In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, coping strategies are used frequently to deal with different situations. Coping strategies are the ways that someone can deal with difficult situations. For example, someone can use denial to deal with death by saying, “It has not happened” while it has actually happened. Also, people can deal with problems by burying themselves into a lot of work. Although there are plenty of coping strategies that can be used, however, in the novel, projection and acting-out are used frequently by a variety of characters. June, Lily, and T. Ray use projection to take their anger out on an innocent person. For example, June takes out her anger towards Lily even though Lily has done nothing wrong because June worked…show more content… Ray, and May use the coping strategy of acting-out to relieve anger. Lily acts out when her and August are talking about what happened with Lily’s mom. Once they finish talking she gets upset and starts talking to herself and riling herself up. Lily thought, “I looked toward the window, wanting to smash the panes out of it...I picked up one of the honey jars and hurled it as hard as I could” (259). This means that Lily boiled over to the point that she threw honey jars at the wall. This is an example of acting-out because Lily did not use a healthy coping strategy like isolation because isolation involves using overwhelming feelings and taking the anger out on a safe target while Lily used a different strategy and ended up with broken glass. Next, T. Ray uses acting-out when he makes Lily kneel on the “Martha Whites” while he could have dealt with the situation in more of a constructive manner. T. Ray says, “I expect this out of boys, Lily-you can’t blame them-but I expect more out of you. You act no better than a slut. Get over here and kneel down” (24). T. Ray in a way is acting like a parent trying to protect their kid but goes to the limit because the one who he is trying to protect has now bleeding knees all because of himself. This is a use of acting-out because all Lily did was go to the orchard but T.Ray did not believe her and acted inappropriately. Lastly, May acts out when she sings “Oh Susanna” because once she feels upset she sings “Oh Susanna” to cheer herself up. June says, “‘You’re humming the song again,’ she said to May. ‘Why don’t you excuse yourself’”(83). This means that May starts to hum when she feels upset, and when a positive subject is being spoken, she is fine. This is an example of acting-out because she channels her feelings into a more constructive manner by humming “Oh
