Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

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Changing Relationships and Bees Often, people undergo many trials and tribulations with the individuals they surround themselves with. These challenges can make or break connections, and they occur constantly. Whether it is consciously or subconsciously happening, relationships between peers can shift in mere seconds. Fundamental relationships, such as familial ones, are typically harder to change, with loving families forming unbreakable bonds in most cases. In nature, bees are often cited as the epitome of harmony, a true display of trust within a unit. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, Lily’s changing relationships with her family and herself are reflected in the important role of bees. In the opening of The Secret Life of …show more content…
At the end of Lily’s journey, she and Rosaleen come across a woman who entrances Lily, “Clouds of bees rose up and flew wreaths around her head” (Kidd 67). Lily is immediately enamored with her, viewing her as an older and maternal figure. As Lily begins to grow close to the girl, she and Rosaleen conjure a lie about staying on her bee farm that the woman, August, lives on. The image of bees surrounding August's head fits with the religious imagery around her; the very brand she owns being identified by the Virgin Mary on its packaging. August forms a mentor relationship with Lily, becoming someone she looks up to. The religious tone of August’s person corresponds with the idea of a halo-like shape being formed around her head by the bees she cares for. The concept is identifiably similar to the idealized view Lily has of her, an angel, someone all-knowing and incapable of wrongdoing. The bees surrounding August seem to have much admiration for her, the proximity they have to her heavily contrasts with how they cower at T. Ray’s

Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

In Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd indirectly characterizes Rosaleen as capricious, to portray her as someone who deeply cares for Lily, but acts irrationally in uncomfortable situations. This personality trait is particularly prominent during her walk in town with Lily, and group of racist men insult her. Instead of reacting to the negative situation with the logic of a responsible adult who was registering to vote, she abruptly acts out like a child. “Coming alongside the men, Rosaleen…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

In Sue Monk Kidd's novel The Secret Life of Bees the leading character, Lily, loses her mother as an infant and experiences harsh, unloving treatment from her father, yet gains maternal affection through the compassion and care of the characters August and Rosaleen. Rosaleen proved her love for lily when she allowed lily bring home a chick when lily was eight years old. T ray didn't want to keep the chick, but Rosaleen stepped in stating, “You ain't touching that chick.” This is what Sue Monk Kidd…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, indirectly characterizes Lily’s father T-Ray, as a strict, unforgiving man because of his neglect of Lily and harsh punishments. Multiple instances present themselves throughout the beginning of the story that convey T-Ray’s style of parenting. Notably, the morning after T-Ray discovered Lily in the orchard, he shouts to her, “As long as you live under my roof, you’ll do what I say!” (Kidd 26). T-Ray’s outburst conveys his firm control over his daughter…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd indirectly characterizes policemen in her novel The Secret Life of Bees as selfish people that follow society rather than protect it based on a solid and impartial code. During the time period before and after the Civil Rights Act, policemen were harsh and unfair to colored people while also pushing their duties aside to accommodate white people’s hatred of colored people. One such example of this injustice and ignorance of duty is revealed through Kidd’s novel, “After you left, that…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

South, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees is a novel about coming-to adulthood and the often neglected longing for universal feminine divine. The Secret Life of Bees portrays the significance of a mother figure to the maturity and growth of her daughter. A mother is the most influential aspect as a daughter grows and helps them move towards independence and maturity. The bees further symbolize the role of Lily’s real ad surrogate mothers throughout the novel. The significance role of bees is portrayed…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Secret Life of Bees Timeline Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, is set in the 1960s, a complicated time in American history filled with turmoil from the civil rights movement, the fallout of segregation, and the fight for racial equality. Lily Owens, the protagonist, escapes her abusive father, T. Ray, with hopes of finding a connection with her dead mother. The following timeline of events, going year by year, leads the readers to understand the time in which Lily lived. 1960: January…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Love makes people feel like they can do anything. If Sue Monk Kidd's book The Secret Life of Bees came to life, I would agree. Love is an essential part of one's life. We should be open to accepting love. To start with, we should be open to accepting love so we can forgive others. For example, when T. Ray shows up at the Boatwright sisters' house to get Lily, they fight. He shouts, “‘How dare you leave me!...Deborah, You’re not leaving me again.’” (Kidd 294). In his mind, T. Ray is yelling at Deborah…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Often, bees are ignored and shrugged off as a necessary pest. Despite this fact, there is an entire field of research for the insects, some dedicating their lives to aiding the knowledge of the declining bug population. This sentiment almost mirrors the story of Lily Melissa Owens, the protagonist in The Secret Life of Bees. Young and outcast, Lily lives a life of neglect and mistreatment before she and her caretaker, Rosaleen, make their getaway on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily experiences…

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Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, the protagonist Lily Owens runs away from her home and father in Sylvan, South Carolina, in search for answers to her questions about her dead mother. Throughout her sojourn at the Boatwright house, Lily matures into womanhood in ways that she could have never grown in her hometown, but she also isolates herself from white culture by being introduced to this undiscovered world of black culture and to the idea that all cultures should interweave without…

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Sue Monk Kidd's Novel 'The Secret Life Of Bees'

Have you ever once thought about running away, running away to seek answers, to have freedom, or just to have a guide to life? This novel goes through a girl coming of age, learning what is right or wrong in the society of 1964, and facing life with a handful of guidance to figure out her future from a 14 year old girl's perspective. Sue Monk Kidd's novel “The Secret Life Of Bees'' explores racial injustice and abuse with real world issues within the book. Racism and injustice is demonstrated in this…

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