Examples Of Social Issues In The Secret Life Of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees Essay “Parents aren’t the people you come from. They’re the people you want to be, when you grow up. ”-Jodie Picoult. Parents are the people who are there for their children and who children look up to.

They were both African-American, and they helped Lily grow out of the ignorance of racism in the world. May was very emotional, and she reminded Lily of Deborah because Lily remembers seeing her mother feeding marshmallows and graham crackers to cockroaches to lead them out of the house, and May did that too. Lily thinks that May might have known Deborah and taught her that trick. At first, June was reluctant to have Lily stay at their house because she was white. “‘But she’s white, August’” (87), June said, nervous to have Lily in the house.

At this stage, Lily has really own known one African American: Rosaleen. While she cares for Rosaleen, maybe even loves her, Lily still sees Rosaleen is a domestic figure—as a woman who fits into the stereotypical role of a southern, uneducated housekeeper. Later, readers learn that August once worked as a housekeeper as well, but like Lily readers learn that August chose another life for herself. Lily believes that people have set roles, which they cannot transcend: black women work as housekeepers, black men do not become lawyers, and poor white women like Lily go to beauty

The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Kidd, follows Lily Owens as she faces life’s continuous ups and downs. Lily’s troubled life at home plays a significant role in how she develops throughout the story. After Lily unintentionally kills her mother when she is young, her father T-Ray becomes both physically and emotionally abusive towards her. Since her mother’s death, she was mainly cared for by her maid, Rosaleen. Despite Lily's decision to run away from her father with Rosaleen and to leave behind the only family she had ever known, she learns what family really means when she meets the three sisters.

The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Kidd, follows the personal growth of its main protagonist, Lily Owens, as she faces life’s continuous ups and downs. Lily’s family life played a huge role in how she developed throughout the story. After the accidental death of her mother, her father T-Ray became abusive to her both physically and emotionally. She was mainly cared for by her maid, Rosaleen. Although Lily’s decision to run away with Rosaleen meant that she would leave the only family she had known, she gained a true sense of family.

Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.

In the Bildungsroman, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily, the young motherless protagonist, exists in a life which lacks love and care, but with an act of rebellion, alters the entire course of her life. After enduring cruel punishments from a sadist father, Lily accepts this as the way of life she must live. However, after a crucial moment, Lily begins to consider the idea of freedom from her oppressive life; she realizes this when she and Rosaleen, her substitute mother, come under arrest for disrupting the public and Terrence, her father, would only take Lily out of jail. This is a pivotal moment as Lily a heated conversation with her father and exclaims, “You don’t scare me”(Kidd 38). Her brash action to rebel against her father

A New Family: Interracial Relationships and Religion in The Secret Life of Bees In such a diverse world where different races come together and interact, the early 1960s reveal society’s surprised reaction to these relationships. Interracial relationships are strongly frowned upon during this time, almost as if they are illegal. Fortunately, over time, people begin to accept those with different backgrounds and can easily communicate with each other. Hardships are still present today, but society in moving in a better direction.

The character of Lily Owens evolves and changes as any young woman would throughout the course of her life. Lily begins the book as an insecure, detached, and unaware teenage girl. We see how Lily changed into a wise young woman as she solves the mystery of her mother’s life. Towards the end of the book Lily transforms into a young woman who is much more confident, happier, and vicarious. Lily has learned about love and biases.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a novel about Lily, who runs away from home to Tiburon, after she and Rosaleen, her “stand-in mom” were arrested. Lily killed her mother at a young age, and she feels guilty about it. When Lily and Rosaleen are at Tiburon, Lily finds a picture of The Black Madonna at a store, which was the same picture that Lily’s mom had. This leads them to a pink house, where they meet August, June, and May. August is the oldest and is seen as the leader of the house. Before each chapter of the novel, there is a quote.

“A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love” (Connie May Fowler). This quote reflects the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd because the protagonist in the story, Lily Owens, her mother have died when she was four years old and she didn’t feel loved by her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, until she met the Boatwrights family with the housekeeper, Rosaleen, and stayed with them. The Boatwrights family are the three black sisters who are August, May, and June. This novel took place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily grew up and where she found the answer to her questions.

Although Lily did suffer a great loss from losing her mom, she gained so much more with the love and support that the Boatwrights and their group gave her. She has gained friends, someone to look up to, and the sense of family from all of them. Without the loss of her mom and the abuse of her dad she would never of gotten the experience of such powerful female role models and a new

Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.

She has grown up without a maternal figure and only a callous father who abuses her. Therefore, she has never grown up to be the woman she was meant to be. In the middle of Chapter One, Lily demonstrates her immaturity by needing to somehow prove that bees were in her room when T-Ray doesn’t believe her. When Rosaleen, the African American worker in T-Ray’s house, is arrested because she stood up for herself when racist white men fought with her when she tried to vote.

At first, Lily faced discrimination from June, August's younger sister. Through this, Kidd stresses that prejudice is not always one-way. In the 1960s, and today, people developed grudges against each other based on race. June's position towards the beginning of Lily's stay is best described as hostile, but with time, she comes to accept Lily and apologizes for her behavior. Although at this point in the novel Lily didn't fight to do something about the racism around her, she soon developed into a more active person, one who tried to demonstrate