A young girl, who killed her mother and wants to know more about her, changes the 14 year old’s life for a long period of time. In the novel, Lily has lived with some heavy burdens on her shoulders. She has to overcome these things and tell the truth even if she doesn’t want to. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, “The Secret Life of Bees,” Lily has a coming of age moment when she tells August the truth about everything. She decides to tell August the truth as shown through these things: telling her she is unlovable, how she was angry with what she heard, getting the items she has had. Lily has a coming of age moment when she realizes she is loved. “You are unlovable, Lily Owens.Unlovable. Who could love you? Who in this world could ever love you?”(Kidd 242). The voice inside her head was telling her things that she started to believe. She had no idea that she was wrong and so were the voices. “I am unlovable.”(Kidd 242). She said this out loud while talking to August. August goes on to tell her that she has no idea what she’s talking about. She gives all the reasons why she is lying to herself. After all this, Lily ends up realizing she is loved and is thankful for August. …show more content…
“I know, Honey. Your mother was Deborah Fontanel Owens.” (Kidd 236). This shocked Lily because she was not expecting to hear that from August. She was choked up and could not find any words because it was so sudden. “You knew she was my mother all along.” (Kidd 235). She was upset and angry with what she had just heard. Lily was feeling like she had been betrayed by the ones she thought would not lie to her. Meanwhile, Lily had been lying to them. Overall, she heard some things she could not believe and was angry but kept talking and figured everything
Lily expresses how the holy sculpture made her hate and love herself,
Lily had given up, she lived her entire life with the idea that her mother
Lily’s idolization of her mother is shown in how she describes Deborah’s belongings. A photo, which she see’s her mother's beautiful, gloves that Lily holds as if it were actually hers, and a photo of the black Mary which she keeps close. Right before Lily finds out T. Ray was right in saying Deborah left them Lily says she never believed him and she wants to prove him wrong. Characters with flaws are a lot more sympathetic and likeable to the reader instead of the perfect flawless unrealistic ones. Kidd got the reader to understand these flaws with how August tried to explain the situation to Lily, “All she did was cry for a week.
In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.
Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up.
Lily leaves the person who makes her life miserable, her father, and finds a new family full of goodness and love. Her desertion of the old life she had lets her have happiness. It is not too often that being rebellious and unlawful will lead to greater joy and a true family, but this novel illustrates the idea that there will be times when you must look at the big picture of life. In certain cases you will have to solve problems and follow your heart. You have to work at having a good life, and whatever is required to make that happen should be a
Easier said than done, Lily questions what it truly means to analyze a toxic relationship from the outside. As emotions are high, Lily truly begins to think about the common factors of abuse and questions why the victim is to be blamed for staying instead of the fact that the abuser is taking advantage of the victim's emotions. What people don't tend to realize is, “The number of people affected is astronomical. Emotional abuse is
Her mother died when she was 4, and Lily was the one to kill her. Her dad, T-Ray, was a terrible parent to her too, because he hit her. She also have to live with the guilt that she ended her mother’s life. “There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.” a quote by August, page 50.
The Cellar by Natasha Preston is about 16 year old girl named Summer who is the main character in the story. In Summer’s small town where there is no excitement ,something finally happens and it involves Summer. On one night Summer was kidnapped and was took to a cellar and to her surprise she isn’t the only one. Along with three other girls named Rose,Poppy,and Violet, who have been down in the cellar. All four of the girls know one thing they have to survive and that is to stay alive.
“ ‘She’s your mother.’ ‘I said I don’t want to see her.’ His voice was rising. ‘She’s
Lily barely knew her own mother, and T. Ray, her father, abuses her and could care less. Lily gets to experience the parent-child love from Rosaleen. Kidd asserts that the interaction between different races can lead to loving
She starts off talking about what she looks like and how she acts, then eventually the girl starts to accept herself. It takes the girl a while to get to the point of acceptance, there is many obstacles she has to get through. First there is her fake funeral, then her grandmother, and father died. “My grandmother died, then my father.” (Norton 227).
In “The Cellar” by Natasha Preston is about a 16 year old girl named Summer Robinson. She lives a fairly good life, and nothing extraordinary has ever happened. The setting takes place in present time in a small town called Long Thorpe but mostly in a cellar. A community where nothing bad really takes place, until young Summer is alone is taken. She is brought to a different aspect of a new yet drastic life of thriller.
In the story, Kidd’s use of characterization successfully reveals the theme that people's lives are more complex than they appear. Kidd demonstrates this theme using the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah. One character that Sue Monk Kidd uses to portray the theme, is the main character Lily. In the beginning of the story, the author shows that Lily can be both mature and immature at times. An example of her maturity in the text is when she says, “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).
and she knows that. She had “yellow eyes, pink teeth, red fingernails, and dark hair on her arms and chest” (225). The doctors called her a “Freak of nature”, and they thought that she couldn’t hear them because of the “mewing” she did. (225) Just hearing that I am sure made her feel even worse than she had before. It wasn’t hard to see that she was different.