Book Analysis: The Secret Life Of Bees

In the novel “The Secret Life of Bees”, which is surprisingly not an informative book talking about bees, the main character Lily Owens is set out to be the victim because of her parents. The novel first tells the reader that Lily accidently kills her mother when she was a toddler, and goes on to explaining how her father, whom she calls T-Ray, is an abusive man. He punishes Lily very often in many ways, like making her kneel in grits and speaking to her in an offensive manner. We later find out that Lily’s mother, Deborah, suffers from depression, partly because of the dominance coming from T-Ray, and learn the harsh truth of her leaving Lily. The author, Sue Monk Kidd, gives the vision of T-Ray being a bad father and Deborah being an ethical

There are many reasons backing up the opinion that he shouldn't. Even though he only showed up in the beginning and the end of the book, he has always been what kept Lily from living a happy life without her mother. T-Ray was the main reason, besides wanting to know more about Deborah, that Lily and Rosaleen left. Not to mention, he was also what encouraged Deborah to leave as well. The little things that he also did all added up to making him a horrible father. If he is compared to a father that actually loves his daughter, that type of father would punish her daughter for doing something morally wrong by taking away her privileges for a time, but T-Ray physically punishes Lily for irrelevant things. The reader can hardly find anything good about T-Ray but if the reader chooses to find the sympathy for him, it can be found deeper into the end of the story. When he finds out where Lily is staying, with August Boatwright, his mind quickly goes into thinking that Lily is Deborah because of his past experience. He already knows how it feels to be left by one person and once Lily left him too, all those same feelings that he had when Deborah was gone came back to him. This shows sensitivity to T-Ray because although it can be argued that he deserved what he got, it reveals that he is hurt by what Deborah and Lily did. Also, in the very end of the story, he choses to let Lily live in the Boatwright’s house because he finally understands that she deserves a better home with someone that can treat her