The Secret Life Of Bees Quote Analysis

The author relies upon details and language to convey the speaker’s abandoned and enraged attitude.
In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily felt abandoned when her father, T.Ray failed to exhibit affection and abused her. Some details she mentioned early on, being that: “I had asked God repeatedly to do something about T.Ray. He’d gone to church for forty years and was only getting worse.” When Lily undertook in an activity that irked or agitated T.Ray, he would force her to kneel on Grits, which she reported was utterly painful. Despite her dilemmas, Lily’s main concern in life was to find out if she was definitely the root of her mother, Deborah’s, death. When she questioned T.Ray about this he alleged, “The truth is, your mother ran off and left you.” This left Lily feeling heartbroken by her

mother’s decision, and dissipated by her. She thought that if her mother had cherished her, she wouldn’t have just left like that. Additionally, during the novel’s climax, Lily chased after T.Ray. She inquired the substantial question furthermore, and was preparing for what she perceived he would say. He responded with, “It was you who did it Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” At this point, Lily still felt abandonment by both her parents, but is beginning to finally condone herself for her previous behavior and attitude.
Before long, these dire circumstances enforced Lily to escape and betray T.Ray out of her prodigious exasperation and rage.

She believed that her mother’s death was not her fault, or that she might even still be alive. As a matter of fact, one day, Lily was studying her mother’s possessions, and observed a town called Tiburon on the back of a photograph. This is the location in which she was inspired to escape to in hope of finding some evidence of her mother, Deborah, there. While Lily was in Tiburon, she settled in the “Honey House” along with August, May, and June. There, she discovered that August had known Deborah, and worked for her family when she was young. This revelation made Lily ecstatic to know that she was in the right place. However, T.Ray eventually scouted out her location. But in the end, T.Ray had a change of heart and chose to withdraw from Lily. She pronounced that, “he drove away slowly, not tearing down the road like I expected.” This displays Lily’s attitude towards T.Ray before he had a change of mind. Immediately, the reader could tell how joyful she was with her new life in Tiburon, but was still enraged at her circumstances back home in

Sylvan.
To conclude, specific details and language listed in this excerpt explain Lily’s well-being and attitude in the story. They help show her true identity which also demonstrates her character in a way that is relatable to the reader. By reading this excerpt and detecting that Lily feels abandoned and enraged, I can conclude that her state of mind was put together, but was below par. If it wasn’t for Lily’s tenacity and persistence, she wouldn’t have gotten where she ended up. In the end, Lily was discharged by T. Ray, and therefore was allowed to live a life she adored and cherished. When T. Ray drove off that day, it left Lily dazed, and ecstatic for her new life to come.