Differences Between Secret Life Of Bees Book And Movie

The main idea of this essay is to show the similarities and differences between the book and movie of the Secret Life of Bees. The secret life of bees is about a white girl named Lily who runs away with her black maid. She runs way because of her abusive father that has been a complete and total jerk ever since Lily supposedly shot and killed her mother at the age of four. Lily and Rosaleen ( the black maid ) head to tiburon to find a place to stay until they can get farther away from Lily’s father. They meet the Boatwright’s, three african american ladies who make honey, who are happy to take them in except for June who is a little hesitant at first because June is racist towards white people. Lily helps make honey and she meets August’s helper, Zach who is going to school

to become one of the first african american lawyers. T. Ray comes and tries to take Lily back, but the Boatwright’s don’ let him. Lily ends up living happily with August and her sisters.

Similarities
There are similarities between the book and the movie. The first similarity I’m going to cover is that theme of racism is still there. Racism is a huge part of the book and I feel that the director did an amazing job keeping that the same. For example in the book Rosaleen goes to jail to jail for spitting all over the white men's shoes, similarly in the movie, Rosaleen pours her spit onto the mens shoes showing them that she can spell her name. Another form of racism that the book shows is how the officer let the men beat Rosaleen up after she went to the hospital, likewise in the movie.
My next topic is T.Ray’s personality. In the book the author does a great job describing how much T. Ray is a jerk without saying it, by comparison the movie also shows it to us instead of having someone just say it. For example when he has Lily kneel on the grits for having her shirt unbuttoned, we realize that T. Ray is very harsh and not understanding.
My third and final topic of the similarities are when Lily and Rosaleen run away to Tiburon. In the book the two of catch a ride with a guy who is headed that way. They have to run away since the men who Rosaleen got her spit on are coming to beat her up and probably kill her, likewise in the movie.
The overall pattern that is reoccuring is racism and disrespect. Lily and Rosaleen left because T. Ray was very disrespectful to both of them.

Differences
There are multiple differences between the book and the movie.

The first difference I’m going to cover is that the black madonna honey played a big role in the book on the other hand it didn’t matter so much in the movie. For example the movie didn’t have “ Mary Day ” although the book did, and that day showed how Lily was becoming part of the community when she helped make the honey cakes and all the other festivities around “ Mary day ”.
The second difference I found was Lily and Zach's relationship. In the book it seemed like they fell in love however in the movie it seemed like they were nothing but friends that worked for the Boatwright’s. I feel that the director did that to focus more on Lily trying to figure out if her mother had really been killed by her or if she just ran away like the first part of T. Ray’s story.
The last difference I realized was Rosaleen. She seemed pretty tough in the book but on the other hand she was made out to be a quiet, kind of easy going maid. For example when they are staying at the Boatwright’s Rosaleen doesn’t talk more than a conversation or two in the movie, yet in the book she talks to almost everybody and asks questions.

Conclusion
This shows the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. The similarities and differences show that the book is stronger since it had more time to display and show everything the author wanted, where as the movie only had about an hour and a half. A unique insight I got from comparing the movie and the book was that it showed me that the author did an amazing job describing everything.
I enjoyed the book way more, since I could picture what the author described to me instead of being shown what was happening. The book was more interesting since it was described better and it had more detail. If the book was written by someone else I probably would have liked the movie better. The movie was done well, but not like the book was.
If I could change one thing about the book it would be that I wish there was more action in the middle of the book when they were staying at the Boatwright’s. If I could change one thing about the book it would have been how Rosaleen acted. I liked the way that the author portrayed her to be a strong independent person. Overall they were both really good.