“Lets imagine for a moment that we are tiny enough to follow a bee into a hive. Usually the first thing we would have to ge used to is the darkness”(Kidd 82). The bee is an insect that spends all day working: working to create a home, working to spread pollen and working to create honey. A bee's life and the society of bees can be closely related to the life of humans. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the author conveys her lessons about human life through the imagery of bees. Bee's need a queen in order to survive. While there are thousands of worker bees per successful hive, the queen, lays the eggs and the thousands of bees worship her; August teaches Lily, “'...they all depend on her to keep [the system] going… …show more content…
However, her father, T. Ray thwarts this and will not allow Lily to bring books to the peach stand. The job becomes tedious and boring, “I just sat out there and thought about how much I hated the peach stand, how completely and absolutely I hated it” (Kidd 16). Because of this, Lily is unable to ever begin to try to find her role in life, as she is forced to do one she clearly does not belong in and does not enjoy. Kidd clearly mirrors the way males are portrayed in the hive and in the society in which Lily finds herself. In the bee hive males are of minimal use; “Each colony is a family unit, comprising of a single, egg-laying female or queen and her many sterile daughters called workers... Males are reared only at the times of the year when their presence is required” (Kidd 66). The bee hive does not need males in order to survive, over the course of the story Lily also learns that male presence is unneeded in order to survive and have a family. In the novel males are viewed in a negative light (with the exception of Zach and Neil). Every male Lily has been in contact with was harsh and showed no respect for women. Her father teaches her to be a victim of male abuse and does not show her any kindness. Her Nanny Rosaleen also threw her husband out of the house after three years of marriage because he was abusive. Next she encounters the white men who hit Rosaleen and send her
Nurse bees have a gift for nurturing, and they always feed and care for all the baby bees. August depicts all of these aspects in her every day actions. She was once even a maid who raised a small girl, Deborah Fontanel, to womanhood. August is also a big sister, so she has the inclination to nurture and care for May and June whenever they need her. Nurse bees are substitute mothers to all the baby bees in the hive. August is similar to them in that way as well because she acts as a substitute mother to Lily since Lily's mother is dead. August also has the obligation, as a beekeeper, to take care of all the bees in all the hives that she controls. She has to keep them cool in the summer and carefully keep the whole bee society running smoothly. The queens have to be healthy, the workers have to do their jobs, and none of this would happen without August taking care of everything. A nurse bee is the most self-sacrificing bee of all. They give up their freedom to take care of others. When it came to the color of the house, August even said, “Well this is the tackiest color I’ve ever seen, and we’ll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May’s heart like
Kidd is the author of the Secret Life of Bees and her full name is Sue Monk Kidd. The way Kidd portray Rosaleen and Lily relationship in the book called “The Secret Life of Bees” is like a child and a caretaker but Rosaleen is like a mother figure for Lily. Even though they are not related by blood, Rosaleen and Lily care for each other. You know, as in the story it talks a bit about Rosaleen and Lily past. Plus the story gives some hints of what kind of relationship Lily and Rosaleen have.
"New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first locating her circle of attendants." (57) This quote is at the beginning of chapter three and not only foreshadows many things to come, but within the quote, two of the novel’s main metaphors are mentioned, bees and the queen, which is referring to society and a mother figure. Although this quote is largely interpreted as a metaphor for Lily looking for a new queen or mother figure, and perhaps August being that mother, I believe that it has another meaning as well. I believe that the Black Madonna also serves as a “queen” and mother figure to all the women in “The Secret Life of Bees.”
Lily starts off stuck living in an unloving, abusive household and decides to free herself from the negative atmosphere that she had been living in her whole life. Lily is perpetually abused by her father. He forces her to kneel on Martha White's, gets exasperated every time she speaks, and yells at her for no reason. Lily is not the only one noticing the terrible treatment, Rosaleen does too. Once after Lily had to kneel on the Martha White's Rosaleen said to her, “Look at you, child. Look what he’s done to you” (Kidd 25). Noticing the unloving treatment Lily gets, Rosaleen knew that their household was demoralizing place for Lily to be in, which is why she didn’t question when Lily when she later runs away. Lily one day realizes she needs to do something about her horrible life at home. While sitting in her room she hears a voice in her
Throughout her fourteen years of living with surly T-Ray in the little house next to the peach groves, Lily feels numerable emotions during the unfair treatments and hardships she endured from her father. Lily does not feel worthy or meaningful at her slovenly home with T-Ray.
“To know that a hive without a queen bee was a death sentence for the bees. They would stop work and go around completely demoralized”(kidd 286). In the quote stated above Sue Monk Kidd states that bees are solemnly attached to their queen. If she dies they feel a lack of guidance. Similarly in her book The Secret Life of Bee, Lily Owens has to live her life without a mother figure that can guide her through life. Because of an abusive father lily had no other option than leave the house and find a place where someone cared about her.in the novel secret life of bees author sue monk kidd uses the bee hive without a queen bee to portray how an individual's life is without the presence of a mother figure to provide guidance, love, and acceptance.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a book discussing the internal strife of a young white girl, in a very racist 1960’s south. The main character, Lily Owens, faces many problems she must overcome, including her personal dilemma of killing her own mother in an accident. Sue Monk Kidd accurately displays the irrationality of racism in the South during mid- 1960's not only by using beautiful language, but very thoroughly developed plot and character development. Kidd shows the irrationality of racism through the characters in her book, The Secret Life of Bees and shows that even during that time period, some unique people, were able to see beyond the heavy curtain of racism that separated people from each
A threatened bee will sting its aggressor, and it will subsequently die. The insect will remain peaceful and tame until it realizes it is in danger, then it will give its life to defend its home. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, a 14-year-old named Lily learns about how her mother died. She ran away from home and with that, a whole wave of confusion and anger stemmed from learning the truth and facing her fears. From all this, we can learn how we should strive for acceptance.
This concept leads Lily to believe that the Virgin Mary is in many ways her mother, even though she is a mother to thousands of other people as well (Emanuel 41). Lily receives support and love from August and the community like the bees, though it is a secret to the rest of the world. The bees act as pathfinders for Lily as she learns more about herself, along with Zach
Lily, a fourteen-year-old white girl, lives alone with her father, a peach farmer, in Sylvan, South Carolina. As the novel opens, she lies in bed, waiting for the bees that live in the walls of her bedroom to emerge and fly around, as they do most nights. T. Ray, her father, is abusive and does not believe her story about the bees. Her nanny and housekeeper, Rosaleen, believes Lily but also thinks Lily is foolish for trying to collect the bees in a jar. Lily recalls her very last memory of her mother, Deborah, who died when Lily was a small child. Lily thinks that she played a horrible part in Deborah’s death. In a flashback, readers learn that T. Ray told Lily that she accidentally shot Deborah while Deborah and T. Ray were fighting one day.
As my passion for reading papers grew stronger, I passed by a book called the secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd that removed a veil off my eyes to see beauty in the world. The comparison Monk used of secret life of bees to secret life of human beings, made me aware the effect of my presence to someone besides me. I might not know how hard the secret life of someone is but loving and caring can loosen the burdens that I can’t see.
A bee is an insect that lives in every part of the world except the North and South Poles. Bees are one of the most useful of all insects. There are 20,000 species of bees in the world (154, B: Bees). Bees get their food from flowers through pollen and nectar. They collect tiny grains of pollen and nectar from flower blossoms. Sticky nectar gets attached to the tiny hairs that cover their bodies and is distributed when bees travel from flower collecting nectar (201, B: Bees). Bees make their honey from nectar and use both honey and pollen as food. When bees are collecting nectar for food, they spread pollen from flower to flower. The process of pollination allows plants to reproduce as well as feeds the bees. Bees have become completely dependent on flowers for food. Flowers, in turn, rely heavily on bees to
Bees are busy when they are inside a beehive. There are many different jobs that a bee has and some bees have important jobs that they have. Some female bees are the workers they are the ones who takes care of the eggs. They are their to watch the queen bees eggs that she lays. Let’s see how many jobs inside a beehive.
Honey bees are one of the most important insects to the survival of the human race. They are an extremely important part of human survival because they are pollinators. Honey bee populations are declining due to colony collapse disorder, it is important for humans to become educated about honey bees in order to save them from extinction. Beekeepers are just as important as the bees because they play the most active role in keeping the population of the bees steady and helping make sure the bees keep pollinating.
Bees are vital to farmers and ranchers because they’re necessary to keep their crops reproducing.