Secret service

“Look at me. I dive into one absurd thing after another, and here I am in the pink house.” (431). These are the words of Lily Owens in the novel The Secret Life of Bees which was written by Sue Monk Kidd. The story is about a fourteen-year-old girl named Lily who lives on a peach farm in South Carolina with her abusive father, T.Ray. Throughout the novel, Lily had shaped her life around her mother’s death. Searching for answers about her mother, Lily, and her mother-like figure Rosaleen escaped to

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

“My parents always thought about themselves, never about me.” This meaningful quote said by Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden relates to every main protagonist. In The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox is one of the main protagonists who is an orphan from India. Her parents were killed so she was forced to go live with her uncle in Yorkshire, England. She has grown up taking care of herself and nobody else since her parents did not care about her. When she gets to England, she learns to take care of other

Haunted by the her own memories, Lily Owens finds comfort in the humming of the bees. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd writes about the life of young girl whose spontaneous decisions lead her to her mother’s past. Lily’s life has revolved around the lack of a mother. Her father, T. Ray, is a harsh and unloving peach farmer who punishes Lily unreasonably and does not fulfil his father like position. Lily’s adventure begins after catching a few bees in a jar. She empathizes with

Reading Response – Kaitlyn Baker The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd The biggest pull factor that brought me to reading ‘The Secret Life of Bees,’ is the fact that it is set in a time when racial separation was very much still alive in America. So when I began my journey on reading the novel, it was quickly clear that I was going to thoroughly enjoy it. The story follows a young white girl, Lily, whose life revolves around unravelling the faded memory of her killing her mother, and her new life

American literature is an important part of literature for the modern student. This type of literature is relatable to students throughout the United States, and gives advice through different time periods in American history. The novel The Secret Life of Bees focuses on a young girl by the name of Lily Owens whose life revolves around that fact that she accidently shot her mother when she was only four years old. Lily’s “stand-in-mother” Rosaleen is her only real friend, and when she insults a group

“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

In 1960 the Civil Right Act occurred which allowed African-Americans more rights in return this return more attention to racism. American Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees suggests that accepting taboo actions does not necessarily compromises a person’s moral compass and can lead to an awareness and understanding of the world. In the first couple of chapters we see Roseleen, an African-American servant standing up to a group of white guys. “Rosaleen lifted her snuff which was filled with

In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens struggles with the notion that she killed her mother and has to live with her abusive, neglectful father, T-Ray. Throughout, Lily searches for information about her mother and why she left her. Unexpectedly, she stumbles upon new mother figures that play an important role in changing Lily to the person she is in later. The typical sequence of a hero’s journey includes a departure, initiation and trials, and reintegration

The Secret Life of Bees Not everyone in the world has a perfect family and may experience certain events in childhood that can affect the way they see and how they display themselves. Motherless Lily lives unhappily with her emotionally detached father, who claims that as a child, Lily accidently killed her mother. “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you” (299). After hearing this and helping break her only friend and black caretaker, Rosaleen out of jail, the two runaway