The Search for a Better Reality
Life is not easy. It is all about surviving the storms that you will eventually have to face. As a result, sometimes people feel overwhelmed, and they try to find ways that will allow them to break away from reality. In most cases, individuals resort to escape either because they want to be relieved from all of their responsibilities, or because they are trying to avoid facing unpleasant truths or painful situations.
Everyone deals with tough circumstances in a different way. For example, some folks try to avoid problems and painful facts in their lives by drinking, or even doing drugs. They know that using these substances will not solve their problems, but it will buy them some time free of stress and
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Take, for example Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees or Katie Crouch’s Men and Dogs. The Secret Life of Bees is about a young girl named Lily Owens, who searches for answers to her mother’s death, while Men and Dogs talks about a now grown woman named Hannah Legare that is looking for answers to her father’s disappearance. Both of these novels focus on characters that constantly try to get away from difficult situations, or even reality itself. Also, in these works of literature, the protagonists try to escape from the truth. Yet, in contrast, they both eventually realize that facing the facts is much more liberating than avoiding them. Thus, clearly these two novels have a lot of similarities especially when it comes to their main …show more content…
For example, Lily Owens would read books whenever she got the chance (pg. 15) because they would allow her to live in a different world, where she was not being abused, or degraded. Also, they were her only hope of becoming someone in the future (pg. 16), and escaping from spending a miserable lifetime with T-Ray (pg. 25). Likewise, Hannah Legare started to drink because she wanted all of the problems she was facing to vanish. Alcohol was a way for her to ignore everything hurtful in her life. Also, it gave her an excuse for repeatedly cheating on her husband (pg. 25), and for screwing up everything good in her
People share their secret lives without even talking about them. It only takes a glance or feeling to see that others have faced similar situations and problems, some people even live parallel lives. Despite the fact that many people believe it impossible for a measly insect, like a bee, to know the pain hardships a human faces, Sue Monk Kidd proves them wrong with her book The Secret Life of Bees. In her novel she derives many of her characters from the types of bees that exist in a hive. Lily and Zach have characteristic that are akin to that of field bees, August has that nurturing personality of a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is revered by her subjects just like a Queen bee is by her hive. Nowadays, no one ever faces a problem that someone, or something, has already faced. No one really has a secret life all to themselves.
The Secret Life of Bees is a fictional novel by Sue Monk Kidd that is set in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act, in Sylvan, South Carolina. The book focuses on the fourteen-year-old Lilly who runs away from her abusive father, with her servant Rosaleen to Tiburon, S.C. In Tiburon, Lilly uses one of her deceased mother’s treasured possessions, a black Virgin Mary, to lead her and Rosaleen to Black Madonna Honey produced by the Boatwrights sisters May, June, and August. These three sisters take in both Lilly and Rosaleen; putting Lily to work in the honey house where she is finally happy for the first time since her mother was killed. Lily is running not just from her abusive father but from the memories she has from when she was four-years-old, specifically the time when she accidentally killed her mother. This book gives a poignant analysis of this fourteen-year-old girl as she demonstrates the concepts of attachment styles, dating, parenting style, self-esteem, and the cohort effects of the generation she lived in.
In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the themes and issues presented in the book are illustrated in various ways. Within the passage on pages 150 to 151, Lily is in a state of euphoria while surrounded by the bees. When the truth that she killed her mother starts to set in, it becomes evident that Lily transitions to a state of dysphoria. The structure of this passage demonstrates the dramatic change of feelings which highlights the lack of a motherly figure in Lily’s life. The author uses imagery and figurative language as well to define Lily’s existence within the real world versus her “dream state” by comparing Lily when she is with the bees to her actual existence. By using structure and imagery, the author illustrates
Everyone has to deal with struggles during their everyday life. Some people’s problems are more serious than others, and the way that people deal with their problems varies. Everybody has a coping mechanism, something they can use to make the struggle that they’re going through easier, but they’re usually different. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people pretend there is no problem. There are healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and people will vary the one they use depending on the problem they’re facing. In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author and her family deal with their struggles in multiple different ways as time goes on. However, the severity of her situation means that the methods she uses to deal with it are very important. That’s why it’s bad that Jeanette’s and her family have such unhealthy coping mechanisms, such
...nsequences for their thought about actions. Hopefully growing strong and overpowering the weakness in their life. Similar circumstances also occur in other aspects of life. For example I myself would like to go to a specific university, though I was not excepted. With this I must attend a near by community college for two years increasing my chances of getting into the university. It is hard to escape not going to the community college if I know my chances will be better attending the community college. The idea of “escape” can be portrayed in several different ways.
There are many issues that occur in an individual’s life that can be stressing, hard to deal with, and overwhelming. The world tends to search for drugs or alcohol to forget about reality. There are situations
In The Secret Life of Bees, readers find that the second third of the book contains many plot twists and emotional distress amongst the characters. At first, Lily is told about the story of Our Lady of Chains with the Daughters of Mary—a religious group August had organized from before. Lily longs to touch the heart of the statue, but June practically forbids her from it. Later on, Lily meets Zach—a Negro boy her age—and befriends him. When she thinks Zach does not believe in her writing, Lily breaks down. Zach helps her and tells of how she will “be a fine writer one day.” (129).
The main characters in The Secret Life of Bees and The Fault in Our Stars share similar experiences in their journeys. Lily and Hazel both learn their circumstances make them in no way unloveable. They both learn in different ways that letting go of what one knows and stepping out of comfort zones is good. Lily and Hazel go through moments of insight that change them, challenges that complicate them and experiences that mature
...ce, although both writings are interesting in their own ways, the most interesting aspect of both writings together is that they both have a similar plot and theme. It is rare that two
Ruth, Elizabeth. “The Secret Life of Bees Traces the Growth of Lily’s Social Consciousness.” Coming of Age in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2013. 63-65. Print. Social Issues in Literature. Rpt. of “Secret Life of Bees.” The Globe and Mail 2 Mar. 2002: n. pag.
Throughout societies, individuals from time to time are constantly faced with inevitable life circumstances and crises in varying areas of their lives where they are forced to employ coping strategies as a way of dealing with their situations. Such skills can either be healthy or unhealthy where effectiveness varies and is based on subjective reports derived from individuals. Likewise, within the field of mental health, individuals encounter struggles in different areas including emotional, social, cognitive and psychological where their ability to engage in effective reasoning and problem solving becomes impaired thus allowing them to become incapable of making appropriate decisions. Conversely, many such individuals resort to inappropriate
A human has a strong desire to survive and ready to transgress his inner borders and break his principles to save his life. There are three aspects of survival: psychological, emotional and physical survival. They are all related to each other and in order to sustain one has to go through all three stages. A person has to struggle with themselves: they have to breakdown their internal principles such as high morality and deep religious commitment in order to come through Psychological, Emotional and Physical survival.
Why does one escape reality and what consequences do his or her actions hold? Evading real life can be a way to cope with the harshness of the world or can be an innocent activity for fun. Sometimes being excessively imaginative will force someone to be naturally less confrontational with his or her real problems. Therefore causing him or her to go through the motions every day, without specific goals or hopes of improving his or her life. Escaping reality can be harmless temporarily but can show negative effects when repeated.
Why do we escape? Us human beings all belong in a place called reality. Reality seems to be a very neat thing to be in, but sometimes people need to escape. Reality can be a cold world, a scary place; this emotion filled consciousness of actuality can be very difficult to withstand and encompass in. Life is a constant pattern or ritual performed throughout each day. Starting from childhood we begin with school, wake up, go to school, and then back home for homework and dinner. No matter how old we get we receive more rituals and tasks to perform in repetition each day. Never growing out of it, once someone becomes an adult a new routine begins by having constant work. Work not only comes out to be one of the most dreadful things in ones mind, but it is controlsyour whole life. By controlling your whole life, things like fun do not exist. People enjoy escaping because there is a difference between reality and escape; escape is a wonderful state of ecstasy. Instead of being at your routinely job, escape gives you a feel that nothing else can, it makes you feel like you are flying out o...
Facing the Truth Should people always tell the truth, or is it sometimes better to lie? Some people prefer to hide themselves behind a wall of lies, rather than face the truth and deal with it. It is an incontestable fact that truth hurts, but without it, people can never create trustful relationships or reach real happiness. This can be observed in family relationships. Every family has secrets that remain hidden somewhere in the deepest drawers; secrets that people keep in order to protect themselves, or their beloveds.