Lily has been raised motherless and alone, but through seeking out the Boatwright sisters, she has many female figures and a new found contentment of her mothers passing. Lily has been affected profoundly by her mothers passing. She constantly seeks to uncover the truth about her mother leaving her and her untimely death. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” This quote shows just how much Lily is affected by not having Deborah in her life and the uncertainty is causing Lily great distress. At this point in the novel, Lily is vulnerable due to the overwhelming thoughts that plague her. From Lily’s journey to Tiburon, we see her break free from her time of loneliness and vulnerability, and instead, flourish …show more content…
when living with the Boatwright sisters. Lily finally feels like she has mother figures in her life, through June, May and August and her old house maid Rosaleen. The most notable motherlike figure is August, she taught Lily important life lessons through the behaviour of bees, taught her to have faith through the black Mary, and most importantly helped lily discover the truth about her mothers past and supported her. With the support of these strong and supportive women Lily feels as if she has “more mothers than any 8 girls”. From her journey from Sylvan to Tiburon she discovered the mothers she had been longing for, including her own. Nearing the end of the novel, Lily learns about forgiveness, especially forgiving her father of his wrongdoings.
Lily grew up isolated while living with T-ray. Lily did not have the same opportunities as the other children, “he didn’t believe in slumber parties or sock hops”. He was abusive and punished her for the smallest of things, he didn’t treat her like a father who loves their child, he didn’t act like a father at all. On her journey to Tiburon and while living with the boatwright sisters, she resents her father for causing her the weight of her mothers departure. But through August’s insight on the true meaning of why her mother left, we can see Lily start to pave her own way to the forgiveness of T-ray. We can see this forgiveness by lily realising why T-ray had treated her like he did. ‘You look like her,’ he said, and him saying that I knew he’d said everything.’ At this moment she knew that he did love her, but the pain from being constantly remind that he was left behind caused great pain and suffering for T-ray. This enlightenment let Lily forgive T-ray and then that led to the forgiveness of her mother leaving her behind, but ultimately forgiveness of herself for causing Deborah’s …show more content…
death. Through Lily’s journey she learns about her identity through the community in which she lives in.
Lily’s community is very much black and white, literally. The segregation law of the time prevented the mixing of the two colourings from interacting together with each other in public. While at the start of the novel, this never really bothered Lily “I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white”. This quote said by Lily shows just how much the narcissistic views of the white men have effected Lily’s own thoughts. It was only until the time of the arrest of Rosaleen, that she first started paying attention to the wrongdoings and the affect this had on the black community. She held a special place in her heart for Rosaleen and the treatment Rosaleen had received caused Lily to change her judgement. This change of judgement led to Lily comfortably being able to live with the boatwright sisters and even having a romantic relationship with Zac. Of course, there was times when racist things were said by Lily even after her changing of thoughts. For example when Zac wanted to be a lawyer. “I’ve just never heard of a Negro Lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them”. This shows that lily still bears the racist stereotypes from the propaganda that the whites forced upon her. But Through associating with black women and men, Lily has become openminded and has left the extent of the prejudice behind her and has since grown
from who she was before her journey.
In the beginning of the novel, as the reader is first introduced to Lily’s character, she comes across as an extremely negative young girl. While thinking about
Lily is very irritated because June is obnoxious about Lily’s skin color and the fact that Lily is staying in her house. June prefers that Lily not touch the Black Mary whom they praise. So, Lily runs into the forest and pees. In the forest, she looks down and notices that her pee is the same as June’s. Lily is white and June is black but they are both human. They shouldn't be defined because of their skin color.
Firstly, Brave Orchid is a woman warrior because she receives an education later in life. Kingston writes, “Not many women get to live out the daydream of women – to have a room, even a section of a room, that only gets messed up when she messes it up herself” (Kingston 61). In this passage, Kingston reveals that a woman going off to live at school was not a commonality. Amongst the other women she lives with, she is by far the oldest. Despite the fact that older women are supposed to be wiser, Kingston does not provide any characters at school that share Brave Orchid’s age; she is about twenty years everyone’s senior. Therefore, being a fully grown adult woman attending medical school must have been a rarity. She did not subject herself to
I really was impacted by T. Ray’s quote during the height of the tension about Lily’s past mistakes, “ ‘It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you’ ” (Kidd 299). This moment was one of my favorites because it showed the growth the lead character had made toward not only forgiving her mother, but forgiving herself. When Lily chases after her father to finally get the raw truth about the fateful day her mom died, it reveals that she is finally ready to come to terms with her past, no matter what really happened. At the beginning of the book, she can’t accept her mother’s death, her disappearance, and her lack of love from her parents. Coincidentally, she grasps at any excuse to punish herself because she is unsure of who she is.
The first example of Lily’s coming of age is in her spiritual development. She is introduced to the Daughters of Mary, who connect her to the Black Madonna. When Lily first sees the Black Madonna, she thought that:
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.
Lily’s actions are completely driven by her desire to fit into the upper class part of society and her need to have money to successfully do this. The actions she partakes in to achieve these goals are sometimes harshly judged by other characters, but The House of Mirth seems to almost draw sympathy for Lily from the fact that she is stuck in this role she cannot remove herself from. Even through showing other life paths like Gerty Farish’s, Lily’s options for an independent life where she can live the way she desires are limited. What she was taught as a child, the choices she makes because of her childhood, how being poor is viewed by society, and the unjust view of Lily’s actions are what ultimately both destroys Lily and results in her being shown sympathy.
Ray also has strong prejudice. In the house, T. Ray often mentions Lily “colored women [are not] smart” (78). As a result it affects Lily’s sensibility, because she says, “I thought they could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white” (78). Also T. Ray often calls black people ‘nigger’ which we should never. When Lily and Rosaleen; her housekeeper went to the town, they got into the trouble and T. Ray picked Lily up and blames her. “…Couldn’t pick somebody normal? He’s the meanest nigger-hater in Sylvan…” (38). Additionally, when T. Ray comes to try to take her back in Sylvan, he says, “So you’ve been here the whole time, staying with colored women Jesus Christ” (291), like it is a bad thing to stay with them, because it doesn’t necessary to mention people’s race at that circumstance. Even though Lily was trying not to influence by T. Ray, she has some racism inside of her
Soon after her fourteenth birthday, Lily escapes to the Boatwright sisters’ house in Tiburon, South Carolina, with Rosaleen, who is arrested for assaulting a white man. Upon her arrival, Lily faces different racist situations and meets her first love, a handsome black boy named Zach. The novel The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates that although racism has a negative impact on everyday life, it also influences Zach and Lily’s development in a positive manner. Segregation in South Carolina happens everywhere and every day. Indeed, racism is manifested through the media, the law, which legitimizes segregation, and the perceptions that white and black people have of each other.
Lily suffers from a lot of guilt concerning her role in her mom's death. She still seems to feel guilty. I predict that the image of her mother dying and knowing that she is the cause of death will haunt her. Even though it was an accident and the bullet was supposed to be aimed for her father. Lily will continue to blame herself and wonder how life would have been different if she had taken the right shot; if her mother was still alive.
Throughout the novel, Lily is described several times as having a "being" or second self trapped inside her, a classic
...gh daughter because of her wealth. Lily is aware that marrying for money and social staus will not bring her happiness, but chooses a socially uplisfting life instead of her own happiness. Later in the novel we find out that Gryce marries another woman . This shows the importance of money and social status, and also, how powerful the elite circle, that lily will do anything to be apart of, is. From the previous events, one can deduce that you can never rely on man to bring you to power. The New York circle is so exclusive and elite that you can never be sure of your position, you must constantly plan, plot, and climb your way to the top, and once there you must fight to keep your position. This is the life the Lily Bart wants to badly, in Old New York money, social status, and how other perieve you was the most important things to these woman.
August was correct when she said that Lily must be her own mother. Lily will not always have someone to care for her. If this happens she must learn to care for herself. Lily was also relying too much on the statue of Mary. When the statue of Mary was chained up Lily could not go to her for help.
To begin with, Charlie Gordon experiences pain throughout the novel. “Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it,” (Paine). In the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon is a thirty-seven year old man who is mentally impaired and has a I.Q. of sixty-eight. This quote relates to the novel because it is saying that if anyone wants the benefits they have to go through some bumps to get there. Even though Charlie did get his feelings hurt throughout the journey, his operation had more benefits than costs.
...er without all of that. Poverty is repulsive to that society and overshadows her beauty, the one thing she comes to depend upon as her saving grace. Faced with financial destitution, she is forced to attempt to reconcile with herself; with the values that have been instilled in her since childhood and with her desire for individual freedom. Her desire for individuality is strong and causes internal conflicts, as well as goes against the group mentality of the society she is a part of, leading to external consequences. The reasons for Lily's death are not fully clear, and it remains to be seen whether the overdose was intentional or an accident. Why she died is not as important as is Wharton's message to society from those who attempt to thwart its power: "You win."