What Is The Meaning Of The Secret Life Of Bees

‘The Secret Life of Bees’ by Sue Monk Kidd is a wonderful and beautifully written story. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ includes loveable characters that each have their own unique personalities. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ also includes mystery and love, which makes it enjoyable. Although it’s not realistic, it’s still a really good read because of how the characters grow and develop throughout. Erin Collazo Miller’s book review on ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is right about all of these things mentioned.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd features an allusion at the start of each chapter, each one mentioning a queen bee. Throughout the exposition, it is believed the queen bee mentioned would be a symbol for Lily's mother, but as the plot progresses, many more motherly figures begin to fit into this description of queen bee. Our Lady of Chains can be seen as the queen bee of the novel, as the Boatwright sisters, Rosaleen, and Lily can all relate to her in some form. They are all trying to escape from something, the Boatwright sisters and Rosaleen are trying to escape the harsh rasicm seen in this time period and Lily is attempting to escape her past. The allusion in chapter six writes, "The queen must produce some substance that attracts

"New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first locating her circle of attendants." (57) This quote is at the beginning of chapter three and not only foreshadows many things to come, but within the quote, two of the novel’s main metaphors are mentioned, bees and the queen, which is referring to society and a mother figure. Although this quote is largely interpreted as a metaphor for Lily looking for a new queen or mother figure, and perhaps August being that mother, I believe that it has another meaning as well. I believe that the Black Madonna also serves as a “queen” and mother figure to all the women in “The Secret Life of Bees.”

In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the symbolism of the color blue as Lily uses her favorite color to judge whether a person truly loves her. Lily believes that for someone to truly love her, they must know the most trivial detail of her: the color blue. For example, Lily, in an argument with her father, blatantly asks her father if he knows her favorite color. Although one would expect a father to know such fact, Terrence, her father, does not know Lily’s favorite color and questions why this has such importance. The color blue represents a fatherly and motherly love that Lily obviously lacks; due to her lack of love, Lily decides to run away and to find a new roof. Furthermore, Lily escapes to Tiburon, a place her deceased

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 Secret Life Of Bees, written by American writer Sue Monk Kidd, is a Historical Fiction novel written in 1964. Lily is the protagonist of the novel and she faces many hardships throughout her childhood as she is left on her own to go and find her mother, she meets a group of black women who call themselves the Daughters of Mary that comfort her in her troubles with them she finds solace in a religious figure called the Black Madonna that she says is seen as Strength, Spirituality, and Motherhood. Throughout Secret Life Of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd uses symbolism to show the theme of the positive power of a symbolic figure in a person's life. Firstly, The Black Madonna is a religious figure that can be described as bringing strength and self empowerment.

Imagine a play cast. Include everyone, the crew and actors. A feeling of unity pulses through the air right before the show begins. There is a sense of harmony and solidarity. This community is a feeling Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd never knows until she is 14. The Secret Life of Bees takes place in the 1960’s in Virginia. It focuses on Lily, a young girl with dreams of finding out about her dead mother. Eventually, she runs away from her abusive father T. Ray. Her heart takes her to the Boatwright sisters, three African-American women who take her in. There Lily learns about the abilities of a group of women and their healing power. That nurturing force is symbolized by the Black

Megan Guenther English IV Final Exam Benoit/Sandler June 9th, 2016 The Strength of Female Community Everyone needs a mother. No one said a mother needs to be biological. In the book The Secret Life Of Bees it shows how important femininity is and how powerful it can be.

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

The Importance of Family     In almost every circumstance, one relies on those who came before them. Whether it is a human, dog, or even a bee, loyalty is a key point in one’s life. Throughout The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, the motif of bees is often mentioned as an important part of Lily’s life. Even when she travels away from home and moves in with the Calendar sisters, bees are an important part of her life. Her new mother figure, August Boatwright, explains to her the importance of a bee colony, and how bees make the world a better place.

I can relate to the strong friendship in The Secret Life of Bees because I personally have friends who are like the Boatwright sisters. These girls took Lily and Rosaleen under their wing and treated them like family. Only truly good people do things like that for others with nothing in return. Even with the racial separation they let Lily learn about her mother. My friends would do anything for me if I was in the same situation. This story teaches you about true friendship and how there might be some ups and down in life but all you need is friends to get through it.

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

All Lily knew for certain was her mother was gone, so all she was left with was her abusive father T. Ray.  Lily explains “T.Ray because “Daddy” never fit him” (2).  After years of making her kneel on grits, being slapped around and screamed at, one day Lily got into an argument with her father about her mother not caring about her when Lily heard a voice “Lilly Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). That afternoon Lily decides she has had enough with T. Ray and it was time for her to leave. The author shows that Lily had it up to here with her father and knew that she deserved better than she was being treated and was ready to persevere through more obstacles in the future. Another character that shows great perseverance throughout the novel is August Boatwright.  August is a middle-aged African American woman who lives in Tiburon, South Carolina with her sisters May and June.  August chose at a young age not to get married because that would mean she would be giving up her independence.  Lily explains, after knowing August for some time, “all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured” (78). Here the writer

The character from the novel, The Secret Life of Bees that the author Sue Monk Kidd makes me admire most would be August Boatwright. She grew up and worked as a housekeeper for Deborah’s family and helped raise her like she did with Lily. She then went to college to become educated to teach history at a colored school for six years. She decided to follow her passion and join the family business of starting her own beekeeping business. August continuously refers to the beehive and its ways of operating as a metaphor for various aspects of life throughout the story.

The essence of the relationship between a mother and child is a mutual ascendency in regards to identity. Children are subject to an instinctive longing for a mother. It is the mother’s influence that guides them in their process of discovering all the realities the world posses and in that processing discerning their identity. Conversely when a woman becomes a mother the presence of her child causes her to evaluate and develop her identity under the pretense of motherhood. Paula Nicolson touches on the value of both these scenarios in her article “Motherhood and Women’s Lives” where she expresses how the mother child relationship gives the pretense for both parties to find their authentic identities (Nicolson). Sue Monk Kidd evaluates the