The Secret Life Of Bees Analysis

‘The Secret Life of Bees’ by Sue Monk Kidd is a wonderful and beautifully written story. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ includes loveable characters that each have their own unique personalities. ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ also includes mystery and love, which makes it enjoyable. Although it’s not realistic, it’s still a really good read because of how the characters grow and develop throughout. Erin Collazo Miller’s book review on ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ is right about all of these things mentioned.

Lily’s rebellion against her father illuminates the importance of the road of dependence to independence. As a bildungsroman, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, heavily focuses on the independence of an abused girl growing up in a time of feminine oppression and racial discrimination. For example, although Lily possesses a great ambition for literature, her father portrays contempt for it and thinks of college as “a waste of money for girls, even if they did, score the highest number a human being can get on their verbal aptitude test”(Kidd 15). Lily grudgingly respects her wish of her father to not read or bring up a conversation concerning education and tolerates an ill-bearing father. However, after Rosaleen and Lily become arrested,

Throughout the story, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd elaborates on the prolonging theme,that people grow and change overtime through their experiences. This theme is furthermore developed through actions and experiences of the author. This theme is seen within the characters, Lily and May. At the beginning of the story Lily is described as a slightly prejudiced girl towards African American people, but after meeting the Boatwright sisters, she grows to love and appreciate them as cultured and intelligent people. Kidd writes, “I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white. Lying on the cot in the honey house, though all I could think was August is so intelligent, so cultured, and I was surprised

Fifty six. That’s how many lives were lost to suicide on a daily basis in the United States during 1964. Imagine fifty six of your classmates, lying dead on the floor. Bullet wound in this one’s head, a rope tied around this one’s neck, blood dripping out of a gash on this one’s wrist. Nobody expects suicide to affect them. But then, it does. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, May Boatwright was one of those fifty six people. As a young girl, she lost her twin sister to suicide, and her life was forever changed. Suddenly, May was overwhelmingly sensitive. Everybody else’s problems were now her very own. She couldn 't discern the difference between them all, and her brain became a jumbled mess. Tears often plague her cheeks, and when a young Lily Owens shows up at the Boatwright’s doorstep along with her maid Rosaleen, those tears seem to appear more often than ever. As Lily becomes aware of May’s situation, she tries to be as careful as possible, and is helped by May’s two other sisters, August and June Boatwright. They slowly help May adjust, and as they shelter her, May seems to be getting better. But the girls are left shell shocked when they discover May’s lifeless body in the river. Committing suicide was the lowest point for May. May struggles with her own mind, and constantly battles with depression. By committing suicide, May did not resolve her own problems caused by the

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 of racists when she goes to register to vote, Lily rescues her and the two flee to Tiburon, South Carolina where Lily believes she can find a trace of her mother. They end up being taken in by three sisters named May, June, and August who

The three books, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston were all books that made me think deeper into the importance of not displaying stereotypes, prejudices, and racism. I learned a lot while reading these books. First, that everyone can find their own family feeling, despite having one. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily doesn’t have a great relationship with her father, and no relationship at all with her mother. She finds a way to create her own version of a family by running away with Rosaleen and later finding herself with May, June, and August. Although, the idea of running away from home isn’t the ideal message or theme of the book; Lily finding

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 with her abusive father. It is the story of Lily blossoming into adolescence, in a time where racial separation is still a big issue. Lily’s journey to find something, anything, about her mother’s death is something I think is a large part of why this novel is so mesmerizing to read. Lily’s loyalty of trying to piece it together makes this story moving, but not depressing. I think it is uplifting, full of heart, inspiring, and warm. I think Kidd, the author, has perfectly captured the awkward restlessness of a teenager, longing for love, yearning to discover, but at the same time fearful of what truth could emerge. Seeing Lily’s almost desperate longing for any kind of a mother figure is something that truly broke my heart. It made me think about how I am so blessed in my life to have such a strong mother figure, and I hope no one has to go through life without some kind of motherly guidance. I often got the feeling of Lily’s deep desire for nurturance, which can be owed to the

The book “The Secret Life of Bees” is about a girl that lives in a time of racial segregation. That is one of the hardships she has to go through such as her abusive and neglectful father, and the thought that she killed her mother on accident. The setting of the book helps show what happens during a time of racial segregation a showed the internal problems that happened to Lily.

There are a couple of THEMES found within The Secret Life of Bees. One of the major themes is racism, along with prejudice. Seeing that the novel takes place in South Carolina in 1964, you can comprehend why racism and prejudice is prevalent throughout it. Lily watches as Rosaleen stands up for civil rights and takes a stand. Lily even worries about how the Civil Rights Act may affect Rosaleen’s

In the end of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily sees T.Ray as a psychotic and inhuman version of himself. He shoves and waves a knife in Lily's face as he threatens her about leaving again. T. Ray begins to call Lily by her mothers name, “Deborah”. Lily kept on calling him dad, to get him to realize it is her and not her mother. Afterwards T.Ray leaves and August comes to Lily and tells her about her mother. Apparently when Lily was young her mother was packing up to leave and she pulled out a gun, T. Ray knocked it away, Lily grabbed it and shot her mother. Zach gets out of jail and his family and him, plan to attend the same school as Lily. Zach and Lily go on a walk behind the bee house and share a special moment. Zach gives Lily his dog tag

The mothers, the Boatwright sisters and the Daughters of Mary, help Lily to grow as a person and as a young lady. Without the queens in her life, Lily would forever be lost on who she is and her outlook on the future would be dull as she would have no purpose to move on in life. The women help Lily to realize that regret and the past should not hold you back from your future. Like bees, Lily needed a queen or multiple to guide her in life; The Secret Life Of Bees teaches one that the love and affection from an adult figure can help a person to grow and learn who he/she truly is. Leaving T. Ray ultimately gives Lily mothers who will always be there to catch her when she falls and who will love her unconditionally.

In this overview, Davis provides lots of issues that Americans dealt with in the south in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He detailedly explains the social segregation regarding education, living areas and communities. Davis acknowledges the problematics of voting rights throughout all of America and touched upon the civil rights activists and legacies left behind by Martin Luther King Jr. This article is relevant to The Secret Life of Bees because of the realistic events that happened in the novel where black characters were separated in terms of eduction and the segregation of living in different community. Black Characters in the book attended all black schools and were denied many jobs and opportunities that were only available for the whites. Also,

“Most people don't have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we just don't know anything about”. Bee's have what we call; Secret lives. Not only do bees have secret lives but humans also. Developing this metaphor that the hive is society and bees are human, it shows that people are typically much more complex and complicated than they appear on the surface. You never know how a person feels on the inside, unless the tell you of course, you never know what someone is going through, how they're thinking or what they're thinking, you never know what someones life is like, unless they tell you. We only see pretty faces, shining white teeth, beautiful smiles, glistening eyes, and glowing skin

Ok so I'm going to start off with a story. When I was younger I'd spend hours upon hours outside in the sun so naturally one day I got stung by a bee. Over the course of the next few days, obviously it began swelling until it looked well like a giant muscle had sprouted on the side of my arm. Now that's just my story with bees, you all have your own.

Both Kitchen and The secret life of Bees are, among other things, a novel about parenting and how “mothering” can be done by a variety of people in one’s life. It is also a meditation on loneliness and the outsider perspective of a child who has lost parents early in life on the search of purpose.