The secret life of bees is a novel of love and courage. A young girl is on a journey to find her mother and learns to love herself throughout the story. Lily, is the main character of the story and she is also the narrator. Kidd starts of the story with Lily lying in bed watching the swarming bees around her room. She lives with her abusive father, T.Ray, on a peach farm in Sylvan South Carolina. Lily’s mother had passed away when she was only 4 years old and she always had this feeling in the back of her mind that it was her fault. The last memory she had of her mother was when her mother Deborah was packing a suitcase and arguing with T.ray. The rest of the memory is a blur, and she isn’t so sure about it. But she remembers there being a …show more content…
Rosaleen has been her housekeeper ever since her mother had passed. She was practically a mother figure to Lily, Lily looked up to her. Rosaleen had informed her that she is going into town to register to vote since the civil rights act had just been passed. Lily had heard that in Mississippi, colored people would get shot if they registered to vote, she insisted to go with her just in case anything bad happened. As they walk into the center of the town, three white men approached Rosaleen and they start pushing and shoving her. The cops show up and decide to arrest Rosaleen for “disturbing the peace.” Lily immediately went home to talk to her father. T.ray was furious and mentioned that Deborah never loved her and was planning to leave them before she died. Lily refused to believe T.ray and decided to pack her bags and run …show more content…
She spots Rosaleen and warns her that the guys that attacked are going to kill her if she doesn’t leave the hostpital. Lily tells Rosaleen they are going to Tiburon South Carolina. She was curious to see if the writing on the picture had anything to do with her mother. Rosaleen and Lily hitchhiked to Tiburon. They stop at a store where Lily notices jars of honey with the same image of the black Virgin Mary on them. Lily asked the store manager where they came from and he informs her that they live right across the street. Lily and Rosaleen head over to the house and they find out that three sisters live there and produce and sell honey. August is the oldest, June is the middle child, and May is the youngest. Lily informs August that they are looking for a job to earn money to be able to fly to Virginia to visit her aunt. August was a little suspicious about her lie, but she insisted she stayed anyways. August taught Lily and Rosaleen how to use the equipment to make honey. Since August allowed them to stay, the least they could do was work for
where Lilly is in search of clues for her mother from a picture she left behind. They end up at the door of August Boatwright and her sisters, May and June, who own the Black Madonna Honey farm. August welcomes them and cares for them and for the first time, treats the both with love and respect. August reveals that she cared for Lilly’s mother when she was young and that she had come to stay at the honey farm 3 months before she died. She reveals that Lilly’s mother ran away because she was depressed and troubled and that she had loved Lilly very much and was going back to get
Lily ending up at her mother’s previous home was so unlikely, nearly impossible. In the real world, Lily would not have been accepted into their home so easily either. In conclusion, some parts of “The Secret Life of Bees” probably would not occur in the real
Lily had given up, she lived her entire life with the idea that her mother
This is the forbidden moment that connected Lily with the mother she had always had, but never noticed. “ I reached out and traced black Mary’s heart with my finger. I stood with the petals on my toes, and pressed my palm flat and hard against her heart. I live in a hive of darkness, and you are my mother, I told her. You are the mother of thousands,”(184).
In hopes of discovering more about her mother, Lily travels to Tiburon but unexpectedly develops a maternal relationship with August, ultimately compelling her to lie about her identity and purpose in Tiburon because “[She] love this place with [her] whole heart” (225), and is certain that this is the life she wants.
Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “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.
Her mother died when she was 4, and Lily was the one to kill her. Her dad, T-Ray, was a terrible parent to her too, because he hit her. She also have to live with the guilt that she ended her mother’s life. “There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.” a quote by August, page 50.
August Boatwright, A honey maker, takes Rosaleen and Lily in after running away from Lily's father. Lily learns that August had a true love for bees, life, and love. She always offers Lilly help and advice. August is a spiritual woman with hobbies and customs. Zachary Taylor or Zach is an African-American boy who is very intelligent and is aspiring to become a lawyer.
Lily’s mother is the cause of much of her grief, through her journey she imagines her mother in a way that does not accurately depict who her mother truly was. When she finds out what her mother actually was she, “I stood
After Lily confesses to August that Lily was the one who killed her mom, Lily says, “You will hear a dark whispering spirit, a voice coming from the center of things. It will have blades for lips and will not stop until it speaks the one secret thing at the heart of it all… It said, You are unlovable, Lily Owens.” (Kidd 242). Lily created the dark spirit.
When Lily Owens was four years old, her mother died and she have always blamed herself for it throughout the
Rosaleen and Lily walk into town, so Rosaleen can register to vote, but three white men start harassing
Lily mourns for her mother several times throughout the novel. She always had some of her mother’s items throughout her time to help her cope during the reading. She didn’t leave her own home without said items. She didn't leave her own home without the items to remember her mother. Like the bees in the jar they needed time to mourn for their queenlessness like lily with her mothers items lily uses the items to cope then leaves her jar and flees.
Although Lily did suffer a great loss from losing her mom, she gained so much more with the love and support that the Boatwrights and their group gave her. She has gained friends, someone to look up to, and the sense of family from all of them. Without the loss of her mom and the abuse of her dad she would never of gotten the experience of such powerful female role models and a new
This was the big conflict in the story because Lily tried to keep it a secret from the Boatwright sisters. Lily was also afraid of what would happen if T.Ray found her and Rosaleen. This was later resolved on pages 290-298 when this thought came true. One day when Lily was staying at the Pink House she went with Zach to the lawyer’s office. She ended up calling T.Ray from there.