Akeelah and the Bee is a story of a girl caught between two worlds, her home life and the academic world of school and spelling bees. The story contains diverse and interwoven issues for the heroine, many of which are reminiscent of the trials of the "scholarship boy" described by Richard Hoggart in "A Scholarship Boy," and retold as the experiences of Richard Rodriguez in his "The Achievement of Desire." Each deals with a young intellectual who comes from a modest background and who struggles to excel academically and also maintain familiar connections with family and friends.
One of the main themes characteristic of all three works is the alienation from family and friends as studies require more effort and allow less time for more pleasurable pursuits. The character of Akeelah is presented to us in the film with the sense that she may already be feeling alienated from segments of her peers, as the camera hovers over her teacher's shoulder as she passes back a spelling test, showing Akeelah is the only one to receive a one-hundred percent. Later, a scene is shown depicting older girls calling Akeelah "freak" and attempting to coerce her into "taking care of their English homework" (Akeelah and the Bee). Her brother, catching her watching a tape of the national spelling bee, tells her, "you going up against a bunch of rich, white kids. They gonna tear your black ass up" (Akeelah and the Bee). These apparent feelings are both justified and intensified for her after winning the regional spelling bee and becoming something of a local celebrity. When she returns home from winning she finds her mom chastising her brother, who has just been dropped off by a police officer. The wind is taken out of her sails as her mother, attempting to impress a point on her son rather than appreciate the accomplishment of her daughter going to the state spelling bee, says, "while you doing that I'm gonna be identifying your brother here in the morgue" (Akeelah and the Bee). On the one hand, her accomplishment brings praise from her principal, the media, and some of her classmates. On the other, the divide begins to force distance between her and those to whom she had been close. She finds herself forced to lie to her mother in order to continue her education, forging a signature to a consent form to allow her to compete in the upcoming bee.
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.
In life, actions and events that occur can sometimes have a greater meaning than originally thought. This is especially apparent in The Secret Life Of Bees, as Sue Monk Kidd symbolically uses objects like bees, hives, honey, and other beekeeping means to present new ideas about gender roles and social/community structures. This is done in Lily’s training to become a beekeeper, through August explaining how the hive operates with a queen, and through the experience Lily endures when the bees congregate around her.
This “home” that she finds brightly displays the ideas of identity and feminine society. Though Lily could not find these attributes with T. Ray at the peach house, she eventually learns the truth behind her identity at the pink house, where she discovers the locus of identity that resides within herself and among the feminine community there. Just like in any coming-of-age story, Lily uncovers the true meaning of womanhood and her true self, allowing her to blossom among the feminine influence that surrounds her at the pink house. Lily finds acceptance among the Daughters of Mary, highlighting the larger meaning of acceptance and identity in the novel. The meaning behind Sonsyrea Tate’s statement can be found deeply rooted within Sue Monk Kidd’s novel, The Secret Life of Bees.
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
Themes such as motherhood, racism, and the bees’ hardwork are included in The Secret Life of Bees,written by Susan Monk Kidd, in order to show and highlight the hard times that the each character faced. This novel highlights Lily’s path from a child to young adult. She now sees with more clarity in subjects of racism and her new family. Her path started innocent and uneducated and ended up being very whole and educated. In Lily’s growth throughout this novel, her trials and tribulations were shown. In The Secret Life of Bees, there are many words and phrases referenced and used that stay full of wisdom, courage, and female
Aibileen has seen many the harsh side of life such as the death of she son. An example of this was when she was raising Mae Mobley which wasn’t the first child to be mistreated but was the first child she really felt a connection to protect her and this was seen when she was fired and was heart broken that she had to leave her because she knew that know that she is going to grow up to the norms to that of her people and will be forced to follow those norms. Also because she was already exposed to such environments for example for not already been potty trained or because she is a fat baby. Aibileen tried her best to protect from the harsh reality by being the mother Mae Mobley never really had. Aibileen want to raise Mae to love who she is and to teach her about racial equality. The director use colour to show the difference in class and race such as when showing a white community it's more colour and when you see the colour is more dull and never changing, which give different vibes such as when there is a colour it shows happiness and wealth and if it was dull it shows sadness and poverty.
Aoki challenges cultural norms, including all of the things she is discriminated for. From identifying as queer to being a trans woman of color, she has a lot of battles to fight, but does so in a way that it does not detract from the meaning of her writing. From having fewer resources available to her to what is expected from writers today, her discrimination is a problem that needs to be faced. Discrimination is still very prevalent in today’s society and attacking it through the form of writing is a peaceful way to make a strong point. Relating Aoki’s struggle back to class, a frequent theme that is seen across various pieces is the role that discrimination plays. It often limits a person by crippling what options and resources are made available to them, which is clearly seen in the case of Aoki. However, despite these limitations placed on her because of the way she identifies, she has a tougher path compared to her colleagues, yet she does it. She persevered and now tours the countries giving lectures and readings in spite of the odds against her. Aoki is just one great example of how despite the odds can sometimes be against—sometimes in more way than one—nothing is impossible if one has the necessary drive and desire to achieve their goal.
Richard Rodriguez’s chapter excerpt “The Achievement of Desire” illustrates an example of the scholarship boy. Richard Rodriguez defines scholarship boy as when a person from a working-class background desires to assimilate into a high state of being. The character, Paul, from John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation (1990), represents Richard Rodriguez’s scholarship boy, by trying to assimilate into the culture of the white upper society that he is not apart and losing his own identity by repudiation of his original “working class” language, and also putting up his scholarship boy persona to connect with the higher class by using the scholarship boy’s mimicry, his
...d express herself and her opinions. Anzaldúa’s mother pressures Anzaldúa to conform and limits because of her fear. Cooper’s and Anzaldúa’s family influence them in different ways, but ultimately both harm their ability to express themselves and develop unique identities.
A beehive without a queen is a community headed for extinction. Bees cannot function without a queen. They become disoriented and depressed, and they stop making honey. This can lead to the destruction of the hive and death of the bees unless a new queen is brought in to guide them. Then, the bees will cooperate and once again be a prosperous community. Lily Melissa Owens, the protagonist of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, faces a similar predicament. While she does not live in a physical hive, the world acts as a hive. She must learn to work with its inhabitants, sharing a common direction, in order to reach her full potential. The motif of the beehive is symbolic of how crucial it is to be a part of a community in order to achieve
Miline, Ira Mark. Ed. "The Secret Life of Bees." Novels for Students. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Print.
Little Bee, by Chris Cleve, is a novel that explores unthinkable evil, but simultaneously celebrates its characters in their ability to transcend all that weighs them down, including their pasts, their secrets, and their flaws. For the character of Little Bee, identity is inescapably tied to ethnicity, nationality, gender, race, and class. A representative passage of the book that explores Little Bee’s point of view (both its unceasing optimism and stark realism) occurs in the final chapter: Little Bee is awoken from a good dream, and then comes the ominous first sentence, “There is a moment when you wake up from dreaming in the hot sun, a moment outside time when you do not know what you are” (Cleave 258). Little Bee is questioning her identity at just the moment when she should be most sure of it. Because Little Bee has been seeking a home, a family, and belonging, and has seemingly found it, the reader realizes that it is still uncertain. Still there is hope: Little Bee is hampered by the weight of her past; yet she is a character that has proven she can overcome the boundaries of her identity and change her station in life.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is a story about racial struggle between black and white in 1964, which is in the middle of the civil right movement in South Carolina. The narrator and protagonist of the story named Lily raised by T. Ray, her father, who has bias towards black people at all time. Due to the fact that T. Ray often says something regards to racial discrimination, Lily starts to thinks that whites are superior than the others unconsciously. Also Lily was not aware that she is being an unconscious racism because of T. Ray until she starts to live with Boatwright sisters who are black. T. Ray often takes his anger out on Lily since Deborah left the house and it trigged abuses and ignores Lily. Moreover, though T. Ray treats Lily so badly, he seems like and acts like he doesn’t care. In other words, it was impossible to feel any humanity in T. Ray. One of the most important and influential characters named T. Ray is prejudiced, violent and cruel person.
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.
Nadia van Heerden is a loving and motivated orphan with an ambitious dream to become the head girl of her school. Her hard work, however, is sabotaged time and again by the tomboy Hetwieg, the sly Susan and Nadia's best friend, Melissa, all of whom are also competing for the title. The opening scene begins at the award ceremony where in Nadia’s dream, Nadia is selected as Hoofmeisie, this scene starts in harmony, but soon turns out to be a catastrophic when comments are passed down to Nadia and the mothers of the children begin to bicker. When Nadia awakens from her dream, she acknowledges herself as Hoofmeisie, sparking a great dislike from her grandmother who has lost hope because of the constraints that have knocked her down.