray, and the calendar sisters. Through the course of Lily's struggle, Lily learns a lot about life and matures into a wiser

Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her

When lily went to South Carolina she goes to a lady named August. August is very artifice. Lily stays at her honey house for several months with her aunt Rooselyn. As she lives there she goes through many adventures and meets a ton of new people. She meets her true love Zach and two sister of August named May and June. She finds out a lot about her mother. She finds out that her mother Deborah stayed at the same honey house. She also finds out that her mother ran away from T-Ray when he was abusive. At the end T-Ray finds Lily at Augusts house and he threatens her that she has to come back home with him. Lily fights and eventually convinces T-Ray that she is better off with August and forgives him.

In this world, there will always be that one phase in life when a human face what the major of our society called as growing up. During that phase, the human will have to face a lot of element. Sue Monk Kidd’s “Secret Life of Bees” narrates a story of a girl named Lily who develops herself through others during her journey to find the truth about her mother.

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.

Ray looked at Lily he realized that he couldn't stand her anymore because she looked too much like Deborah, which is when August offers him a way out of the uncomfortable situation. On page 298 she said "Mr. Owens, you would be doing Lily and the rest of us a favor by leaving her here...We love Lily, and we'll take care of her I promise you that. We'll start her in school here and keep her straight." August gives T. Ray a way out of taking care of his daughter and having to be reminded of Deborah and it also solves the major conflict of whether Lily and Rosaleen are going to have to back to Sylvan and stay with T. Ray or whether she will be able to stay with the Boatwrights. Adding on, just as T. Ray is about to leave Lily runs up to him, and asks him what really happened that day when her mother died and on page 299 it states "You didn't mean it, but it was you...Maybe he was telling me the truth, but you could never know a hundred percent with T. Ray." This also is a very important part of the novel because Lily realizes she lost her real mother but when she looks at the porch she has 8 other mothers. On page 302 it states "All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street." This quote is very important because it finally dawns on Lily that she isn't alone, and she doesn't just have one mother but eight of them. Furthermore, another conflict that is resolved, is about Lily breaking Rosaleen out of jail. On page 301 it states "He says they

This quote relates to lily because she lost her mother but the love for her from many other mother figures never ended. Lily always thought that she was never loved because of her cruel father but she had so many people with her like rosaline she was lily's first mother figure, she took care of her by showing love to her when her father was mean to her. The Other mother figures are august and may, june was not actually a mother figure for lily but instead she resembled lily in a way that made lily realize how she was, like when june tried to hide her feelings about neil, lily does the same for the black marry. August was a great mother figure because she gave time to lily to open up and tell the truth even though she knows that lily is

August teaches Lily about race through acceptance. When lily and Rosaleen get to Tiburon they eventually end up at the Pink house owned by the Calendar Sisters, August, June and May, when Lily and Rosaleen ask to stay in there home. At first the sisters are hesitant but August lets them stay. this quote is said by August when she lets them stay. “Well, you can stay here till you figure out what to do. We can’t have you living on the side of the road” (Kidd 72). This quote is significant because it shows how nice and caring August is. While Lily and Rosaleen were there the Calendar sisters held church at

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.

Lily saw her mother as a bad person for abandoning her. August explains to Lily that her mother made a mistake of leaving her with T.Ray. She also tells Lily that her mother tried to fix it be returning to get her. This conversation is an important factor when Lily learns to forgive her mother and herself.

Family is expressed in diverse ways. Mama strongly believes in the importance of family throughout the book. She continues to try to keep them together by fulfilling their dreams before hers. Her dream was moving her family out of the ghetto and into a house with a yard where children can play, and she can tend a garden. Her dream has been deferred since she and her husband moved into the apartment that the Youngers still inhabit. Every day, her dream provides her with an incentive to make money. But no matter how much she and her husband strived, they could not scrape together enough money to make their dream a reality. As they go through trying times the eventify they come together as a family because by the end they realized being together was most important. They are still strong individuals but together they prove they are a strong family. Throughout the book the Younger family is constantly arguing about what Mama should do with the ten thousand dollars she inherited from her husband. “I-I just seen my family fall apart today…. Just falling into pieces in front of my eyes we couldn’t have gone on like we were today (Hansberry91)” Mama is trying to tell her family that these arguments about the money are tearing her family apart. She wanted them to know that she did the right thing by buying the house, thinking it would make her family happy again. Mama could have spent the money on herself, but she chose her family first and their needs that is

Lily comes to know three incredible women called the Boatwrights. Their names are August, June, and May. Lily became closest to August although she was close to May and June, also. Lily felt as though August had a comforting and consoling way about her. August once told Lily “Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough.” (Kidd 111). Her motivational life advice helped to guide Lily. Furthermore, August had to be the one to tell Lily that they had lost May; May had killed herself. Lily did not take the news so well. Lily claimed she had started to “shiver…[she] could feel the teeth in [her] mout, crashing against each other.” (Kidd 193).

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.