The Secret Life Of Bees Book Comparison

The most important part of The Secret Life Of Bees was at the end when T. Ray tried to take Lily back and everyone at the honey farm and all of the Daughters Of Mary refused to let Lily go because they considered her family. I feel this is the most important part of the book because it showed that Lily’s relationships with people she is not related to by blood(and are not the same race) are stronger than the one she has with her own father.

In Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, T. Ray is a frustrated and unloving character who makes an enormous impact on Lily’s character by making her feel self-conscious about herself and not worthy of being loved. T. Ray evokes hatred and disappointment in the reader by permitting this abusive and unfair treatment towards Lily. With his rough and furious exterior that is represented by grits on the hat, he is also proven to be filled with grief and hurt by his wife’s leaving and future death. To hide his heart-break and depression, he lashes out on Lily to build himself up.

Especially because the main character, Lily, has grown up without a mother. And the main problem in the book is about Lily growing up and trying to find out more about her mother and how she was killed. In the Secret Life of Bees growing up really changes the people. Such as when T-Ray at first loved Lily's mom.

The Secret Life of Bees: Changing Characters The Secret Life of Bees is an interesting story with many different characters interacting with each other. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a fictional book written about a young girl named Lily Owens. In the summer of 1964 in Sylvan, South Carolina, a girl named Lily Owens escapes from her abusive father, T. Ray after she shot her mother when she was four. When running away,she searches for the truth about her mother and escapes to Tiburon, South Carolina to the Boatwright sisters.

At the opening of the nov0el, The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd sheds a lot light on the backstory of the main protagonist, Lily. One, by how the death of Deborah, the mother of Lily leavers her father to grow very volatile towards her, and two, by her coming closer towards her maid/stand-in mother Rosaleen, forming a peaceful relationship. In the novel, T. Ray and Lily are arguing about why Lily went off on her own to help free Rosaleen from jail, where she was put in after standing up to the town’s common racist by spilling juice all over their shoes. In the heat of the moment when the two are arguing, Lily shouts “I hate you!” (Pg. 39), to which T. Ray does not hold back and says “Why you little bitch!”

Bees, despite being social creatures, are not capable of forgiveness, or at least to the degree that humans understand it. They are hopeless to let go of resentment and live out their lives in this manner. The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, is an award-winning novel set in 1964 South Carolina. It follows the journey of a young woman, Lily Owens, in her pursuit of the truth about her mother. Lily, with her caretaker Rosaline, leaves her abusive father in the prospect of turning to the people that her mother might have known while she was alive.

“People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different.” Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees, highlights this theme in her work. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, the horrendous events that Lily Owens encounters in her young life are necessary in her journey to adulthood as she develops into a strong, resilient, loving, forgiving young woman. The result of Lily’s mom dying when Lily was only four years old, T. Ray abusing Lily day in and day out, and Lily experiencing racism first hand, have all been a big part of Lily’s young life and have shaped her into the person she is today.

The plot of The Secret Life of Bees never fully resolves since Lily never finds out the truth about her mother, but with a few changes, Lily’s mom will not die, the setting will be in the north and Lily’s mom’s death will be distinctly different which will cause the plot of the story to change. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, there are many events that could have been changed to increase the interest level of the plot. Deborah was supposedly killed by her daughter, Lily. T. Ray, her husband, told Lily she was the one who killed Deborah. The day her mother was killed, Lily only remembers the noise of the gun once the trigger was pulled.

The devastating tragedy of losing a person's mother at an early age can drastically affect that person's life. It can impact the way someone thinks, corresponds with others, and the way someone handles themselves emotionally. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees Lily Owens loses her mother at the early age of four. During Lily's journey she finds comfort and support in the women that she meets. Throughout the novel Lily goes through many changes because of the impact of the motherly figures of the Black Mary, Rosaleen, and the Calendar Sisters.

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.

The Secret Life of Bees delineates an inspirational story in which the community, friendship and faith guide the human spirit to overcome anything. The story follows Lily Owens, a 14 year old girl who desperately wants to discover the cause of her mothers death. Her father T. Ray gives her no answers, which leads their maid, Rosaleen, to act as her guardian. Together, Lily and Rosaleen run away to Tiburon, South Carolina and find a welcoming community. It is in Tiburon that Lily learns many life lessons, including many about herself. In her novel The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd explores a theme of spiritual growth through Lily's search for home as well as a maternal figure.

The Secret Life of Bees begins in the town of Sylvan, South Carolina and tells the story of 14-year-old Lily Melissa Owens. She lives on a peach orchard with her neglectful and abusive father, T. Ray. They have Black maid named Rosaleen who is a companion and caretaker of Lily. The book opens with Lily's discovery of bees in her bedroom and the story of how she killed her mother. The eve before her birthday Lily sneaks out into the peach orchard to visit the box of her mother’s belongings which is buried there however before she can hide them T. Ray finds her and punishes her. The next day Rosaleen and Lily head into town where Rosaleen is arrested for pouring her bottle of tobacco spit on three white men. Lily breaks her out of prison and they begin hitchhiking toward Tiburon, SC, a town Lily had seen on the back of a picture of a black Virgin Mary which her mom had owned. They hitch a ride to Tiburon and once there, they buy lunch at a general store, and Lily sees a picture of the same Virgin Mary on a jar of honey. She asks the store owner where it came from and he gives her directions to the Boatwright house. They then meet the makers of the honey: August, May and June Boatwright, who are all black. Lily makes up a wild story about being recently orphaned. The sisters welcome Rosaleen and Lily into their home. They are then introduced to beekeeping and the Boatwright’s way of life. Lily learns more about the Black Madonna honey that the sisters make. She begins working

“There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.” (The Picture of Dorian Grey). The Book Thief, a historical fiction novel by Markus Zusak set in Nazi, Germany and The Secret Life of Bees, a civil rights era novel by Sue Monk Kidd both offer different interpretations about coping/dealing with guilt. Zusak offers that one should channel their own guilt into making things right and doing what’s best to complete the circle. Kidd offers that to get over guilt, one has to forgive themselves, move on and learn from their mistakes.

“‘People can start out one way, and by the time life gets through with them they end up completely different’” (Kidd 293). This quote from August Boatwright perfectly encompasses what happens to Lily during The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. All throughout the novel, the increased maturity of Lily’s character is very noticeable. At the beginning of the book, Lily, a 14-year-old white girl who is living in the South in the 1960’s, accepts segregation without questioning it. By the end, her perspective on life and others changes to reflect a more sophisticated woman. Through characterization, Lily matures as a person because she learns how to face conflicts as an adult and treat people in a grown-up way.

First of all, The Secret Life of Bees is a 1960’s novel based on a child named Lily, who was bossed around and treated unfairly by her dad T-Ray, which he himself had a black maid named Rosaleen working for him since before Lily was born. Lily and Rosaleen had a very special relationship that had loyalty, trust,