More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of the African American literature
African American literature by white people
Influence of African Americans on literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Throughout life, we as readers come across many different stories to read, but there is always a common aspect to gather from each and every story or novel. All of these stories have symbols, whether they are cultural or contextual. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is one of the many examples that shows an extravagant use of symbolism even if it was unintentional. Kidd’s symbol of the Black Madonna that is recurring throughout the entirety of this novel is a staple statement that can be perceived as Lily’s mother or as a clue that will eventually lead Lily to the answer about her mother, the holy mother Mary that is the figurehead of the Daughters of Mary, and it is used to show power with women and even more specifically African American women. …show more content…
In the case of Lily her story is very tragic but growing up she always keeps an interest in her mother, whether it be the guilt or just the curiosity of not knowing that leads Lily to find the picture of the Black Madonna which in this story is seen as the Mother Mary.
Lily finds an address on the back of this image and comes up with the hypothesis that Tiburon, South Carolina was where she would find all the clues she would need to figure out more about her mother. Once Lily decides to leave with Rosaleen the image of the Black Madonna becomes her solace or guidance throughout her journey to Tiburon, South Carolina.
Once Lily and Rosaleen make it to the Pepto-Bismol Pink house the Black Madonna suddenly becomes, not only guidance throughout her continuing journey but also a mother figure to Lily and Rosaleen through the Daughters of Mary. At the beginning of their stay, Lily and Rosaleen both learn about the Daughters of Mary and their lady in chains which is portrayed as the Black Madonna who the Daughters believe that has taken in Lily and Rosaleen as her new daughters over time. Once Rosaleen has accepted Mother Mary Lily starts to see her more and more as a mother figure to all the daughters and the few
sons. Lastly, as a reader goes deeper and deeper into the story they notice how much feminism is within this one novel and just how effective that alone was in giving the characters a personality that embodied feminism as a whole. One of the main times you see the Black Madonna as a sign of feminism is how she is used as a figure for the Daughters of Mary, many religions have many different figures but most are seen as male so for these women to come together and have their faith solely given to the Black Madonna shows just how powerful and magnificent women in the story are and can be.
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.
Lily thinks that the Black Madonna knows her “down to the core” (70), meaning she knows the real reason why she and Rosaleen came to Tiburon. Before meeting the Boatwrights,
In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd Lily has assumptions, biases, and prejudices about race that are changing over the course of the novel.
When May dies, the personified bees rely on their religious and beekeeping connections to overcome their tough times. “August showed us how to drape a square over each box, securing it with a brick and making sure we left the bees’ entrance open” (Kidd 205). This ritual comes from a religious belief about bees having a connection with death; this is another form of guidance from the Black Mary. The grieving family turned to Mary after May’s death, and even Lily found herself in the room housing the statue more often than usual. The Black Mary is starting to become Lily’s guiding force; she even calls it “mother.” Lily asks for Mary’s help in order to be happy again. This help, of which the others are in need as well, allows the community to thrive, even with the loss of one member. Through rituals and prayers the Black Mary helps the Boatwrights and Lily overcome hard
Grief leaves an imprint on those who experience it. Some can survive its deep sorrow, others cannot. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, she explores the effect of grief on the main characters. The novel opens with fourteen-year-old Lily Owns struggling with the knowledge that her mother was dead because she, as an infant, picked up a loaded gun and accidentally shot her. She runs away from her abusive father in search for answers of who her mother was. Lily hitchhikes to Tiburon, South Carolina; the location written on the back of an image of the Black Madonna – one of the only belongings she has of her mother’s. There, she finds a pink house inhabited by the Boatwright sisters who are African American women making Black Madonna honey. The Boatwright sisters have had their share of grief with the death of two of their sisters and the racial intolerance they face despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The Boatwright sisters and Lily Owens have different methods of coping with grief; internalizing, ignoring, and forgetting are some of the ways they cope, with varying degrees of success. They discover that they must live past their grief, or else it will tear them apart.
Lily’s idea of home is having loving parent/mother figures who can help guide her in life. Because of this desire, she leaves T. Ray and begins to search for her true identity. This quest for acceptance leads her to meet the Calendar Sisters. 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.
Heart break, joy, love, happiness, The Book The Secret Life of Bees has it all! The book is about a young girls that accidentally shot her mother. After spending nine years with her abusive, and emotionally absent father, she decides to run away. So, she breaks her beloved nanny out of prison, and Lily escapes to Tiburon South Carolina, a town she links to her mother through the writing on one of her old possessions. While in Tiburon, Lily finds the calendar sisters three very different, very helpful sisters. The family agrees to take Lilly in, despite the fact that almost every white person in town frowns upon the very idea of this white girl staying in an African American household. While staying with the sisters, August, May, and June, Lily learns lots of things, ranging from bee keeping, to why and how her mother first left her. She falls in love, explores her past, and finds it within herself to forgive her mother for leaving her, and herself, for shooting her mom. This book is rich in both emotion, and culture.
word “art” which may imply something about the materialistic world that she tries to be a part of. Interestingly, and perhaps most symbolic, is the fact that the lily is the “flower of death”, an outcome that her whirlwind, uptight, unrealistic life inevitably led her to.
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.
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.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a story about racial struggle between black and white in 1964, which is in the middle of the civil right movement in South Carolina. The narrator and protagonist of the story named Lily raised by T. Ray, her father, who has bias towards black people at all time. Due to the fact that T. Ray often says something regards to racial discrimination, Lily starts to thinks that whites are superior than the others unconsciously. Also Lily was not aware that she is being an unconscious racism because of T. Ray until she starts to live with Boatwright sisters who are black. T. Ray often takes his anger out on Lily since Deborah left the house and it trigged abuses and ignores Lily. Moreover, though T. Ray treats Lily so badly, he seems like and acts like he doesn’t care. In other words, it was impossible to feel any humanity in T. Ray. One of the most important and influential characters named T. Ray is prejudiced, violent and cruel person.
Martin Luther King once said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees fully embodies his idea of equality, by introducing the story of a fourteen-year-old white girl named Lily Owens, who lives during the time of the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina. Lily’s mother was killed in an accident when Lily was a little girl. Ever since, she lives with her father T-Ray, and her black surrogate mother, Rosaleen, in Sylvan, South Carolina.
But this symbolism doesn’t come across in the story, instead the exact opposite of there definition comes across. For instance, from the beginning of the story she talks about having three kids with her at the time of the ceremony which definitely means she=s not as pure as the lily portrays her to be. One of the other things that strike me about this reading is how she thinks of marriage. “She thinks of ropes, chains, handcuffs, his religion”(Walker pg.1). She uses the ropes, chains, and handcuffs as a way of letting the reader know that by getting married, she thinks that’s going to weigh and tied her down. But then she contradicts herself by letting the reader know that after the ceremony the couple will be moving to Chicago to try and rebuild something better then what they have now.
In the story “ The secret life of bees”, The author, kidd, strikingly portrays the relationship between lily and rosaleen because lily was sick and tired of his dad. Since lily’s mother died when lily was at a young age. Rosaleen was the only female influence in her life. Rosaleen puts limits on lily just how a mother would. Even though rosaleen is black and lily is white, lily doesn't care because she acts like a mom that cares a lot for her daughter. She would cook for lily and take care for lily. Lily accidently killed her mother deborah while t-ray and deborah were arguing, but t-ray wouldn't tell lily she did it.
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.