Racism In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life Of Bees

In the Sue Monk Kidd novel “The Secret Life of Bees” it talks about torture, death, and racism. A 14 year old girl named Lily Owens, who went to explore her mother’s past after being tortured enough by her father. During this journey, her perspective about her past and society changed many times after she experienced racism, torture, and learned about her mother.
To begin with, you can see Lily change of perspective on racism throughout the novel. In the beginning, Lily assumed that all African Americans are just like Rosaleen, who is rude and uneducated. Like when Lily calls Rosaleen dumb for dumping snuff juice on a white person 's boot and not saying sorry (176). However, after living in the Boatwright home, her perspective on racism changed.

At the start of the novel, Lily hated her father (T.Ray) for torturing, yelling at her, and lying about her mother. For example, he poured a mound of grits the size of an anthill on the pine floor. “Get over here and kneel down. ”(40) But Lily is used to the pain and said that she been kneeling on grits since she was six. Other examples in the early stages of the novel are when T.Ray yelled at Lily about her mother “The truth is. Your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she’d go back over get her things, that’s all. You can hate me all you want. But she’s the one who left you. ” (61) After Lily flee from T.Ray and she thought what if T.Ray was home missing me, saying, “Why oh why didn’t I love her better? ” (231) Which show Lily still thinks about T.Ray and whether he cared about her or not. By the end of the novel Lily forgive T.Ray when she said “Daddy” I said. I shouted it. “Daddy! ” (424) and when her dad left, she thought that he probably loved me in his own smallish

At first, she thought that her mother the only one that cared for her as she shouted “My mother will never let you touch me again! ” And “My mother loved me! ” I cried (60) to her father which emphasized how much Lily loved her mother. But after she learned about her mother past she starts to hate her mother saying “It was easy for her to leave me, because she never wanted me in the first place. ” (362) thinking that she was an unwanted child. She later on disliked her mother saying “You should 've let him put her in there. I wish she’d rotted in here” (363) and “Like what? ” I said “Abandon their children” thinking that she a psycho leaving her with T.Ray and not going to come back for her. However, later discover that Lily the one that killed her own mother when she was packing her stuff and about to bring Lily along. She later on realize that the Boatwright sisters and Daughter of Mary were also her mother since they cared about Lily so