T. Fleckless Quotes

Ray looked at Lily he realized that he couldn't stand her anymore because she looked too much like Deborah, which is when August offers him a way out of the uncomfortable situation. On page 298 she said "Mr. Owens, you would be doing Lily and the rest of us a favor by leaving her here...We love Lily, and we'll take care of her I promise you that. We'll start her in school here and keep her straight." August gives T. Ray a way out of taking care of his daughter and having to be reminded of Deborah and it also solves the major conflict of whether Lily and Rosaleen are going to have to back to Sylvan and stay with T. Ray or whether she will be able to stay with the Boatwrights. Adding on, just as T. Ray is about to leave Lily runs up to him, and asks him what really happened that day when her mother died and on page 299 it states "You didn't mean it, but it was you...Maybe he was telling me the truth, but you could never know a hundred percent with T. Ray." This also is a very important part of the novel because Lily realizes she lost her real mother but when she looks at the porch she has 8 other mothers. On page 302 it states "All these mothers. I have more mothers than any eight girls off the street." This quote is very important because it finally dawns on Lily that she isn't alone, and she doesn't just have one mother but eight of them. Furthermore, another conflict that is resolved, is about Lily breaking Rosaleen out of jail. On page 301 it states "He says they

She is expressed as dealing with “teenage problems” if I do say so myself a lot of issues that most teenagers have: identity, popularity, self-consciousness, and parental issues. The 14-year-old throughout her story feels a deep sense of longing for her mother as she did not know her, because she died when Lily was only 4 years old. In Chapter 1, Lily talks about how she misses her mother, and how she feels completely responsible for the fact that she doesn't have her. This quote, "This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away," is significant to the whole plot, because it helps us understand one of Lily's main concerns and desires. I myself have lost a parent at a very young age, and struggled to comprehend what happened, and how it would effect me through the course of my life. Lily Owens notices that she does not fit and is held back from that fact that her father does not care about Lily's life nor her needs. In Chapter 1, Lily indicates that she is “..worried so much about how I [she] looked and whether I [she] was doing things right, I [she] felt half the time I [she] was impersonating a girl instead of really being

Through use of indirect characterization, Lily’s words and actions reveal a pivotal part of her character: her clever intelligence. This first becomes evident after her African American friend, Rosaleen, spills a cup of her snuff spit on the shoes of a racist white man that was provoking her. The minister at her church is

When a parent dies, any child will cling to the other parent for emotional support and comfort for dealing with such a loss. In Lily’s case, she wanted her fathers support more than anything but he was cold, abusive, and stuck in the past, that he wasn’t able to give her anything except for take his anger out on her, when she disobeyed him. Although if someone does not get that support from the other parent, and if someone else is there that is understanding and kind, its amazing to see how much you can start to really rely on them and grow a close relationship. When Lily deals with the loss of her mother and the poor treatment of her father, she doesn’t know what to do with herself, she has a load of all different kind of emotions, and it really harms her well-being. Lily deals with guilt because she has visuals that she was the one that killed her mother, and on top of that she has her father telling her that her mother left her and she just abandoned her, making Lily feel unimportant and then at the same time guilt. Rosaleen is the closest role model that Lily has for a mother, Rosaleen cares and sticks up for Lily but Lily doesn’t really have the mother-daughter connection with her. Although Rosaleen provides comfort for Lily, she helps her with her father and in return Lily defends Rosaleen as well as save her life from the hospital after she got beaten.

Since her mother died she has had to put up with her abusive father who doesn't really care about Lily. Having to not only deal with this but the fact that she doesn't have any friends in school doesn't really help. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” Lily says this in the beginning of the novel. This is an important quote showing Lily’s bravery because Lily’s life has been profoundly affected by her mother’s death. This statement suggests that living with someone else’s death can be more painful than dying. She grew up without a mother and the taunting guiltiness that she killed her own mother. In some ways I share this quality with Lily. At times I can be a brave person but like everybody else I'm not always so brave. One time when I was brave was when I was first coming into the high school. I was always so nervous at just the thought of high school so when the big day came I was very anxious. I was brave enough to get through it all and now I'm more comfortable in the

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

Lily shows her non-racist side in the very beginning of the book, after Rosaleen has been put in jail for spitting on a very racist white man’s shoe. She willingly sneaks into jail and attempts to free Rosaleen, but gets sent home with the racist and mean father, T. Ray. She once again tries to free Rosaleen, and this time sneaks into a hospital to free her. Lily is successful this time, and runs away with Rosaleen.

All throughout the book, The Secret Life of Bees, August Boatwright’s character is a very kind person who takes care of the people she cares about. August went to school to be a teacher but became a house maid instead. August worked for Lily’s mother’s family when she was younger, taking care of Deborah when her family wasn’t around. ..TRANSITION… Ever since Lily showed up on August’s

Ray, her father, change due to his action. “Dear T. Ray, Don’t bother looking for me. Lily. P.S. People who tell lies like you should rot in hell.” T. Ray tells Lily that her mother left her when she was a couple of years old.

She went from telling T.Ray everything he didn’t want to hear to running away from home. Lily says to her father “You don’t scare me” (Kidd 38). She had finally stood up to her abusive father and states he doesn’t scare her even though deep down he does. She cares because she realizes what will happen after she had said that and the fear started to diffuse throughout her body. Later on in the book after she runs away Lily calls her dad to talk to him and he's yelling at her telling her he's gonna beat her when he finds her so she takes it well and hangs up.

In the book “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover the main character, Lily, changes throughout the book due to being abused by her husband. Before Lily was exposed to the realism of domestic voice she was naive and selfish For example, “ I swear, sometimes I get so mad at her for staying with him” - Colleen Hoover, ( 64). Basically, Lily’s dad had been abusive to her mother for a long time. Lily cannot comprehend why her mother would choose to stay with a man who would cause such a terrific amount of pain onto her. Lily believes that her mother not leaving her father is preposterous.

Lily longed for love and attention, something her father and caregiver, Rosaleen couldn't seem to give her. The reality was that Lily lived in a time that segregation was intact and John Fitzgerald Kennedy was trying to launch rockets to the moon. The author used symbolism, for example space, to show the lost nature of Lily’s character. “Fourteen and my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit” (1). Lost in thought, Lily always was thinking about what would happen if her mother was around. She was forced to follow her father's orders or she would be hit or shoved. This made her want to create as much distance between her and her father as possible. On the back of her mother's picture it said Tiburon, South Carolina. Maybe in Tiburon she could have a better life and bring her closer to her mother? Lily and Rosaleen hatched a plan to escape. As they left town they were confronted by a group of white men. Rosaleen spat on their shoes in protest of her rights. Then she was beaten up and sent to jail. T. Ray (Lily’s father) was furious! At this pivotal moment Lily knew she must leave. Confidence grew throughout Lily, she got Rosaleen out of the hospital and left to Tiburon. Before she left she gave T. Ray a note saying, “Dear T. Ray don’t bother looking for me. Lily P.S. People who tell lies like you should rot in hell” (42). This is a major turning point in this book because Lily had never stood up to her father like that.

Luckily for Lily, she comes upon the Boatwright sisters once she reaches Tiburon. Because of the fact Lily does not have anyone to share her love with, she is compelled to stay and live with the Boatwrights. At one point in the novel, Lily and August are having a conversation when August asks Lily “What else do you love Lily?”(Kidd 39). Lily then thinks to herself, “No one had ever asked me that before. What did I love? Right off the bat I wanted to say that I loved the picture of my mother…but I had to swallow that back”(39). Lily does not feel comfortable enough yet that she says, “ I love writing poems, just give me something to write, and I’ll love it” despite the fact that Lily really loves August (39). She loves August so much that she would rather stay in Tiburon with the Boatwrights than be with her own father T. Ray. The loss of Deborah results in Lily going to obtain love somewhere other than her own home. This is also why Lily takes Rosaleen with her. Rosaleen is a black nanny who used to work on T. Ray’s farm. She has been there for Lily in the past but she cannot always be there one hundred percent because of her race. Due to Deborah’s death, Lily does not have a mother figure, however, he journey to Tiburon with Rosaleen proves to be a success as she finds the Boatwrights and strengthens her relationship with her nanny, Rosaleen.

Right after learning her mother left her, Lily decides to target her, not realizing the other factors that came into play when her mother did leave her. Lily refuses to forgive or even acknowledge why her mother could have left her, which results in her spiraling into a mental disarray that consists of her morals becoming destroyed. This is directly shown by how shocked August is, as previously, she had never known Lily to be so hurtful when talking about others. However, she is now acting terribly towards her mother, leading to Augusts’ reaction and the reader to learn that good morals cannot be made if forgiveness is not met first. Moreover, this is also shown with T. Ray, as his inability to forgive his wife and daughter led him to take part in malicious behavior.

She went out of her way to help Rosaleen escape from the hospital and help her be happy unlike others that would have seen Rosaleen as just a house maid and wouldn’t really care for her as much as Lily did. After this particular event happened in the story, a different impression on Lily came to my mind. I now see her as an overall strong person. I see her this way because despite her dealing with her Mom dying and having a rough life living with Dad, she still managed to push that away and helped others when she felt like they needed