Review Of Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

Classics explore aspects of human identity and reveal how people struggle with mistakes and pain, how people realize their own childishness, and how to learn from mistakes. The Secret Life of Bees, set in the American South in 1964 amid racial unrest, tells story of Lily Owens, a white 14-year-old girl who is searching for the truth about her deceased mother. She lives on a peach farm with her cruel and abusive father, T. Ray, who tells Lily that she accidentally shot her mother, Deborah, when she was four. Lily accompanies the family’s black housekeeper, Rosaleen, to town to register to vote. Taunted by white men, she spills the contents of her snuff jar on their feet, is beaten, taken to jail,

and later in the hospital. T. Ray reacts by punishing

Lily, prompting her to run away to search for the secrets of her dead mothers past which she is haunted by. With Rosaleen, she heads to South Carolina to investigate a picture of her mother's of a black Madonna with the words “Tiburon, SC” written on the back. In a store, she sees jars of honey with the same picture, leading her to the black Boatwright sisters- August, June, and May who has bees and harvests honey. In the Boatwright household, Lily finds love and acceptance and begins to come to terms with the guilt she feels and the truth over her mother's death.
1. Historical Influences
The author of The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd had many historical influences when writing this novel.

She even lived during the time in which she wrote this novel. She saw and heard racism and hatred towards African America when she was growing up. The novel is based on Kidd's personal experiences of growing up in the segregated south. She puts her personal experiences of growing up in the novel to show how bad of an issue segregation was while she was growing up. Kidd used specified memories and social matters in her novel to show you how her life was as a child. She was an immensely religious woman and this is shown throughout the novel by the characters of the Boatwright sisters. Using the Boatwright sisters in her novel showed that she had brawny conviction. In the novel the Boatwright sisters created a church in their home to practice their beliefs which may have been unorthodox. Boatwright sisters and Kidd's beliefs were selfsame. She used her beliefs to create the novel and make the novel feel like you were living in it. Kidd lived in a very important part of history which shaped the world into what it is today and she wanted to show you her experiences in her novel by using her real life

experiences.
2. Biographical
Sue Monk Kidd was born on August 12, 1948 in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University was a B.S. in nursing in 1970. Throughout her life she worked as a registered nurse and college nursing instructor at the Medical College of Georgia. In her 20s, she was influenced by the writings of Thomas Merton to explore her inner life. In her 30s, she took writing courses at Anderson University in South Carolina. She soon, then began a career as a freelancer, writing personal experience articles, and found immediate success. She then wrote a personal essay for a writing class which was published in Guideposts and reprinted in Reader's Digest. She went on to become a Contributing Editor at Guideposts. She then wrote her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees that was published by Vikings in 2002. It became a genuine literary phenomenon, spending more than two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been translated into 36 languages, sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S., and 8 million copies worldwide. The novel was named the Book Sense Paperback Book of the Year in 2004, long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize in England, and won numerous awards.
Kidd was influenced by many different things while writing this novel. she was influenced by Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Kate Chopin's The Awakening. She also listened to the honeybees in the wall of her home, which helped create the title of the novel. The content illustrated in paragraph one and two showed why she wrote the novel. She clearly wrote the novel based on her childhood growing up and what happened in her real personal experiences. Kidd said “I vividly remember the summer of 1964 with its voter registration drives, boiling racial tensions, and the erupting awareness of the cruelty of racism. I was never the same after that summer. I was left littered with memories I could not digest. I think I knew even back then that one day I would have to find a kind of redemption for them through writing. When I began writing The Secret Life of Bees, I set it during the summer of 1964 against a civil rights backdrop. It would have been impossible for me to do otherwise.” She knew while she was growing up that she was going to write about her childhood growing up and all the racism and different issues that had happened throughout her childhood. Kidd herself was not not racist, however her family did follow the ideals of the segregated south. Kidd's family had an African American housekeeper while growing up. The housekeeper which was Rosaleen in this novel was most likely represented who the housekeeper was while she was growing up. She was influenced by the housekeeper to write the novel when she grew up.
3. Critical Analysis
There are many different themes in the novel. The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates the irrationality of racism, which is one of the themes, not by not only portraying black and white characters with dignity and humanity, but by also demonstrating how Lily struggles with and ultimately overcomes her own racism. Kidd moves beyond stereotypes to portray whites and blacks with the multifaceted personalities that we find in real life. In the very first chapter of the novel, Lily describes her mother, beginning what will be an overarching theme throughout the novel. Lily suffers tremendous guilt for killing her mother, and at night she dreams of dying, meeting her mother in heaven, and asking for her forgiveness. Lily has little doubt that her mother will kiss her and forgive her for 10,000 years. The power of female community is another theme in the novel. Motherless Lily finds at the Boatwright house several surrogate mothers and learns the power of female community. At the beginning of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily longs for her mother and cherishes the few possessions Deborah left behind. She demonstrates an awareness of her femininity and laments that she has missed out on certain female lessons because her mother is dead. A main theme in the novel is bees. Bees serve as Lily’s unspoken guides throughout the novel. In the beginning, they come to her room to relay the message that she should head out on her own and leave T. Ray’s house. Likewise, Lily follows the trail of the honey label to Tiburon and to the truth about her mother. In Tiburon, she lives in the honey house, and tending bees become her occupation.
4. Critical Response Analysis
The critical responses in this novel were overwhelming of exuberance. Luanne Rice said “The Secret Life of Bees proves that a family can be found where you least expect it-maybe not under your own roof, but in that magical place where you find love. The Secret Life of Bees is a gift, filled with hope.” In addition, The State said “A powerful story... Kidd's writing is sharp and descriptive. Before the first chapter had ended, I had recoiled, I have cried and I had laughed. I was also entranced, and knew I had to make the journey with Lily, her endearing caretaker Rosaleen and the marvelous Calendar sisters.... Let us hope that Kidd has more stories to tell.” With tears and laughter, so quickly in between, it is easy to see why these two critics had such overwhelming reviews.
5. Conclusion
Sue Monk Kidd has written a beautiful novel about mothers and daughters and the overwhelmed power of love. This is the tale of a young girl’s way to heal, and of finding, at the end, not only wholeness, but the sacredness of living in this world. “The Secret Life of Bees” has an uncommon intelligence about life, about mothers and daughters and the women we have in our lives who can become our real mothers. It is the type of story that women tell each other and that mothers will pass to their daughters for years to come.