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Character Analysis Of Lily Owens In The Secret Life Of Bees

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Phi·los·o·phy- the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, more so when considered as an academic discipline. Throughout The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens shows her thoughts on life and what it meant to her. At the start of the novel, she is an innocent girl whose reality comprised of kneeling on grits and an angry T. Ray. Once she has the truth of her mother’s death etched into her head, everything Lily considers is right became wrong. In a matter of hours, she aged from 14 to 40 years of age. With age comes wisdom, and as she progressed throughout the novel, her philosophy of life changed with her. By the end of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens experienced love, anger, happiness, and sadness in larger doses than most 14-year-old girls. With …show more content…

Mrs. Henry, Lily’s English teacher, said Lily must live past 14 to have a philosophy of life, and in a way Lily did. In a matter of hours she aged from 14 to 40 after going through an emotional and physical event. Another reference to her being “older” is in the hospital when she said she is now old enough to swear. “I’m fourteen now. I guess I can say it if I want to,” (Kidd 49). T. Ray never paid attention to Lily’s birthday, yet every year she hopes the current year would be “the one” which shows she still ponders whether he may have kindness in him. All the references to her age show Lily’s philosophy is one that deals with age. Lily also had knowledge of the outside world and what is going on outside of her small town. “Who was winning- the white people’s team or the colored people’s team? Like it was a do-or-die contest….I knew they would not take this

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