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. In chapter six, the quote “The queen must produce some substance that attracts the workers and that can be obtained from her only by direct contact. This substance evidently stimulates the normal …show more content…
‘That’s a terrible, terrible thing for you to live with. But you’re not unlovable. Even if you did accidentally kill her, you are still the most dear, lovable girl I know. Why Rosaleen loves you. May loved you. It doesn’t take a wizard to see Zach loves you. And every one of the Daughters loves you” (Kidd 242). August makes Lily feel better and clears her conscience about her mother. Later in the story, Lily gets confirmation she did kill her mother from T-Ray, but, because August talked to Lily, she was not completely distraught. In conclusion, August impacts Lily in a good way and helps her with her mom. Lastly, August gives Lily a new perspective on Deborah, her mother. When Lily encounters the three sisters, she lies about who she is out of fear that they would know her mother. One of the sisters, May, confirms this when Lily asks if she knew Deborah. Later on in the story, August has a talk with Lily and reveals that she knows who Lily is. Lily finds out that Deborah did run away, and Lily becomes angry. “I’d spent my life imagining all the ways she’d loved me, what a perfect specimen of a mother she was. And all of it was lies. I had completely made her
The Secret Life of Bees By: Sue Monk Kidd 1. Character List Lilly Owens is the main characters, narrator and the protagonist of this novel. She is fourteen years old and lives on a peach farm in Sylvan, South Carolina with her father who she calls T-Ray because they are not close and “daddy never fit him”. She also lives with their housekeeper Rosaleen. Throughout most of the novel, Lilly believes that she killed her mother when she was four years old during an argument between her and her father.
This gesture, or answer, just causes Lily to continue to form her doubt about her mother. She is still refusing to believe what TRay had told her but having Rosaleen consider the likelihood of it just makes it even worse. Rosaleen is like a mother to Lily, and having her side with TRay -her worst enemy- just breaks the boundary of what she first thought of her biological mother. Her only option now is just to refuse those ideas until she finds want she wants to hear, and that takes her to Tiburon, South
She provides a sense of comfort which helps Lily to open up and be truthful through it all, “ ‘He said she left me, that she left both of us and ran away.’ A wall of glass broke in my chest, a wall I didn’t even know was there. August slid up to the edge of her chair and opened her arms, the way she’d opened them to June that day they’d found May’s suicide
The relationship of Lily, her mother, and father revolved around the classic roles of positive and negative characters. Most Importantly, Lily embodies the positive character traits
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.
The novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd follows Lily, a white girl, after running away with Rosaleen, a black woman, to the Boatwright house. During the story, the insight that we should find love becomes increasingly obvious. To begin, we should find love because it builds resilience. Having the love of others helps in staying resolute during hardships. Toward the beginning of the book, Rosaleen tries to register to vote and ends up going to jail.
Some examples of her kindness and generosity is when she allows rosaleen and lily stay at their house in return for work. August of course made sure the work wasn’t hard and she made it fun. I think I relate to August the most because she is gentle yet tough and that’s how i am. I dislike all the other characters in this story. The reason is that they all more con’s than pro’s.
Along foreshadowing, the bee quotes helped show the similarities between the bee and human society. I believe Sue Monk Kidd included these quotes to compare similar aspects of both the life of bees and humans, as well as give the readers a deeper and better understanding of the chapters’ meanings. The plot of “The Secret Life of the Bees” almost mirrors the society of bees, and allows the reader a glimpse of how the bees’ culture could have many affects on the human culture. The quotes supplied the readers with factual information about bees so the readers won’t be confused while reading each chapter. Though there were many great bee quotes throughout the book, the quote that stood out the most to me was the one on page 189: “A bee’s life is
The Secret Life Of Bees, is the first novel of Sue Monk Kidd and it received many awards such as the 2002 Orange Prize in England. This novel was adapted for the stage as well as for the screen. It won the People's choice Award and the NAACP image award for the best picture,2008.(suemonkkidd.com) This realistic fiction novel takes place in rural South Carolina in 1964. A motherless Lily lives with her abusive father and wants to know about her mother’s life.
In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, I related to the character Lily Owens right at chapter one. In the first chapter of this novel, Lily was describing herself as a visual for readers. While Lily was briefly explaining her physical appearance, the line, “…Even the boys who wore their hair in ducktails dripping with Vitalis and carried combs in their shirt pockets didn’t seem to attracted to me, and they were considered hard up” (Monk Kidd 9), relates to many young girls. I, as a teenager, criticize myself very harshly just because a boy may not like me and that is what Lily is doing in this passage. I feel that Lily feeling this type of way and expressing it helped me to connect to her right from the beginning and put myself into her shoes
“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.
Lily looks to the Virgin Mary for guidance and comfort, trusting in her goodness and loving presence. Lily's spiritual bond with the Black Madonna serves as a conduit for her inner change, helping her to discover forgiveness, love, and redemption inside
In the novel “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens takes a risk; a risk that makes lies turn into the truth of a honey bee– a truth that stings worse than a wasp. From the belongings of Lily’s mother, Lily and Rosaleen Daise find a photo of a Black Madonna– the mascot of the Boatwright’s honey business. This was the start of Lily’s discovery journey. After abandoning Lily’s abusive dad, they venture off into the Boatwright’s residence; lying about their identities to learn about the truth. After a few months, Lily confesses to August Boatwright; “‘Remember when…’ I said.
Throughout Lily’s life, she had encountered a lot of harsh punishments, feeling unloved and not appreciated. Finally, after years of torment and pain, she finally found a lady named August who knew Lily’s mother very well. August actually helped Deborah many different times in life. Lily even opened up her eyes to things that she wouldn’t of before. She realized that people of different race are equal to the whites, even though her whole life she was taught different.
Two of her sisters have this problem and it has genuinely affected August for better or worse. Lily’s father, T-Ray, deals with his mental illness by using violence and taking his anger out on Lily because of what happened with his wife Deborah. This causes Lily to feel unloved by her father. In the beginning of the story, Lily runs away from home to escape her tragic life with T. Ray.