“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around” (Leo Buscaglia). Caring for those in difficult situations can be very beneficial to people in times of struggle. Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird, Friar Lawrence of Romeo and Juliet, and August Boatwright of The Secret Life of Bees show just how much being there for someone can impact that person’s life for the better. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch helps his daughter Scout with her troubles.When Scout was upset that her teacher didn’t want her reading, Atticus told her “we’ll go on reading every night just as we always have” because he wants her to be happy (Lee 41). Some of Atticus’s clients from rural areas would feel uncomfortable going inside the house; therefore, “Atticus would often keep appointments on the back steps” (Lee 356).William Shakespeare, the author of Romeo and Juliet, used Friar Lawrence to help Romeo and Juliet get secretly married because they loved each other unconditionally but couldn’t be together. Desperately wanting to be with Juliet forever, Romeo pleaded Friar to marry him and Juliet, and Friar said, “in one respect I’ll thy assistant be” meaning that he agreed to marry them out of care and love (Shakespeare 2.3. 97). Upset that she had to marry Paris, Juliet also went to Friar Lawrence for help. Friar Lawrence “spied a kind of hope” for Juliet to escape her wedding from Paris and told her “. . . if thou darest, I’ll give thee remedy” so that she didn’t have to to marry Paris, but instead got to …show more content…
This act of compassion truly helped change the “world” for Scout, Romeo and Juliet, and Lily. “Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have” (Margaret
At the mention of the phrase, “love can transform a person,” most people reflect upon the happiness and blessings that come with finding one’s other half. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet broadens the spectrum of love’s possibilities as the play narrates the progressions of a doomed relationship toward death. Belonging to two rival families, the Montagues and the Capulets, Romeo and Juliet cultivate their forbidden love and marry in secret. After a string of misfortunes, including Romeo’s exile and Juliet’s arranged marriage with another man, the two lovers commit suicide, unable to imagine a life without one another. Through the use of oxymorons and hyperboles dotted throughout Romeo and Juliet’s interactions, Shakespeare communicates
“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life,” says Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees. This quote reveals that Lily, the main character in this novel, gains real wisdom. Later, Lily also gains a clear vision about the most important entities in life. Lily, with her new found wisdom, is ready to experience the real world, flaws and all. She does not only limit herself to anything- but also, she is ready for life’s dangers, endeavors, and in general, anything life throws at her. As she grows as an individual, her strength increases tremendously. This novel is narrated by fourteen year
Symbolism is a recurring theme in this novel, the river and fish symbols both contribute to the overall growth to the protagonist, Lily, and to the storyline as a whole. “The river has done its best, I was sure, to give her a peaceful ride out of this life. You can die in a river, but maybe you could be reborn in it too” (Kidd 229). The river as a symbol represents life and death, Lily mentions how it brought May’s death but also brings life too, for example, a baptism is sometimes done in river with symbolizes rebirth. This influential symbol contributes to the organization of the storyline by partly helping Lily come to terms with May’s death, in turn, keeping Lily content and the story continuing. “They held me down on the bank and hooked
“What’s wrong in living in a dream world?” (121). In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees, the protagonist character named Lily Owens is a girl who is confused. She is pulled in many directions in her life. Some conflicts Lily runs into are the people around her and herself. In Lily’s life, she lives in a world that is unrealistic. She tries to avoid life and the problems that come with it. Sooner or later, Lily faces life straight into its eyes and takes it all at once.
The predominant symbols found in The Secret Life of Bees contributed greatly to the structure of the literature. The development of the writing’s structure, shown through increased emotional appeal and conflict description, was directly related to the usage of symbolism within the story. The passage reads, “‘They had all these little fish they’d caught fastened onto a stringer. They held me down on the bank and hooked it around my neck, making it too small to pull over my head,’” (Kidd 229). One of the symbols present in the text is a necklace of fish that Lily was forced to wear as a child. The necklace summarized the intricate issues that Lily was dealing with in her present life. The issues were like a tight necklace that could not be
Growing up is hard and full of tests and changes. As bildungsroman novels, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green address and center on these issues. Lily, the main character in secret life of bees, is a teenager dealing with a hard past that is affecting her present and future. The fault in our stars protagonist, Hazel also faces struggles living an abnormal life battling cancer. Lily and Hazel both have comparable coming-of-age experiences in their epiphanies that change their thinking, the challenges of young love, and maturation from their journeys.
In the story of Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd there are many characters that I would admire. Sue Monk Kidd makes August Boatwright the oldest of the sisters the most admirable. In saying that, August is definitely the most encouraging, she is so on top of everything, she has her life together, her house is always clean, she successfully runs a company, and she has lots of inspiring quotes. This wise woman is like a queen bee to her sisters, she is the most influential person because she changes the main protagonist Lily into a different person. Just by the way she carries herself in the story is really a fascinating act. In addition, she is also like a parent figure for most of the characters in the book, especially for her two
Lily has a lot of mother figures in her life. In ?The Secret Life of Bees? two mother figures that she has are Rosaleen and August. A mother cares for her young and guides them trough life. She comforts and soothes them when they need it. Lily?s Mothers are Rosaleen and August. Both act as mothers for Lily in different ways.
Friar Laurence, through his lack of good judgment, is largely responsible for the deaths of both Romeo and Juliet. Rather than being supportive of them and helping them disclose their loving situation, Friar Laurence took the “easy” way out. He succumbed to their desire to elope. He secretly married Romeo and Juliet instead of standing behind them and encouraging them to confront their families with the facts about their commitment to and love for each other. As a result, an even stronger bond between them was created through marriage: "For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone / Till holy church incorporate two in one" (2.6.36-37). Friar Laurence married Romeo and Juliet, hoping that their union would bring an end to the constant feuding between their two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Though the friar’s intentions were good and above reproach, they were certainly missteps along a pathway to tragedy. None of the tragedies would have occurred if Romeo and Juliet were not married. When Tybalt challenged Romeo...
When Friar Laurence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet, he does so for the wrong reasons, thus, he betrays the ethics of his position. Romeo considers Friar Laurence someone he can confide in, and so, tells him of his newfound love, Juliet, right away. The Friar is convinced that Romeo cannot possibly be in love as it was not long ago he spoke of his fascination with Rosaline. Nowhere is this more apparent than when he states:
The teacher will introduce the book, The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi and she will ask the class about what they think the book will be about based on the illustrations.
Grief leaves an imprint on those who experience it. Some can survive its deep sorrow, others cannot. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, she explores the effect of grief on the main characters. The novel opens with fourteen-year-old Lily Owns struggling with the knowledge that her mother was dead because she, as an infant, picked up a loaded gun and accidentally shot her. She runs away from her abusive father in search for answers of who her mother was. Lily hitchhikes to Tiburon, South Carolina; the location written on the back of an image of the Black Madonna – one of the only belongings she has of her mother’s. There, she finds a pink house inhabited by the Boatwright sisters who are African American women making Black Madonna honey. The Boatwright sisters have had their share of grief with the death of two of their sisters and the racial intolerance they face despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The Boatwright sisters and Lily Owens have different methods of coping with grief; internalizing, ignoring, and forgetting are some of the ways they cope, with varying degrees of success. They discover that they must live past their grief, or else it will tear them apart.
Romeo and Juliet constantly encounter troubling times in which they feel helpless. When the play begins Romeo is deeply in love with the lovely Rosaline, a woman who does not share the same feelings. Experiencing this heartbreak is very destructive for Romeo, his tears “augmenting the fresh morning’s dew” (1.1.128). A literal and figurative dark place has engulfed Romeo’s life. He locks himself in his room and “shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial light” (1.1.135-36). He feels no light in his life without his Rosaline. In Juliet’s case she is being forced into marriage with Paris, a kinsman to the prince, by her mother and father. Marriage has never crossed Juliet’s mind, it was a concept she “dreamed not of” (1.3.66). Juliet is not forced
The Secret Life of Bees delineates an inspirational story in which the community, friendship and faith guide the human spirit to overcome anything. The story follows Lily Owens, a 14 year old girl who desperately wants to discover the cause of her mothers death. Her father T. Ray gives her no answers, which leads their maid, Rosaleen, to act as her guardian. Together, Lily and Rosaleen run away to Tiburon, South Carolina and find a welcoming community. It is in Tiburon that Lily learns many life lessons, including many about herself. In her novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd explores a theme of spiritual growth through Lily's search for home as well as a maternal figure.
When we sacrifice our time to help someone in need, whether it is a great or small need, we become a part of their life and can help alleviate heavy burdens. We feel good for looking outside ourselves and contributin...