Specific Roles of Characters Depicted in Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees

1089 Words3 Pages

Everyone has a secret life that they keep hidden from the rest of the world. Lies are told on a daily basis in order to keep these lives stashed in the dark. In The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees are the ones that have the most secret life of all. They each have their own specific role to play deep within the hive. It's obvious that the author had meant for some of her characters to portray the roles that these buzzing insects have to dutifully fulfill every duty. Lily and Zach are the field bees, August is a nurse bee, and the Lady of Chains is the Queen bee.

Field bees have great navigational skills tireless hearts. They go out to the fields everyday and gather the nectar and pollen from all the flowers and return it to their hive. Lily and Zach both have great navigational skills and tireless hearts. Not to mention they go out every day to help gather all the honey from the fields just like the bees gather nectar and pollen. Lily traveled all the way up from Sylvan, Georgia to Tiburon, South Carolina without much help at all. That takes both a lot of luck at least some skill. Zach navigates all over South Carolina in his truck on a daily basis throughout the summer to gather honey. They both have skills in finding their way around. Lily's tireless heart is always searching for love from her father, whom she calls T. Ray, no matter how many times he crushes her with his words and actions. In the novel, Lily even says, “Thirty-tow names for love. Was it unthinkable he could speak one of them to me, even the one reserved for lesser things like peanuts in your Coke?” Lily would accept any glimmer of hope that would mean T. Ray loved her. Even after T. Ray mentally and physically abused her, Lily’s heart still woul...

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...sents the Queen bee in every way.

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.

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