Summary Of The Secret Life Of Bees By Bythewood

SLIDEIn 1964, the United States created and enforced laws that would prohibit all major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious, and gender minorities. These laws aimed to end discrimination in workplaces and racial segregation in schools and public facilities such as transport. However that year in South Carolina, the laws were yet to be enforced causing great conflict between the black and white communities. After the Civil Right Acts that occurred in South Carolina coloured people still experienced racism; they still did not have the right to vote. The novel is set when the Civil Rights Act was just passed, many white citizens were angered by the passing of act and as a result continued to treat African Americans in an inhumane manner as illustrated in the novel.

SLIDEThe texts that I have selected are the 2003 novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and the 2008 film adaptation directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Sue Monk Kidd grew up in the segregated South; and is influenced by her father’s stories about African American maids who worked in their childhood home. As a teenager growing up in the mid 1960’s she witnessed the injustices towards the African American community which left a lasting impression assisting in the shaping of her novel. Kidd has used characters and the plot to augment the themes of racial prejudice and the power of a female community. The director Bythewood has altered the initial plot by using film techniques to establish a “Hollywood” film.

SLIDEThe novel is written in first person narrative presenting 1964 through the eyes of Lily Owens a white fourteen-year-old girl living in Sylvan, South Carolina. Kidd’s use of first person narrative allows the reader to demonstrate emp...

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...have the same emotional and interesting results to me as the novel. A reason for this may have been because if the director followed every minor detail of the novel the film would be too long to be shown. I believed that the novel conveyed the background information in a better manner giving the reader insight to setting, history and the nature of characters and their relationships clearer. A reason why I liked the novel better is that there were missing events in the film, therefore when viewing the film I was confused as it skipped events. Another reason why I believe the novel was better is that my imagination was a core aspect whereas when I viewed the film the surroundings, characters and everything overall was already presented. I quite enjoy the aspect of imagination and the details of events in the novel therefore to me I believe that the novel was better.