The Themes Of Conflict In The Secret Life Of Bees

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The Secret Life of Bees “The Secret Life of Bees” is an adventurous book that tells the story of a teenage girl name Lily who grew up abused by her father, T.Ray. The story takes places in Sylvan, South Carolina 1964 when this state was crawling with racists. Lily had a negro caregiver, Rosaleen, that she loved dearly. Given the racist tones in Sylvan, this caused Rosaleen to be discriminated. Already resenting living with T.Ray because of her abuse, and the desire to find out what happened to her dead mom, Lily runs off on an adventure with Rosaleen in a quest to find find these answers. Throughout their adventure Lily and Rosaleen face many challenges together which compromises their friendship. Lily’s personality was influenced mainly by T.Ray, Rosaleen, and August. T.Ray’s abusive behavior had a negative influence on Lily, silencing her voice and opinion causing Lily to lack confidence. She never thought …show more content…

Some may choose to do something and change for the positive. Others may not, and conflict can have a negative influence. There was a good amount of conflict throughout this book. One example of this conflict is when T.Ray and Lily fight over Lily’s mother leaving. Lily believes her mother left because of T.Ray, while T.Ray says she left because of Lily. They get into an argument and the following day she decides to leave. This choice and reaction from the conflict brings Lily to a more supportive environment with August, May, and June. Another conflict within the story was when Rosaleen was taken to prison. This showed a different, protective side of Lily that we had not seen yet. This conflict showed her strength and from this point on she started to grow and decided to be stronger. Throughout the story, Lily experiences a lot of conflict. Each of these experiences forced her to make decisions and many of her

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