The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

When a parent dies, any child will cling to the other parent for emotional support and comfort for dealing with such a loss. In Lily’s case, she wanted her fathers support more than anything but he was cold, abusive, and stuck in the past, that he wasn’t able to give her anything except for take his anger out on her, when she disobeyed him. Although if someone does not get that support from the other parent, and if someone else is there that is understanding and kind, its amazing to see how much you can start to really rely on them and grow a close relationship. When Lily deals with the loss of her mother and the poor treatment of her father, she doesn’t know what to do with herself, she has a load of all different kind of emotions, and it really harms her well-being. Lily deals with guilt because she has visuals that she was the one that killed her mother, and on top of that she has her father telling her that her mother left her and she just abandoned her, making Lily feel unimportant and then at the same time guilt. Rosaleen is the closest role model that Lily has for a mother, Rosaleen cares and sticks up for Lily but Lily doesn’t really have the mother-daughter connection with her. Although Rosaleen provides comfort for Lily, she helps her with her father and in return Lily defends Rosaleen as well as save her life from the hospital after she got beaten.

In society today there are still forms of segregation prevalent to the eye. Whether it’s in workplaces, schools, etc. it is still seen today. Of course, sometimes no one means to self- segregate himself or herself, sometimes it may even be subconscious. It is not intended to be mean spirited or subjective to anyone, it simply just happens. Even though people may not realize it within themselves, people still hold on to racist beliefs.

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.

In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, T. Ray is a frustrated and unloving character who makes an enormous impact on Lily’s character by making her feel self-conscious about herself and not worthy of being loved. T. Ray evokes hatred and disappointment in the reader by permitting this abusive and unfair treatment towards Lily. With his rough and furious exterior that is represented by grits on the hat, he is also proven to be filled with grief and hurt by his wife’s leaving and future death. To hide his heart-break and depression, he lashes out on Lily to build himself up.

In the book Secret life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd , the main character Lily Owens has two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences that affect the outcome of the story. As the story unfolds, Lily is faced with an abusive dad and a mother who she loves very much. At the young age of four, Lily, still being a child, accidentally shoots and kills her mother during a confrontation. Now, the young child has two huge, impactful life-changing forces to deal with the rest of her life. She struggles with both of these until she decides to do something about it and go into the amazing world and figure out the truth behind it all. Since she was so young at the time of the events, she didn't remember what went down. She is searching the

Sue Monk Kidd portrays the time and place in the Secret Life of Bees by displaying Rosaleen working in the peach farms, then taken in to work in the house, giving the task of a housekeeper and Lily's nanny. Around ten years after, Lily turning 14, Rosaleen learns how to read and write her own name in order to turn in her ballot voting for J.F. Kennedy. Attempting to vote, Rosaleen and Lily were ambushed by a trio of white racists men, resulting in physical abuse of Rosaleen.When the police arrived, the white civilians claimed assault against Rosaleen, who is taken into jail charged with assault, theft(of a “church fan”), and abuse. Lily, caught up in between, also ended up in jail, to be later bailed out by her furious father. Determined, Lily breaks Rosaleen out of jail after finding out just how much Frank [he assaulted Rosaleen in jail so crudely that she had to go to the hospital] despised African Americans and fled to Tiburon, searching for clues about her mother Debera Owens. While finding shelter in a home with August, sister of May and June, May passes away. When the police questioned Lily's decision of staying with "colored people," he claimed that she didn't have

Kidd is the author of the Secret Life of Bees and her full name is Sue Monk Kidd. The way Kidd portray Rosaleen and Lily relationship in the book called “The Secret Life of Bees” is like a child and a caretaker but Rosaleen is like a mother figure for Lily. Even though they are not related by blood, Rosaleen and Lily care for each other. You know, as in the story it talks a bit about Rosaleen and Lily past. Plus the story gives some hints of what kind of relationship Lily and Rosaleen have.

For our summer reading project, we read a novel by Sue Monk Kidd titled, The Secret Life of Bees. Throughout the book, we learn about a young teen girl named Lily and her experiences of trying to escape an abusive father and free her nanny, Rosaleen. The author uses many clues to establish the setting and time period of the novel, which happened to be in the early 60's. The story starts in a farm home where Lily's dad has Rosaleen take care of Lily during the day as her nanny. When the Jim Crow Laws were in place, it was common to have an African American nanny in the household to help with the children and chores. Another prime example is when Rosaleen decides to go cast her vote which hasn't been allowed to her before, and when she does she is arrested for disrespecting white males. The author establishes the time period by drawing attention to the Civil Rights Acts and showing a huge contrast between how African Americans were treated versus whites and the conflicts between race rights in this time period. The author expresses this with officers and unfamiliar characters showing disrespect toward Rosaleen.

Sue Monk Kidd bases the story, The Secret Life of Bees, in the south in 1964 by talking about how the Civil Rights Act had just been signed, and from the character Rosaleen, showing that black people could now vote as long as they were able to sign their name perfectly. This is one of the big ways that the Civil Rights Act influenced Lily because someone so close to her wanted to vote, and that caused many problems.

There are plenty of great books published every year, however there are few that become classics. Classics are the few great books that everyone should read at least once. One of those books is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the protagonist, Lily Owens finds that her past chases her into the present. Lily lives with her abusive father, T. Ray and her colored housekeeper, Rosaleen. After Lily reaches the last straw with T. Ray, she sets out to find out about her mother, who was accidentally killed by Lily herself at a very young age. The Secret Life of Bees captures Lily Owens in her most vulnerable state where she’s taught she’s not capable of anything, yet battles racism and her father’s abuse by changing her attitude, having moments of realization, and experiencing multiple recurring events

Nature is all around us, everywhere we go. Nature is not only the trees and the grass, it is the birds, the river, the sun and the stars.This project consists of hard work and creativity while taking time and effort to find pages from two stories to make a poem and visual. to connect to the theme of Nature. The pages I chose were chapter 1 in Emerson's Nature and pages 79 and 80 from Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees to connect the theme of nature.

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

Books have a way of bringing people together, by showing different points of view. One of the most inspiring books I have read, is The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This contemporary novel of a young girl's journey to discover herself, has the ability to engage readers from many different walks of life. I believe that everyone in my generation should read this novel, as this coming of age story will leave readers with a new outlook on family and how people can change.

“Probably the strongest influence in our lives is the family we grew up in. Our birth order, the personality 's of our parent(s), the way we were treated by our siblings, the socioeconomic status of the family, their education, the place we lived — all of these shaped us at the time when we were most vulnerable to being shaped” states Phillip Wittmeyer in his article Family Influence. No matter what age an individual is and whether or not their biological family was able to influence them in such a way, during times of need the individual is likely to turn back to their family, either reflecting on the thought of them or their morals, in search of hope and security. Characters within the novels, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The