In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd’s focuses on prejudice through descriptive comparison and a shift in tone to reveal the harsh and racist standards of the society in the book. In doing so, Kidd describes the racial prejudice that those of a minority has faced due to the majority’s biases and ignorance. In the novel, our main character, Lily Owens, runs away from home with Rosaleen and lives with the Boatwright sisters in Tiburon, South Carolina. The Boatwright sisters, however, are colored women and Lily is a young, white female. One of the sisters, August, sparks her interest and Lily describes her as “so intelligent [and is] so cultured” (Kidd 78). As Lily thinks to herself, she explains her father’s prejudice against colored women …show more content…
Zach explains his interest in Lily as well, and shows his affection by giving Lily a beautiful notebook, since he knows of her deep love for writing. During this scene, Kidd creates a loving and compassionate tone by explaining the actions the two does after the notebook exchange. Lily is gleeful and appreciative of Zach’s kind gesture and “[throws her] arms around him and [leans] into his chest” and Zach bashfully responds to this sudden action by “[folding his arms] around [Lily]” (Kidd 135). The two stands there, “in a true embrace” (Kidd 135). However, this tone shifts and becomes into one of sadness and sorrow. After their sweet moment, Zach explains his feelings to Lily and confesses his true emotions. Zach states that he likes her “better than any girl [that he knows], but [she] has to understand, that there are people who [will] kill boys like [him] for even looking at girls like [her]” (Kidd 135). Kidd changes the tone dramatically by stating the dark truth to their forbidden relationship, using sorrowful phrases such as “kill boys like [him]” (Kidd 135). In doing so, it allows the readers to sympathize with the couple’s story of loving and longing for someone, but being torn apart due to society’s cruel and judgemental standards. This scene reflects society’s racial standards and sees interracial relationships and marriages as shameful, since Zach explicitly states that colored men will die for even looking at white women in a romantic way. Lily responds to Zach’s statement and apologizes for her behavior, but as the novel progresses, so will their feelings for each other. Kidd utilizes the shift in tone to convey Lily’s love and adoration for Zach and vice versa, but sullenly explains how both are unable to publicly display their affections. Given these points have been noted, Kidd’s use of descriptive comparison and a shift in
Despite the racial issues during this time period, Zach and Lily should continue to develop their relationship. Even though Zach is an African American, Lily is non-discriminative towards Zach and remains to have feelings for him. As Lily continues to spend time with him, she starts to feel things that she didn’t expect to feel before, "It was foolish to think some things were beyond happening, even being attracted to Negroes." Although Lily is attracted to Zach, she is disappointed to think that she is unable to pursue their relationship. If Lily decided she wanted to be with Zach, she would be risking getting them both into trouble. Because of segregation, it was considered wrong to be in an interracial relationship. Since Lily was young,
Prejudice is something everyone has inside themselves. It can be buried deep or right beneath the surface, intentional or unintentional, big or small. An individual’s surroundings are a always factor in determining prejudice, but in the end, letting those preconceptions cloud their vision is up to them. The Secret Life of Bees delves deeper into this problem. The book takes place in the 1960’s, a time where racism against black men, women, and children runs rampant throughout America. The main character, Lily, is a young white girl who was raised in South Carolina. The book captures her journey of overcoming her own prejudices with the help of her friends and family. She was unknowingly bias due to growing up in a town where racism against blacks was normal, but realized the truth and changes after living with the Boatwright sisters. In The Secret Life Bees, Sue Monk Kidd uses the character of Lily to illustrate the struggles of discovering and overcoming her deep-rooted prejudice
The irrationality of racism is an increasingly present issue in the modern world, history, and in the novel The Secret Life of Bees. While taking place in the 1960s, the book includes many problems between those of the white and black communities, one of which being the irrational way in which African Americans were treated by their white peers. The irrationality of racism is the ridiculous or unreasonable oppression of another race. Sue Monk Kidd develops this theme into a strong, central message throughout her novel, The Secret Life of Bees.
In the novel The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Lily, a 14 year old girl experiences racism for the first time, an encounter that many young people came to know in 1960’s America and an encounter that many people still face today.
In Sue Monk Kidds The Secret Life of Bees, the main character runs away from home, to get away from her father. Her mother died when she was little and she was told she had a part of her death. She finds a picture of her mother and a town name is mentioned on the back of it. This is where she runs off to to find more about her mother. Lily the main character realizes that racism has a big impact in her life through the relationships with the boatwright sisters, when she runs away to Tiburon. In the beginning Lily is very oblivious to racism in and around her life. During her time in Tiburon Lily experiences herself being a minority and in the beginning she has trouble coping with it. In the end she realizes the impact of racism
Rosa Parks. Emmett Till. Martin Luther King Jr. All three of these people played a significant role in the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law was just passed when Lily Owens, a fair-skinned girl from South Carolina, turned 14. But as she found out, not everybody will abide by it. When one of the workers from her father’s peach farm, Rosaleen, tries to register to vote, she gets in trouble with the biggest white supremacist in town. When Lily and Rosaleen run away, they find safety in a beekeeper’s house in Tiburon. There, she’ll discover things she never knew about her past, herself, and what it means to be loved. Just as Lily uncovered layers of her life, there are also many layers to the novel as a whole. The surface, thematic, symbolic, historical, religious, and literary layers all add important insight into the characters and plot of the story that we might have not seen otherwise. In this essay, all be explaining how the symbolic, thematic, and religious layers affected Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.
Both the poem and the article have a significant connection with “The Secret Life of Bees”. Both deal with racial segregation. In the novel, The Boatwright sisters were discriminated many a time because they were African-American. I know this, because when T. Ray comes to retrieve Lily, he says, “‘So you’ve been here the whole time, staying with coloured women. Jesus Christ’” (Kidd 291). This tells me that T. Ray has a deep resentment for people of colour. He believes that Lily shouldn’t be surrounded by people who are black; or even probably any race, for that matter. This profoundly relates to the article. In the reading, Moore Campbell portrays Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s tribulations on entering her first year in a predominantly white college
Even 100 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in southern states still lived in an unequal world full of segregation and various forms of oppression. Sue Monk Kidd is an American novelist who personally witnessed the brutal cruelty of racism while growing up in the south in 1964. She explains that her novel, “The Secret Life of Bees,” was a way to “give redemption” towards the African Americans she grew up with. The protagonist of the novel, Lily is a 14 year old girl who struggles between following the stereotypes of the south, and listening to her own moral compass. Growing up in South Carolina in 1964, Lily is exposed to racism and ignorance, which cause her to question the social standings
In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the characters go through the struggles of discrimination and racism. In the beginning, Rosaleen offends some of the biggest racists in town and they end up running away to the calendar sisters, that neither of them knew anything about. In the end the become close friends and even end up living with them. Rosaleen is a major character in this novel. She has been Lily’s (the main character) nanny for since Lily was born. Throughout the novel, it shows how much closer they become. At the start she was awful at comforting others but by the end she is able to understand emotion is very good for Lily and the other characters.
The act of racial discrimination impacts innocent people's lives in numerous, negative ways; hence why multiple people, worldwide can not tolerate racism and discrimination. The novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, displays a wide range of scenarios where racism results in suffering. Rosaleen, a black woman, will never forget how the three white men negatively impacted her life; she will remain scarred unto death. Also, ever since the racial incident involving April and her twin, May, pain was constantly accompanying April; consequently, she committed suicide. Finally, when May lost her twin, April, May endured all the various sufferings of the world, including racial discrimination. Based on this
In The Secret Life of Bees the most prominent theme is racism and prejudice because of the relation it has to the current world issues. The novel displays racism and prejudice very clearly so that the reader can imagine what it must have been like. The year that the novel takes place, 1964, is a major contributor to the validation of the way racism is portrayed. In the South, where the novel takes place, racism is still poignant today, while not as noticeable and less accepted as well as less admitted the reader can see why it would have been a problem back then. One can also see the segregation in society that is obvious to anyone and thoughtlessly accepted. These points provide vital information to understanding of the main characters, Rosaleen.
In the novel The Secret Life of Bees written by sue Monk Kidd, it discusses the big idea of taking risks and the overall picture of racism in a certain community. It all begins with Lily; the main character, being told by her father that she killed her mother when she was just a little kid. This is something that she has had to live with all her life. As a “fill-in mother” she has their house maid. She is an African-American woman known as Rosaleen. She has become Lily’s mother and has helped her to grow and become who she really is. Along with that, she doesn’t feel comfortable calling her father “dad,” so she calls him T. Ray. All that he has to give to Lily is a picture that her mother once had, this is what gives her the idea to run away to find this place. Meanwhile, when Rosaleen had insulted some white men, she got thrown in jail and Lily had to go home to figure out what she was going to do next. She came up with a plan. This is what she did, she went to the jail and snuck Rosaleen out, then the both of them ran. They were
It is extremely important to have acurate facts in a historical fiction novel such as The Secret Life of Bees because it helps the reader to not only learn more about the time period, but it adds to the plausability of the story. For instance, in The Secret Life of Bees the issues of racism in the south during the 1960s are accurately shown, after Rosaleen wants tsign up to vote after learning from the TV that, “Today July second 1964,” he said, “the president of the United States signed the Civil Rights Act into law in the East Room of the White House…”(20). After reading this fact, we learn the historical setting of the novel and the racial prejudices that come with it. Rosaleen recieves hate from white men when trying to sign up to vote,
For my summer reading I was assigned the book “The Secret Life Of Bees” at first I was hesitant. Would this book be any good? luckily it was. With every page I turned I got an insight into a whole new world filled with prejudice and racism. I couldn't imagine that a world like this actually existed. I couldn't wrap my head around all the ignorance and all the events that had taken place. Nonetheless Sue Monk Kidd did a great job projecting the hard lives of people with colored skin in the 1860s
The existence of social injustice is present in The Secret Life of Bees, when Rosaleen and Lily leave the farm to go to town to get Rosaleen to vote. When the two of them are walking into town, the town racist starts to bad mouth Rosaleen, and confronts her, ending with Rosaleen pouring snuff spit onto his shoes