The Secret Life Of Bees Research Paper

The Secret Life of Bees is a heart throbbing and touching novel about a young girl named Lily Owens who goes on a long journey far away to find out the truth about her mother, and in the process, finding herself. Filled with apprehension and self doubt, Lily grew up with her abusive and cold hearted father after the death of her mother when she was just 4 years old. She didn’t know much about her aside from what she was told growing up. Lily grew up with the weight of her mother’s death on her shoulders. Subsequently after her 14th birthday, and having been beaten by her father one too many times, Lily runs away with her nanny, Rosaleen, to Tiburon, South Carolina. After stumbling across August Boatwright’s bright pink house,

In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd alludes to the Cold War to demonstrate the tension of the Civil Rights Era. For instance, “‘What happened?’ I asked. “Did they drop the atom bomb?’ Ever since we’d started bomb drills at school, I couldn't help but thinking my days were numbered” (19). Lily uttered this statement because the news broadcast on the television agitated Rosaleen. Alternatively, what Lily thought was the start of another war, was actually the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As for the Cold War, this was a time of great tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from around 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In fact, most Americans worried that the Soviet Union would drop

A family is a basic social unit consisting of parents and children. It is considered a group of people where one can look to for acceptance, safety, happiness and love. Families are the foundation to a human beings life because it is where one can be welcomes into the society. Individuals are nurtured and given tools so they are capable of learning and experiencing the world. Living in an unhealthy environment may impact the way someone thinks and acts physically and emotionally, in the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens, a young fourteen year old girl who lives in South Carolina, loses her mother at the age of four because of a devastating tragedy leading to her

Lily even learns about the story of the Black Virgin Mary. In the book Lily stood up to her dad. T.Ray would admonish Lily in the worst ways. T.Ray would treat Lily like she is a cumbersome kid.

The novel is written in Lily’s point of view to show Lily’s growth and maturation. Lily blames herself for her mother’s actions and it is not until the end of the story that she accepts the fact that she has no control over the death of her mother. After T. Ray finds Lily, he decides to leave her with August and the Daughters of Mary because she is better off. As T. Ray leaves, she looks back and says, “And there they were. All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street” (302). When Lily is looking back at August and the Daughters of Mary, she realizes that they all have a role as her mother. Up until this point in the novel, Lily constantly feels the guilt of killing her mother on her conscience. The novel is written in Lily’s point of view to show her growth. In the beginning of the novel Lily feels lost, guilty, and abandoned. By the end of the novel, Lily feels like she has found her home with August and the Daughters of Mary. They accept her for who she is and love her unconditionally. Lily’s maturation is displayed when she comes to the realization that after living in the racist South, she too has grown up with a little racism in her heart. She realizes this when August surprises her with all the knowledge she has about life and

As the years pass many things get old and lose worth, like books, but what can never get old or lose value is the message each book holds with it forever. In the very beginning of the book, “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, the understanding of the message delivered is that Lily’s mother died while she was very young, and she does not know what happened. Even though this book takes place in the early sixties and moves forward to almost early seventies, but no matter what time period of the events taking place or the circumstances, the challenges Lily faces in Secret Life Of Bee’s are still relevant even today.

Sue monk kidd wrote a book called secret life of bees published on november 8, 2001 . The book was about a girl named lily and how she wants to know more about her mom and wants to run from her father T. ray. In the book their is a well developed character named June boatwright. June was going to have a wedding and her fiance left her at the alter. August , sister of June took care of a little girl named Debra Owens during the time of segregation. Since june was born during this dark time I believe that she distrusted every white person that she didn't know because most were racist during this time. Due to the segregation and the distrust she had it was hard for her to trust white people like debras daughter lily and for her to gain confidence to marry again.

First of all in this story Lily is faced with many conflicts, some are physical and some are emotional like her memories of her mom. “The memory settled over me. The suitcase on the floor. The way they’d fought. My shoulders began to shake in a strange, uncontrollable way” (Kidd 40). Many points in this book come back to that night when Lily’s mom was killed. Lily struggles with her mom’s death and her dad has told her that she was the reason that her mom was dead. She was

Question 1- Kidd’s decision to write The Secret Life of Bees in the perspective of young Lily Owens allow the reader to deeply understand the internal struggles that have faced her from a young age. Through out the novel, Lily is looking for acceptance, understanding, and love, all things that she hasn’t felt for as long as she can remember. These feelings, or lack there of stem from the mystery and guilt surrounding the death of Deborah Owens, Lily’s mother. A young three year old Lily is presumably the cause of Deborah’s accidental death, and it’s something she’s never been able to get over. “This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away” (Kidd 8). The direct look into the heart and mind of Miss. Owens allows the reader to become connected and invested into the story. This being said if her

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.

Most of the time you will find, that water with a little bit of honey in it, tends to taste a whole lot better than blood. In the beautifully composed piece of literature, The Secret Life of Bees, we follow the struggles of Lily Owens, as she realizes the true meaning of family and the transcendent power of love. The brilliant author behind this artwork, Sue Monk Kidd, brings forth the hardships of a motherless child with an abusive father, and the Negro community of 1964. I highly recommend this book to any individual that has any, if even the slightest, spark of curiosity within them, to understand the hardships and racial conflict that took place in a time where the abuse and discountenance of a human being was of the norm. This book has

Formerly, remarkable American literature has been composed and eventually studied by high school students to educate them on a certain topic that is being discussed in school. Despite some high schools are very precise about which pieces of literature they allow in their school curriculum for their students to read and learn from. One book in particular, that is being challenged by several schools and organizations is "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. This book is introduced in 1964 in the heart of Sylvan, South Carolina. It illustrates the story of a fourteen year old girl named Lily Owens, who has had a difficult past, beginning with the death of her mother; Deborah. Throughout the book, she ignites a journey on learning how to understand the ways of the world through the secret life of bees, which enlightens her spirit and search of love. Although "The Secret Life of Bees" is a classic piece of southern American literature that features racism to help deliver the overall concept to its readers, it should be included in a high school curriculum to help educate and enrich young adults' cultural mentality.

Have you ever thought of how lucky you are that you have people in your life that care and love you? That is not exactly how Lily´s life is in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Lily is a 14 year old girl who lives in Sylvan, South Carolina on a peach farm, she lives with her father T-Ray. T-Ray is very disrespectful and aggressive with her, she also lives with their maid Rosaleen. Lily lost her mother 10 years ago, her name was Deborah. She died when Lily was four from a traumatic death, Lily accidentally shot her mother. Lily is 14 now, she recently found some of her mother's things, she found a picture of black Mary, along with other things her mother used to own. The framed picture of black Mary had ¨Tiburon, South Carolina” written

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