Sophomore English, Ms.Nigro In the book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the first chapter starts off with a few scenes, which show what life is like for Lily at home and the relationship she has with her black caretaker, Rosaleen. In these first few scenes, you can see the effect which Jim Crow Laws has on her life and the symbols that seem to be significant for the story. The first scene which includes both of these elements, is where Lily talks about Rosaleen’s scent, as well as the love they have for eachother. In the beginning of the story, Lily tells the readers about how her mother is no longer alive and that she still remembers the scent of her perfume. A few pages later she says, “her scent floated out to me, dark and spicy like the snuff she packed inside her …show more content…
This is important in the development of the story because it shows that Lily feels that Rosaleen, could be a replacement for her mom. In the same scene, Lily talks about the time she realized Rosaleen really did love her because she stood up for her. When T-Ray, Lily’s father, threatens to kill the bird Lily got from the mercantile, Rosaleen stands up for Lily. “He started to scoop at the biddy with his tractor-grease hands, but ROsaleen planted herself in front of him”(page 11). After doing this Rosaleen talks back to him, telling him that he should not touch the bird. This is important in the development of the story, since it shows that even though it is against Jim Crow Laws to talk back to a white person, Rosaleen still believes in standing up for what is right. The next scene which is significant revolves mostly around Jim Crow Laws and once again addresses Lily’s relationship with Rosaleen. “Once in awhile I had us living in a foreign country like New York, where she could adopt me and we both could stay our natural color”(page 12). Through these daydreams, it is clear that Lily thinks of Rosaleen as a mother to her and wishes that she could
In The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily lacks a mother figure in her life, which leads her on a compelling journey as she desperately searches for answers about her true mother. Her abusive father, T. Ray, causes Lily to run away along with Rosaleen, the housekeeper. They are led to the Boatwright household by one of the few things Lily still possesses from her mother, a Black Madonna Honey label. Lily is given the opportunity to create a mother-daughter type bond between her and the Boatwright sisters. August, one of the sisters, acts as the “queen bee” throughout the story. August teaches Lily that a mother does not have to be someone who you share blood with, but rather, a mother is
Equality is something that should be given to every human and not earned or be taken away. However, this idea does not present itself during the 1930’s in the southern states including Alabama. African Americans faced overwhelming challenges because of the thought of race superiority. Therefore, racism in the southern states towards African Americans made their lives tough to live because of disparity and inhumane actions towards this particular group of people.
In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily has assumptions, biases, and prejudices about race that are changing over the course of the novel. Lily was raised in an extremely racist environment with T. Ray in Sylvan. Her mother figure and her best friend were harassed just walking down the street. Even the church folks who claim to love, but I guess African-Americans didn’t count. She also had to break Rosaleen, the woman who played the mother figure in her life, out of jail.
According to pages 31 and 32, Lily said, “I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.” She was the bee, flying to feel the wind, but full of emptiness because she couldn’t find her flower; her mother. Since the age of 4, Lily grew up without a mother. After the bees came the summer of 1964, she thought, “Looking back on it now, I wanted to say the bees were sent to me. I want to say they showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, setting events in motion I could never have guessed.”(32) The bees set the course of the novel, and finally, at the end of the novel, helped her find closure for her
At the beginning of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily was a completely different person compared to her behavior at the end of the novel. While she lives with her father, T-Ray, an abusive and cruel man, Lily feels insecure. For example, on page twenty-five, Lily quotes, “My knees had been tortured like this enough times in my life that I’d stopped thinking of it as out of the ordinary; it was just something you had to put up with from time to time, like the common cold.” Specifically, Lily is referring to the times her father had her kneel on grits as punishment. Since Lily was always tortured and had no mother, she felt unloved and isolated. For instance, on page eight, Lily said, “T-Ray didn’t believe in slumber parties or sock hops, which wasn’t
Sue Monk Kidd’s book, The Secret Life of Bees has an epigraph in every chapter that parallels the events in the story. In Chapter 14 the epigraph says, “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. - The Queen Must Die; And Other Affairs of Bees and Men” ( Kidd 277 ). The epigraph in Chapter 14 is related to the chapter because it parallels Lily’s adventures and role in the story. The queenless colony the epigraph mentions is talking about the absence of Lily’s mother and how it affects the characters in the story. A mournful wail is a metaphor to the guilt she feels because she is responsible for her mother’s passing. Lily keeps these feelings of remorse and guilt kept inside for a majority of her childhood. Lily has been trying to find a new life, and she does this by becoming the new queen, finally having control of her life.
Danny Thiemann Mrs. Fleetwood English I-C 13 April 2014 Separate but not equal Does the name Jim Crow ring a bell? Neither singer nor actor, but actually the name for the Separate but Equal (Jim Crow) Laws of the 1900s. Separate but Equal Laws stated that businesses and public places had to have separate, but equal, facilities for minorities and Caucasian people. Unfortunately, they usually have different levels of maintenance or quality.
A poignant and touching classic, The Secret Life of Bees details the coming of age stories of a young girl named Lily. Her life up until the start of the novel was hard, she was friendless with an abusive father and a heavy conscience, as she believes that she is responsible for her mother’s death. Lily’s only solace is her stand-in-mother, a black woman named Rosaleen, so when Rosaleen is hauled to jail for standing up for herself, Lily decided to run away to a mysterious town that has some linkage to her mother. Her escapades lead her to three, wonderful, eclectic, devout followers of Mary, and to a new life. As the story unfolds, an elaborate symbol lies hidden just beneath the surface, one that seems so obvious, but only lies as a hidden
From 1877 through the 1960’s was a shameful time for American history. Most southern states had passed laws known as “Jim Crow Laws”. Jim Crow was a slang term for a black man. These laws were very anti-black, meaning they were established to ensure black Americans failed before they ever got to start. These laws also set out to make African Americans feel inferior to white Americans.
In the 1964 in the South, racism was a huge issue for people. The civil right act of 1964 allowed the right to vote, confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America, public education, injunctive relief against discrimination and use of public facilities. The South had a struggle accepting the equality. The southern whites felt like they needed to maintain dominance over black people. They decided to humiliate African Americans with words and physical abuse. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees the author Sue Monk Kidd archives to portray racism with the protagonist, Lily Owens. He demonstrates Lily’s life engaging racism and her own priorities towards the African American.
Lily and Rosaleen arrive on the outskirts of Tiburon, after a combination of hitchhiking and walking, hungry and tired. As Lily shopped in a convenience store for lunch, she noticed a jar of honey with the picture of the same black Mary as her mother’s picture. The store clerk points them in the right direction and they end up at the Botwright's house. As she is conversing with August Botwright, Lily notices something peculiar. As she lies on her cot she thinks to herself; “T. Ray did not think colored women were smart.
The predominant symbols found in The Secret Life of Bees contributed greatly to the structure of the literature. The development of the writing’s structure, shown through increased emotional appeal and conflict description, was directly related to the usage of symbolism within the story. The passage reads, “‘They had all these little fish they’d caught fastened onto a stringer. They held me down on the bank and hooked it around my neck, making it too small to pull over my head,’” (Kidd 229). One of the symbols present in the text is a necklace of fish that Lily was forced to wear as a child. The necklace summarized the intricate issues that Lily was dealing with in her present life. The issues were like a tight necklace that could not be
Rosaleen is the disciplinary figure in Lily?s life. She is tough and sometimes mean but really she loves Lily. Lily knew that ?despite her sharp ways, her heart was more tender than a flower skin and she loved her beyond reason?. Rosaleen also shows her love for Lily when she avoids telling Lily that her mother left her. She knew this would break Lily?s heart.
The bees symbolize Lily’s unspoken guides throughout the novel. Kidd’s constant reference to the bees indicate that Lily eventually understands the importance of female power in the bee community, which she connects to her own life. When Lily initially sees the bees in her room, Rosaleen warns her that they can sting her if she tries to catch them, but Lily ignores her and continues to trap them, thus asserting her determination. Later, the bees reveal the message to Lily that she should leave her father. Kidd notes that one bee landed on Lily’s state map that she kept tacked on the wall, foreshadowing Lily and Rosaleen’s journey to Tiburon (10). The bees also symbolize the secret life that Lily lives as she hides her secret of running away from home. The hive represents society while the bees represent all of the humans inside. August tells Lily about the hives and announces, “Most people don’t have any idea about all the complicated life going on inside a hive. Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything about” (Kidd 148). The beehive cannot sur...
During the beginning of the civil rights movement, racial segregation was a growing issue in the southern United States of America. The Jim Crow laws were enacted in the 1880’s and their soul purpose was to enforce separation of the races. Jim Crow laws were a set of black codes, in which mocked black citizens of the Southern United States and enforced racism. “‘Jim Crow’ was a derisive slang term for a black man” (A Brief History of Jim Crow 1). These laws got their name from actor Thomas Dartmouth, who would impersonate and mock African Americans citizens and servants. Thomas, would paint himself black to appear African American, while this was very offensive it seemed to amuse the Caucasian population. The Jim Crow laws are an example of