“The Secret Life of Bees” By Sue Monk Kidd In the novel, “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, the story reflects the time when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved. Tension is rising in the southern states of the United States where most of the people there are against this bill. One of these states is South Carolina where the story takes place. It tells the story of Lily a fourteen year old girl living in Sylvan, South Carolina with her abusive father called T.Ray and a black maid named Rosaleen. After having to confront some troubling events, Lily and Rosaleen get to stay in the house of the Boatwright sisters, who are known to make the best honey in South Carolina. T.Ray had already fought in the war. He is a resentful and an angry man. The main cause of his behaviour is because when her wife died, she was about to leave him. This causes him to take out all of his anger on his innocent daughter, being really cruel sometimes towards her. At the end of the novel, Lily’s father let her stay with the Boatwright sisters. This decision is consistent with T.Ray’s character because it shows us how he is a careless, unloving and prideful person. First of all, T.Ray is a careless person. For example, he does not take care of his daughter even though it’s somehow a father’s obligation to take care of his children. As mentioned in the novel by the protagonist, “As I fixed T.Ray’s plate, I considered how to bring up the delicate matter of my birthday, something T.Ray had never paid attention to in all the years of my life, but every year, like a dope, I got hopes up thinking this year would be the one’’(21). This tells us how T.Ray does not c... ... middle of paper ... ...ve to his daughter, Lily explains how he reacts, “He seemed suddenly ashamed. I watched him pushing out his lips, trying to gather back his pride, his anger, all that thunderclap he’d first come striding in here with” (296). Furthermore, she explains with her point of view of why he wants her to come with him, “Even as he said it, I could tell he didn’t want me, didn’t want me back on the farm, didn’t want me to be reminded of her. Another part of him –the good part, if there was such a thing–might even be thinking that I’d be better of here. It was all pride now, all pride. How could he back down?” *(297). It was only because of his pride that he did not want to leave her with the Boatwright’s. In conclusion, T.Ray’s character is in consistent with the decision that he made to leave Lily with the Boatwright sisters because he is careless, unloving and prideful.
T-Ray character is harsh and cruel after Lily's mother died. Without a mother Lily does not have any support exept Rosaleen who "wants" to protect her but doesn't want to get beaten by T-Ray. When Lily's mother was around, T-Ray's character might have been nicer to lily than before. But he still had attiude with Lily before the aciddent. "Get into your god damn room!". This quote shows that T-Ray's charcter still had some attuide towards Lily. When Lily's mother died, T-Ray had more power to punish Lily with harder conditions. "T-Ray never believed in slumpber parties or the junoir varisty cheerleading." This illustrates how Lily's mother could of changed her life even thoughout the misery of T-Ray. T-Ray's character now is selfish and does
much time with him. Ray had always longed to see his father again and this
As strong, independent, self-driven individuals, it is not surprising that Chris McCandless and Lily Owens constantly clashed with their parents. In Jon Krakauer’s novel, Into the Wild, Chris was a twenty-four-year-old man that decided to escape the materialistic world of his time for a life based on the simplistic beauty of nature. He graduated at the top of his class at Emory University and grew up in affluent Annandale, Virginia, during the early 1980’s. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily was a fourteen-year-old girl who grew up in the 1960’s, a time when racial equality was a struggle. She had an intense desire to learn about her deceased mother. Her nanny, Rosaleen, with whom she grew very close over the years, raised Lily with little help from her abusive father. When her father failed to help Rosaleen after three white men hospitalized her, Lily was hysterical. Later, Lily decided to break Rosaleen out of the hospital and leave town for good. While there are differences between Chris McCandless and Lily Owens, they share striking similarities. Chris McCandless’ and Lily Owens’s inconsistencies of forgiveness with their parents resulted in damaged relationships and an escape into the unknown.
Lily shows forgiveness and understanding towards her mother in the quote at the top of page 277, “a queenless colony is a pitiful and melancholy community; there may be a mournful wail or lament from within...Without intervention, the colony will die. But introduce a new queen and the most extravagant change takes place” (277). In the beginning of the novel, the queen bee represents Deborah, Lily’s mother. When she passes away Lily’s life spins out of control. However, forgiving not only her mom and dad, but herself has allowed a new queen to take order, August. When her father finds out where Lily’s been hiding all this time he goes to take her home, “I looked into his eyes. They were full of a strange fogginess. ‘Daddy,’ I said.” Lily has stated from the beginning that T. Ray has never earned the title of ‘Dad’; Lily calling him Daddy, is her way of forgiving her father for everything he put her through. Lily has been through more than most fourteen year-olds can imagine. Her learning to forgive her mother her father and herself has gotten her to finally open up, and make friends. She can finally stop living her life with regret of the past, and of her mother's death, and
Thirdly, we need to look at the poem “Icarus” by Wendy A. Shaffer. The poem is talking about free will versus obedience and conformity through the main character Icarus. The title named Icarus and nothing more, suggesting to the reader that this is solely about him or that we should concentrate on him. The poem opens with asking if what thoughts passed in Icarus’ mind as he approached the sun and his wings began to melt. The speaker of the poem that Someone who question Daedalus’ role as the father or someone who thinks of Icarus as adventurous and maybe even a bit careless. After that It then moves on and asks if Icarus ever questioned his father’s motives. The poem ends with his fall and the final questions about failing fathers, but the
“You are Ugly!” “Go Away” “Nobody Likes You” “Go Die!” Things like this are said to people everyday just because they might be different. As you can tell our society is not the most accepting. “The House of The Scorpion” accurately reflects this. It shows how people are discriminated for being different, how money influences and corrupts people and how power corrupts people.
Lily’s biases in The Secret Life Of Bees have altered greatly; she now knows that people of color have the ability to fend for themselves, and that they can be strong and influential people. The most outstanding thing that has caused Lily’s biases to change is the Boatwright sisters. August Boatwright was the person that took Lily by surprise, Lily was raised with this false philosophy that because she was white, she was superior, more intelligent than African Americans. “At my school they made fun of colored people’s lips and noses. I myself laughed at these jokes, hoping to fit in.
“Instinctively, with sudden overmastering passion, at at the sight of her helplessness and her grief, he stretched out his arms, and next, would have seized her and held her to him, protected her from every evil with his very life, his very heart’s blood… But pride
T. Ray from The Secret Life of Bees seems to be mean and horrible in the novel, but this essay proves otherwise. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd takes place in South Carolina during the Civil Rights Era, where Lily, the main character, lives. This time period is an important part of American history and many of the characters go through some dramatic changes and discover new elements of themselves. The focus of this essay will be on T. Ray, Lily’s father, who grows as a character throughout the novel, and is dishonest and controlling in the beginning of the novel. This is in view of the fact that T. Ray is very protective of Lily, but learns to let her go, realizing that she is better off with the Boatwright sisters.
She learns that her family has been harvesting secrets about her laotong, Snow Flower and takes the anger out on them. Once the daughter with little to no value, Lily was now Lady Lu and greatly valued by her parents because of the gifts she brought from her husband’s family. Unfortunately, Lily no longer has the love and desire for attention from her family. Lily says, “My parents were happy to see me when I returned…But to be honest, I was not happy to see them…I rebelled in small ways, isolating myself emotionally and physically as best I could.” (See 135). Lily realizes that her family never really valued or loved her, rather they valued the marriage and friendship she had with individuals that had a higher class status. They lie to their daughter in order to maintain their relationship with the woman who matched their daughter with a wealthy man. The family desires money more than being honest to their daughter. The relationship between Lily and her family continues to deteriorate when they feel she ignoring them believing that she feels she is better than them. Once again, in See’s novel, the desire and gain of money ruins a
Throughout her childhood, Lily had always longed for her parents’ affection, but being a daughter she is aware that she is considered a burden. Lily has always seen herself as someone in need of training and attention to make her worthy of the life for which she is intended. Within Snow Flower she discovers the possibility for her desires to be met; to be loved and to be acceptable within the standards of their male-dominated society. Lily says of Snow Flower, “… I wondered how I could make her love me the way I longed to be loved” (See, 57). Young Lily with the innocent desire to be loved is a window showing us her insecurity and vulnerability to the society. Lily looks up to Snow Flower as if she were perfect, as someone who she aspires to be like. It has been conveyed several times within the novel especially during Lily’s daughter days how she sees Snow Flower as someone superior to herself. Throughout the course of the book we come to understand that Lily fears rejection more than she feels compassion for the needs of Snow Flower. Lily’s friendship with Snow Flower has had a major effect on her priorities within life. Snow Flower’s unfortunate marriage to the butcher and slaving under her mother-in-law was what drove Lily’s train of thought. Lily’s relationship with Snow Flower has
This passage defines the character of the narrators’ father as an intelligent man who wants a better life for his children, as well as establishes the narrators’ mothers’ stubbornness and strong opposition to change as key elements of the plot.
Lily has a lot of mother figures in her life. In ?The Secret Life of Bees? two mother figures that she has are Rosaleen and August. A mother cares for her young and guides them trough life. She comforts and soothes them when they need it. Lily?s Mothers are Rosaleen and August. Both act as mothers for Lily in different ways.
Now, he has to go. As if to make it okay in someway, he says, ""I'm like my father. The bastard son of a bastard! See how he grins? And he's been absent going on sixteen years!"
This passage reveals a personal truth because, throughout the chapter, Ray keeps repeating how she never wants to ...