...hard to make the right decisions when experiencing such a horrible occurrence. Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees delved deep into the core of such choices. The internal and external struggles that both characters face creates the mold for the theme, and their actions fill the empty spaces. Though the author expressed the theme through the development of multiple characters, Lily and T. Ray clearly display her vision of conflict, human condition, and the light and dark sides of an individual locked away in their hearts. Sue Monk Kidd expresses the ongoing external conflict shared between Lily and T. Ray as the death of Deborah. Although the two...
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...During The Secret Life of Bees, we can visualize many different themes. Throughout the novel, we see Lily begin to mature and grow as a character. She deals with a lot of ups and downs throughout her life and the book, and she learns how to deal with them. In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd uses racism and equality to argue a theme that everyone should be treated fairly, have the same rights, and have respect for one another, and that we are all the same no matter our race. This book ties into the 1960’s because during this time, the same racial problems were happening as well. In the beginning of the novel, we soon realize that Lily’s mother had died a few years earlier, and that Rosaleen was there to help around the house and...
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...In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, August Boatwright functions as a mother figure for Lily Owens because she is dependable and wise. August is dependable because she is creating a considerable environment for Lily. Lily explains, “I love this place with my whole heart” (Kidd 225). When Lily refers to “this place”, she means the pink house, where August, May, and June live. Lily is obviously comfortable in the pink house and loves the people in it too. August is also dependable because Lily trusts her enough to tell her the truth about herself. Even though August knows Lily is lying, she pines for Lily to become comfortable around August, May, and June so she will feel content. August is wise because she knows there is something wrong...
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...The Secret Life of Blacks Sue Monk Kidd is a writer from Sylvester, Georgia, best known for her 2002 novel The Secret Life of Bees. The novel begins with a 14 year old, Lily Owens, in the summer of 1964 in Sylvan, South Carolina o runs away with her black housekeeper and stays with a black family. Lily lived with T. Ray, her father, and her housekeeper, Rosaleen. T. Ray, being abusive, lead Lily’s mother away. She eventually comes back in efforts to get a then 4 year old Lily. In the heat of an argument with her husband, Deborah drops a gun that Lily accidentally picks up and kills her mother. The Secret Life of Bees is a book that shows many types of interracial interactions such as; mentor-mentee, intimate relationship, caregiver, friendship, resentment, and hatred. The mentor-mentee relationship in this book is expressed by Clayton Forrest and Zach Taylor. Zach’s aspiration to be a lawyer, a title not commonly held by a black american, is questioned by all, except Clayton Forrest. Clayton Forrest instead of knocking his dreams, mentors him and teaches Zach about lawyer duties, even giving him stuff to read and keeping him updated in some legal matters. Seeing...
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...weighs only about sixty milligrams; nevertheless, she can fly with a load heavier than herself " (Kidd 257). Sue Monk Kidd constructs a book, The Secret Life of Bees, to tell the story of a girl named Lily Owens. Lily struggles with the weight of her mother's death on her shoulders and how she may have been at fault. Her home is corrupt with a father who does not treat her right. In search of answers about her mother, Lily runs off with her caretaker, Rosaleen, to answer those questions. She finds herself in a setting in South Carolina, with a group of tight knit sisters. Towards the end of Lily's journey, the answers of her questions have been revealed by one of the sisters named, August. August serves as a role model to Lily because she is willing to tell the truth and listen to her. With all of these answers, Lily is able to make out that she had done it, but learns that is was truly a fluke. The heavy load on her back has been dropped of giving her a sense of being "freedom". Sue Monk Kidd illustrates the struggle of life and how troubles can bring you down. She continues by showing that you have to let the struggles drift away and move on....
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...The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. Book Report, Dorthea Søiland The secret life of bees centres on Lily’s search for clues and connections to her mother, who was killed when Lily was a little girl. We get to follow her journey as she runs away from her abusive father along with her nanny Rosaleen. Lily is longing to be loved, because the lack of it in her past life is destroying her. “People who think dying is the worst thing, don’t know a thing about life” Lily, p2. The novel is an excellent written drama. It explores race, love and the idea of family and home in troubled times. The author of the book, Sue Monk Kidd, is a well-known writer who has written other known books such as “The Mermaid Chair”(2005) and “A Mother-Daughter Story”(2010). She has been on the New York Times bestselling list twice, which one of them were with this very novel. The secret life of bees was published in 2002 by Penguin Books New York. The story takes place in South Carolina in the 1960’s, which we can say is a time were racism was on it’s worst. Time and place has a lot to do with the story, and we get to look into a time were being black wasn’t easy. The main character of the book is fourteen years old Lily. She is a brave and smart girl, whose only wish for a birthday present is to know a little about her mother. Her fear of living a life without being loved is getting her to write poems, which she’s good at. All-tough Lily doesn’t have a mother she has a father, T....
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...whom she despises, and no friends to turn to when she needs a shoulder to cry on. Not only does Lily have to deal with feelings of loneliness and betrayal caused by her parents, but in a time troubled by negativity towards the Civil Rights Act, she is also faced with situations that force her to grow up very fast. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a page turning novel about Lily’s journey to find answers to her past. There are themes and symbolisms throughout the book. Racism, forgiveness/coping, and bees are big ones for many characters throughout the novel. The summer of 1964 in South Carolina comes at the peak for race relationships in American history, a summer when much of white Americans showed no respect towards the blacks. The nature of racism is discussed throughout Lily’s story. It is important to understand she grew up in the South, where races were separated by both law and attitudes. Lily does not attempt to reconcile her love for Rosaleen with her understanding that blacks are inferior to whites. “Rosaleen pulled back the towel; I saw an inch-long gash across a puffy place high over her eyebrow.” (Kidd). Is one of the first times she started to see racism, but not to the fullest understanding. When Rosaleen’s life is threatened by a system that Lily doesn’t understand, she knows only that she must save Rosaleen’s life, even if it means leaving home and breaking the law. Anne-Janine Morey from Christian Century says in her criticism piece...
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...thus leading us to a place of “endless acceptance and infinite love”. In my opinion, the most powerful of ideas that I was exposed to was the idea that a person becomes truly marginalized when they succumb to shame–that when one gives up on himself, he in turn demonizes himself. I will hold this idea close to my heart for all of my life because if I can stop someone from giving up on themselves by showing them that someone does love them and stands with them, then I can find a sort of self-assurance in that I am living a life that I can, myself, respect–in a sense, I can cleanse my own shame by helping others with theirs. Shame’s power of marginalization is an important idea found in La Línea by Ann Jaramillo, Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and Tattoos on the Heart by Father Gregory Boyle. The power of shame’s self-marginalizing properties is demonstrated in all of the books that we read in the Contemporary Literature course. An outstanding example of this is found within La Línea. After Miguel and Elena get mugged and have their money and what seems like their hope stolen, Miguel gives into shame. He explains to Elena, “ ‘ I’m read to give up,... …’Maybe this trip just wasn’t meant to be’ ” (Jaramillo 57). Miguel seems to have lost hope and sight of why he is making the trip to the north. He faces the decision to pack up and try again after facing failure. Miguel’s despair exemplifies shame because in choosing to give up in the face of adversity, he belittles his own self-worth...
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...Literary Analysis “The Secret Life of Bees” Sometimes in life you could feel broken and alone. Whenever someone is hurting you in any way or you just feel alone and you have nobody you can trust with your problems. In “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd the protagonist named Lily Owen escapes an abusive home to learn more about her dead mother’s past where she learns the value of love, friendship, and family. And she learns that you will always find people you belong with. the main character Lily Owens has been abused almost her whole life by her father named T-Ray. Lily says she “I asked God to do something about T-Ray but it's only getting worse”(pg.3). After Lily’s mother left when Lily was 4 years old T-Ray has been taking out his anger on Lily and the matter was made worse after the death of her mother that Lily likely caused. T-Ray insults, lies, ignores, and punishes Lily by making her kneel on grits until she is bleeding. “‘As long as you live under my roof...
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...Sunny Ms. Phillips May 28, 2011 A White Girl Finds Love in a Negro Servant Family “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. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away” (Sue, Page#7-8). The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd. The story takes place in South Carolina in the year 1964. Lily’s mother died when she was four years old. She lives with her father. Rosaleen worked in Lily’s house. One day Rosaleen and Lily run away from their home. Lily gets shelter in August’s house and she lives there forever. One theme coming of age is illustrated through instances such as how Lily thinks she killed her mother; how Lily moves on; and how she feels about a new Family. To begin, Lily is a fourteen year old white girl. When she was four, she killed her mother, Deborah. Her father’s name is T.Ray. After his wife left him and later died, he became a bitter and resentful man. He abuses and punishes Lily by making her kneel on dried grits, making fun of her attempts to better herself through reading, and refusing to offer her any signs of love. T. Ray takes out his general resentment and bitterness on Lily, the product of his lost love. Whom she cannot call “Daddy”; she lives on a peach farm in rural South Carolina. . Lily loves and trusts Rosaleen, a black woman. She helped raise Lily. Lily most prized possessions are a few things...
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...In the novel ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ written by Sue Monk Kidd a 14-year-old little white girl, Lily Owens, lives with her terrible father, T.Ray, who never gives his love and interest to her. For the reason, she decides to run away from her father and moves from Sylvan to Tiburon. In Tiburon she meets a new reliable guardian, August. By giving two different relationships, the author, Sue Monk Kidd, helps us to understand ‘Love’ which is one of the themes in the novel. The first relationship is between Lily and her father, T.Ray, who is insensitive and cruel to Lily because he never gives his affection, and he punishes her in brutal way. Lily spends on upsetting time with her father after her mother passed away when Lily was 4 years old....
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...In “The Secret Life of Bees” Sue Monk Kidd sets the novel in South Carolina 1960’s, a time where Civil Rights movements were rising. Affecting the communities in Southern U.S. The protagonist Lily Owens grew up with her abusive father T. Ray, and lost her mother at the age of four in a tragic accident involving Lily accidentally shooting her mother. To stand in as a mother for Lily, Rosaleen—an African American field worker for T. Ray’s peach farm— was brought into Lily’s life. Overtime in the novel, Sue Monk Kidd shaped Lily’s and Rosaleen's relationship to show the matureness that develops throughout the story, emphasising different scenes where a changed occurred in their relationship where it grew stronger and more independant. Lily and...
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...According to Teens Ink, Macy M. declares that “This book absolutely grabbed me and made me read”. “The Secret Life of Bees”, a drama written by Sue Monk Kidd was published by Viking in 2002. A story about a young girl named Lily from South Carolina who was abused and abandoned by her parents, decides to run away with her African American housekeeper, Rosaleen. She goes to Tiburon knowing she would be safer. However, Lily didn't know she would run into the Boatwright sisters and realize that they were all the family she could’ve ask for and that she had mothers all around her that loved her and cherished her. The book was a huge hit! It was quickly rated 4 out of 5 stars and sold 8 million copies worldwide. It became a genuine classic and was eventually created into a movie in 2008. It spent more than 2½ years on the New York Times bestseller list and it has been translated into 36 different languages. The Secret Life of Bees was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, longlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize...
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...The Secret Life of Bees, a beautiful coming of age novel written by Sue Monk Kidd, teaches its readers powerful lessons that touch the heart. Lily’s decision to run away enlightens her perspectives on life and helps her discover herself and her values. The journey that she makes results in a better understanding of the true meaning of family, the faults of her society, and what being happy really consists of. The first Lesson Lily learns is about family. Lily’s family life when she was living at home lacked the love and affection she needed. After running away, she makes several important discoveries about what family really is, and where it is found. The first, and most prominent, example of this in the novel is Lily’s mother. After accidentally killing her mother when she was young, Lily has to live with the unfortunate realities of only having one parent. It is clear that Lily feels the absence of her mother. “The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness” (7). This passage is directly talking about bees, but indirectly referring to Lily and her mother. After she leaves her home in Sylvan, South Carolina and ends up in a house surrounded by black women, Lily realizes that a “mother” is not necessarily what it is defined to be. At the end of the novel, Lily finds that, in fact, she has adopted multiple...
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...“Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We’re all so human. Your mother made a terrible mistake, but she tried to fix it.” The quote just before came from the character August Boatwright, an African American woman who lives in Tiburon South Carolina with her sisters May and June Boatwright. There are many characters in the book of The Secret Life of Bees that have this unique personality which brings life to the story but what caught me more was the character August. August has this distinctive admirability which shows us she is an intelligent person and warm hearted. The character August Boatwright has such admirability due to the fact that she is an intelligent person. Sue Monk Kidd has the talent to...
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