Who Is Rosaleen In The Secret Life Of Bees

(TS) In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens does not have an empathetic relationship with her parents as a result of the loss of her mother and an abusive father; however, Lily gains a new family figure, August Boatwright, who shows her the true empathy that is present between a parent and their child. (PS) Lily Owens’s absence of a mother and a “real” father causes Lily not to have a relationship with her parents that is filled with affection for one another. (SS) When Lily lost her mother, Deborah Fontell, she was told that she had shot and killed Deborah. (SS) Lily would say, “I would meet her saying, ‘Mother forgive. Please forgive,’” and she would kiss my skin till I grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame”

Lily shows her non-racist side in the very beginning of the book, after Rosaleen has been put in jail for spitting on a very racist white man’s shoe. She willingly sneaks into jail and attempts to free Rosaleen, but gets sent home with the racist and mean father, T. Ray. She once again tries to free Rosaleen, and this time sneaks into a hospital to free her. Lily is successful this time, and runs away with Rosaleen.

Rosaleen’s Character in The Secret Life of Bees There are many important characters in The Secret Life of Bees that help Lily on her journey to find out about her mother. “Side characters” such as Zach, August, May, June, and Rosaleen, all help Lily to grow and change and to learn more about her past and her mother's past. Rosaleen is an important character in the story, she acts in as Lily’s stand-in mother before she runs away with Rosaleen to Tiburon. At Tiburon she stays with Lily in the honey house for most of the time while they try to survive together, and after a while Rosaleen is show to be less of a mother and more of a friend to Lily, sticking by her side through thick and thin. Rosaleen is mainly important because of the lessons she taught Lily about racism in the real world and dealing with problems.

In life in general, every single human being needs a mother, even if they do not share the same skin color, circumstance, or even any biological connection. All an individual needs is an maternal touch from another. Even though Rosaleen acts as a mother when caring and raising Lily, Rosaleen’s rambunctious and somewhat crass personality prevents the motherly bond between Rosaleen and Lily. However, August Boatwright, a beekeeper from South Carolina grants Lily with the “mother’s love” that she had never received before that day. August gave Lily firm guidance when wandering through the darkness of her past, complete understanding and encouragement when faced with challenges, and criticized when needed. Early in the novel, Lily states “You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair...” (3). Yet, August presents Lily with wisdom rather than brushing Lily’s hair, teaching her about boys and dating, and so forth. “You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside” (306). For August, the typical motherly love that she exhibits is the one supplied by the Virgin Mary, the mother of God. August shows Lily the undying love that can exist everywhere but can only be made and seen by the Virgin Mary. “This is the autumn of

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

Through use of indirect characterization, Lily’s words and actions reveal a pivotal part of her character: her clever intelligence. This first becomes evident after her African American friend, Rosaleen, spills a cup of her snuff spit on the shoes of a racist white man that was provoking her. The minister at her church is

In addition to the Black Mary, Rosaleen showers Lily with love and support. Rosaleen treats Lily like she is her own daughter. Rosaleen accepts the way Lily is and has faith in her. "'Here you go. Happy Birthday" (28). Rosaleen cares about Lily and knows when something is important to her, like her Birthday. Lily never gets anything from T-Ray on her Birthday, but Rosaleen cares so much about her that she still gets Lily something. Rosaleen can tell when Lily is in pain or is sad like most mothers can. "'Well why don't we sit down on the side of the road awhile?'" (28). Rosaleen acknowledges the fact that Lily feels upset, and is comfortable expressing the need to rest and relax. Since Lily has known Rosaleen a long time she is comfortable expressing herself around Rosaleen and knows that Rosaleen will listen to her problems and insecurities. "'I was the only one who knew that despite her sharp ways, her heart was more tender than a flower skin and she loved me beyond reason'" (11). Rosaleen and Lily have a connection that most mothers and daughters have. They care

In addition, after Lily’s liberation from T. Ray, another character pushed Lily to make a choice without even saying a word to her and that character was Lily’s mother, Deborah, who was dead and yet she still guided Lily to her next destination. Deborah’s largest contribution to Lily’s life was leaving behind a trail of love for Lily to follow, giving Lily someplace to go when she had no home. Lily immediately knows where to go after leaving her father's trammel, for she finds a picture of Deborah in Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily’s eagerness to learn more about her mother urges her to travel to Tiburon. Lily reveals her desperation on finding out more about her mother’s love towards her when she said, “ Well, think about it. She must have been there some time in her life to have owned this picture. And if she was, a person might remember her, you never know” (Kidd 51). Lily’s voice held a sense of hope as she believed that there was something in

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.

Lily and Rosaleen are both fighting and seeking a better life that doesn’t involve cruelty. What really got them moving out of the town they are living in is the danger they would face if Rosaleen got caught escaping from jail. Lily said to Rosaleen,

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.

In view of that, relationships between characters in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ are clearly similar and different to ‘The Secret of Bees’. Lily explains her relationship by saying, “Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy– who I called T. Ray because ‘Daddy’ never fit him” (2). This quotation from ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is by Lily, narrating her relationship with Rosaleen and T. Ray. Rosaleen treats Lily like her daughter as she compliments Lily and gives advice on her decision of fashion school. Comparatively, when Lily tells her father T. Ray about the swarm of bees in her room, T. Ray does not believe her daughter and instead threatens punishment. This quote states Rosaleen genuinely cares for Lily as she thinks for her best while T. Ray does not treat her own

Lily once was walking with Rosaleen. Three men made comments to Lily about her race. One of the men asked “Where are you going?” and Rosaleen responded “I’m going to register my name so I could vote.” (Kidd 31). Her wit was of much help to Lily in a situation such as that. Lily urged to just keep walking while Rosaleen was determined to put the men in their places. Rosaleen also watched the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and exclaimed with excitement for civil rights. Not only did Rosaleen support Lily, but in addition, she supported all of Lily’s community as well. Rosaleen is not related to Lily by blood, but typifies a caring and loving attitude towards another individual.

Instead of relying on another power that is above her, she takes her fate into her own hands and tries to save her own home. This self reliance develops early, and can also be seen much later in her life. When she is twenty-seven, Lily learns that her husband has a secret second family. She leaves him immediately and manages to annul the marriage. Although he had taken all of her money from their joint bank account, she does not go back to her parents in Arizona or try to find another husband to take care of her. Instead, she begins preparing for her future alone. “Since I obviously couldn't count on a man to take care of me, what I needed more than ever was a profession. I needed to get my college education and become a teacher . . . the time flew by, and when both the dispensation and the acceptance letter arrived, I had enough money for a year of college” (p. 90). Instead of wondering what to do and moping about her ex-husband, Lily is practical and knows what she wants to do next. She also mentions that she cannot depend on a husband to take care of her. If she did not have to fend for