The setting in the Secret life of bees helps set the overall structure of the book. As the setting changes, and certain events take place, so does the characters views on life. The most change seen is on Lily, the main character. Her values multiply and her perspective on cultural order shifts from one mind set to another. Although one part of the book’s setting limits the opportunities of the characters; the other part opens those and different opportunities. The setting in The Secret Life of Bees is vitally important because it impacts the main character and the people around her through events that transpire in the book. The characters are impacted by the setting sharply because it both closes and opens possibilities as the story moves forward. At first, the setting is in Sylvan, South Carolina. The author describes Sylvan simply by stating, “…population 3,100. Peach stands and Baptist churches, that sums it up.” Clearly the setting here is not exactly note-worthy; however, quite a few events happen. Lily, the main character, lives with her father T-Ray and her opportunities are …show more content…
From Sylvan, South Carolina Lily and Rosaleen travel to Tiburon, South Carolina. Tiburon is described to be similar to Sylvan, “…minus the peaches.” They may look the same, but the limits they hold are set at different levels. Lily and Rosaleen eventually live with the Boatwright sisters. This changes the ways that Lily thinks about black people because not only does she now have more exposure to the outside world, she also has exposure to black people and know more about how they really are. Lily is given the opportunity to change her mentality about certain topics, but this doesn’t mean that all the characters have opportunities in Tiburon. For example, Zach, who was to be a lawyer, has little opportunities to prosper in his dream career because of prejudice against
Lily traveled all the way up from Sylvan, Georgia to Tiburon, South Carolina without much help at all. That takes a lot of luck, at least some skill. Zach navigates all over South Carolina in his truck on a daily basis throughout the summer to gather honey. They both have skills in finding their way around. Lily's tireless heart is always searching for love from her father, whom she calls T. Ray, no matter how many times he crushes her with his words and actions.
In life, actions and events that occur can sometimes have a greater meaning than originally thought. This is especially apparent in The Secret Life Of Bees, as Sue Monk Kidd symbolically uses objects like bees, hives, honey, and other beekeeping means to present new ideas about gender roles and social/community structures. This is done in Lily’s training to become a beekeeper, through August explaining how the hive operates with a queen, and through the experience Lily endures when the bees congregate around her.
This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel. The meaning behind Sonsyrea Tate’s statement can be found deeply rooted within Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees.
Lily was raised in an extremely racist environment with T. Ray in Sylvan. Her mother figure and her best friend was harassed just is walking down the street. Even the church folks who claim to love but I guess African-Americans didn’t count. Also she had to break Rosaleen, the woman who played the mother figure in her life, out of jail.
When someone hears the word quest, their mind automatically goes to a mythical land of dragons and knights in shining armor. However, Thomas Foster’s book How to Read Literature Like a Professor states that this shouldn’t always be the case. In Chapter One: Every Trip Is a Quest, Foster claims that a quest in literature can take place in any time period and can be as mundane as grocery shopping. In order to classify an event as quest, it needs to follow certain criteria. There needs to be “a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go there, challenges and trials en route, and a real reason to go there” (Foster, 3). Furthermore, considering the definition of a quest by Thomas Foster, it is clear that the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, fits
Intro: Working around the hives; dedicated and faster with each movement. Honey drizzling in golden crevices; a family unit working together, buzzing in harmony. Bees and beehives is a significant motif in the novel Secret Life of Bees: By Sue Monk Kidd because it represents the community of women in the novel. It also represents Lily Owen’s longing and need for a mother figure in her life. And finally, it was significant because the bees lived a secret life, just as Lily and Rosaleen did in the novel.
Themes such as motherhood, racism, and the bees’ hardwork are included in The Secret Life of Bees,written by Susan Monk Kidd, in order to show and highlight the hard times that the each character faced. This novel highlights Lily’s path from a child to young adult. She now sees with more clarity in subjects of racism and her new family. Her path started innocent and uneducated and ended up being very whole and educated. In Lily’s growth throughout this novel, her trials and tribulations were shown. In The Secret Life of Bees, there are many words and phrases referenced and used that stay full of wisdom, courage, and female
With an increase in familiarity, as she progresses her outlook on life changes with her. By the closure of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens experiences passion, rage, joy, and sorrow in larger quantities than most teens her age. Amidst every trial transpires an improved
In the book, Lily was narrating what she was feeling and thinking throughout the entirety of the book which added a lot of important elements that tied in the theme and importance of the bees in the development of the plot. This is an important difference because the movie seems to be missing some very important elements due to the absence of this narration. The title the Secret Life of Bees makes much less sense for the movie because the narration gives the reader an insight into how the bees contribute to the story. The movie seems to be more about the group of women becoming stronger together than the book because without this narration, it is harder to know how Lily is feeling. In contrast the book seems more about Lily’s journey because this narration is present explaining to the reader how Lily feels and what she thinks in each
Asch,Timothy and Napoleon Chagnon. (1974). A Man Called "Bee": Studying the Yanomamo (Documentary). USA: Documentary Educational Resources.
A poignant and touching classic, The Secret Life of Bees details the coming of age stories of a young girl named Lily. Her life up until the start of the novel was hard, she was friendless with an abusive father and a heavy conscience, as she believes that she is responsible for her mother’s death. Lily’s only solace is her stand-in-mother, a black woman named Rosaleen, so when Rosaleen is hauled to jail for standing up for herself, Lily decided to run away to a mysterious town that has some linkage to her mother. Her escapades lead her to three, wonderful, eclectic, devout followers of Mary, and to a new life. As the story unfolds, an elaborate symbol lies hidden just beneath the surface, one that seems so obvious, but only lies as a hidden
The transition of the South can be seen from the opening of the novel where a pillar of Kate's small southern town, Mrs. Poole, gripes about the "Split-levels," (the northerners) moving into their neighborhood. Mrs. Poole's attempt to resist the South's change immediately confronts the reader; this sets the mood for the rest of the novel.
Segregation in the southern states is very prominent during that time period. For instance, Lily’s housekeeper Rosaleen could not live in the same house as Lily, nor could she worship in the same church. Lily finally had enough of her abusive father T. Ray and decided to run away along with their housekeeper Rosaleen, who she broke out of jail. The only place she desired to go was the town, as written on one of her mother’s pictures. On the back of a photograph of a black version of Mary Lily’s mother writing the town of Tiburon.
A beehive without a queen is a community headed for extinction. Bees cannot function without a queen. They become disoriented and depressed, and they stop making honey. This can lead to the destruction of the hive and death of the bees unless a new queen is brought in to guide them. Then, the bees will cooperate and once again be a prosperous community. Lily Melissa Owens, the protagonist of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, faces a similar predicament. While she does not live in a physical hive, the world acts as a hive. She must learn to work with its inhabitants, sharing a common direction, in order to reach her full potential. The motif of the beehive is symbolic of how crucial it is to be a part of a community in order to achieve
Ruth, Elizabeth. “The Secret Life of Bees Traces the Growth of Lily’s Social Consciousness.” Coming of Age in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2013. 63-65. Print. Social Issues in Literature. Rpt. of “Secret Life of Bees.” The Globe and Mail 2 Mar. 2002: n. pag.