The Secret Life Of Bees Research Paper

The Queen bee is the novel’s symbol of a mother figure and is used throughout Lily’s

“There is nothing perfect,’ August said from the doorway. ‘There is only life” (Kidd 256). This quote from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd explains Lily Owens life, a young girl with an unloving father and a mother who abandoned her and was later shot and killed by her own daughter, Lily. Lily has a hard time finding her place in the world and understanding why her life is the way it is. She decides it is time for her to take charge of her own life. She finds herself in Tiburon, South Carolina with her nanny Rosaleen and three black women, August, June and May who unravel the story to her mother’s past. Lily’s story can be seen in different layers, the most significant layers are the religious, thematic and symbolic layers. These three layers are essential when trying to gain understanding of The Secret Life of Bees.

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and Rascal Flatts "I'm Movin' On", both adequately demonstrate that a childhood of guilt can result in difficulty forgiving oneself and others. Overcoming inner conflicts as well as finding a place of belonging and contentment is a result that comes with self-forgiveness. The Secret Life of Bees is a story of a young girl named Lily Owens who, throughout the novel, faces immense obstacles. This novel focuses on the blurred memory Lily has of the death of her mother. In the novel, the reader learns that Lily was only a young child during the death of her mother and her emotionally abusive father, T. Ray, often tells her that this death was all her fault. T. Ray implements the idea that Lily was the one to who had accidentally shot her mother with a gun which causes her to grow up living with the guilt and shame of this traumatic event that took a very valuable life from her. As the plot intensifies, Lily and her strong-willed black caretaker, Rosaleen, decide to escape T. Rays sadistic tendencies and abusive behavior. After deciding to run away from T. Ray, Lily soon finds the Boatwright sisters who had a strong connection with Lily's mother before she died. While meeting the Boatwright sisters, Lily says, "I felt like she knew what a lying, murdering, hating person I really was. How I hated T. Ray, and the girls at school, but mostly myself for taking away my mother" (Kidd 71). This quote shows the destructive effect of being blamed

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.

In life, relatively anything can happen for a reason. Whether it occurs upon our own actions or not, instances may arise for a new change. Within the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, our main protagonist, Lily, is tested by making a life-changing decision to either return to her father, T. Ray’s captivity, or stay with the Boatwright sisters, whom she befriended on her runaway adventure. Even through tough times Lily has endured with T. Ray, when it was time for her to decide who should receive custody of her, she was still hesitant, despite knowing what her circumstances may be if she were to choose T. Ray. Even though T. Ray is Lily’s biological father, unfortunately, is not up to par to provide her with the necessities that this fourteen year-old girl needs. I strongly believe that Lily should live with the Boatwright sisters, due to many factors they can provide that makes Lily a better person.

The Literary Quest in The Secret Life of Bees “She is a muscle of love, this Mary. I feel her in unexpected moments, her Assumption into heaven happening in places inside me… August says she goes into the holes life has gouged out of us” (374). In this quote, Lily Owens is expressing how the black Mary has helped her overcome many struggles in her life. Lily is a 14 year old girl who is from Sylvan, South Carolina.

Compare and Contrast: Parent Child Relationships Children often have intense arguments with their parents. While most arguments in this nature lead to more violent instances, some can also lead to easier, more fruitful outcomes and circumstances. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, written by the author Sue Monk Kidd, the author presents and goes in-depth on the relationships the main protagonist, Lily Owens, has in many different ways. In the novel, the author portrays the relationship between Lily and her biological father, who she refers to T. Ray as Volatile, Intense, and full of conflict. She also depicts the relationship between Lily and her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, as peaceful, easy/loving, and full of co-operation.

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

Flipping through the news channels, it is almost inevitable to catch a glimpse of a report where a man verbally abuses a young women because of her religion. Logging onto Facebook, stories of adults harassing and ostracizing children for their nationality are practically unavoidable. Even walking through a spirited community where people hold unapologetic conversations, signs of discrimination permeate the lives of its citizens. The fear invading our society that stems from nothing more than an idea of a group of people rather than a person’s intelligence, integrity, or character is similar to the struggles of the civil rights movement. Sue Monk Kidd’s Secret Life of Bees explores the journey

The secret of bees, my opinions were questioned more than once. Several of the statements I completely agreed with, while others I disagreed strongly.

Fifty six. That’s how many lives were lost to suicide on a daily basis in the United States during 1964. Imagine fifty six of your classmates, lying dead on the floor. Bullet wound in this one’s head, a rope tied around this one’s neck, blood dripping out of a gash on this one’s wrist. Nobody expects suicide to affect them. But then, it does. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, May Boatwright was one of those fifty six people. As a young girl, she lost her twin sister to suicide, and her life was forever changed. Suddenly, May was overwhelmingly sensitive. Everybody else’s problems were now her very own. She couldn 't discern the difference between them all, and her brain became a jumbled mess. Tears often plague her cheeks, and when a young Lily Owens shows up at the Boatwright’s doorstep along with her maid Rosaleen, those tears seem to appear more often than ever. As Lily becomes aware of May’s situation, she tries to be as careful as possible, and is helped by May’s two other sisters, August and June Boatwright. They slowly help May adjust, and as they shelter her, May seems to be getting better. But the girls are left shell shocked when they discover May’s lifeless body in the river. Committing suicide was the lowest point for May. May struggles with her own mind, and constantly battles with depression. By committing suicide, May did not resolve her own problems caused by the

In this essay, Patterson gives a detailed analysis on the profound issues during the Civil Rights movement in America. He mentions the cause and effects of racial profiling and the discrimination that the blacks endured. Patterson also gives attention to the expansion and the progression of racial protesting and the reaction of the African-Americans on specific events. such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act. This insightful article relates to The Secret Life of Bees because the novel includes the signing of the Civil Rights Act and explained the negative effects towards the white community. It showed the outrage and the protesting that the blacks had to face before finally getting their voice heard and the progression that

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

In the first chapter of “ The Secret Life of Bees” the reader is introduced to the protagonist Lily Ownes. Lily, because of her dysfunctional family, is forced to sell peaches by the stand. Lily however, didn't let this time pass by and she created blissful poems with charisma and let her imagination thrive. Someone is revolving around with questions and thinking about the million dollar question “ what a now?” when they're bored . there are many solutions to this problem. A person could gleefully draw what ever is in front of them with pencil and paper . They can build a puzzle and take all the intricate pieces to create the bigger picture. Maybe even, try and workout to enhance a tone body. Nonetheless, all this information is still quite

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