The Secret Lwarfe Of Bees Character Analysis Essay

Secret Life of Bees Essay “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd explores the way of life through the metaphor of a bee’s. Bees represent people and their lives within a home that no one may notice. A range of characters are developed throughout the story from a young girl who escapes a troubled home to a black woman who leads a honey company during the Civil Rights Movement. However, the character I particularly admire is May, a black woman who cares for all creatures while dealing with severe depression.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. ”-Thomas Carlyle. In the novel Secret Life of Bees, Lily is a harmless, kind hearted girl who has experienced much in the short life she has lived. The last time Lily has felt kindness, gentleness, and love was when her mother was alive. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life (2).”

She showed it through the eyes of Mr. March. Slaves were often whipped for not following orders. “Strip by strip the lash carved into Grace’s shuddering flesh. Tears were falling by then, heavy drops, joining the leaf dust with blood that ha begun to trickle from the table” (p.39).

Bees are a mysterious species who have an incredible life that we know nothing about; in connection we live crazy, mysterious, lives with ups and downs; goods and bads. The secret life of bees by Sue Monk Kidd is an extraordinary story about a teenager Lily Owens, her abusive father, her mother, and numerous friends. Lily lost her mother at a young age, so she runs away; she ends up living with a loving family of women and finds mothers within them. She learns about friendships, overcoming, forgiveness, and love. In The secret Life of Bees the author shows theme through conflict and symbolism.

The Secret Life of Bees was written by Sue Monk Kidd. It's an emotional story about a little girl in search of her mothers past, but along the way she discovers herself and who she really is. It's based in 1964 in South Carolina. A little girl named Lilly runs away from her abusive father to follow her mothers footsteps in order to discover her past. After escaping from her father, Lilly and Rosaleen(Lilly's nanny) came across a general store.

American writer Sue Monk Kidd’s fiction novel, The Secret Life of Bees, is set in the interracial landscape of the American South in 1964, where 14-year-old Lily Owens is left to navigate a life of longing based around the blurred memory of her late mother. After fleeing her abusive home with her caregiver, Rosaleen, Lily finds herself living with the Boatwright sisters, who she later discovers are the key to her mother’s past. With the Boatwright sisters, Lily learns about spirituality through the Black Madonna, the fundamentals of beekeeping, and most importantly, the importance of family. She finds herself in a home surrounded by female role models, and is able to fill the hole her parents left behind with persistent love and feminine guidance.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and famous abolitionist, wrote My Bondage and My Freedom in order to prove he was a slave before being an amazing orator and also to prove the power knowledge has when it is used precisely. Originally, Mrs. Auld thinks Douglass deserves to be able to read just like her son. Mrs. Auld later becomes “violent in her opposition” to Douglass’ reading because her husband puts her in “check” (Douglass 521). The author uses his words to appeal to the ethos of the audience by creating a seemingly kind and innocent perspective of Mrs. Auld and later completely reversing it.

‘’ The head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces.’’ (page 38). Douglass appeals to the audience by using imagery in a visualizing way, to give the audience a way to imagine it in their head, to see the hurtful things that went on. The use of imagery from Douglass displayed how slavery was heartbroken. Along with paradox and imagery Douglass uses parallelism to describe how slavery was inhuman by expressing how slaves was frequently whipped.

“A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love” (Connie May Fowler). This quote reflects the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd because the protagonist in the story, Lily Owens, her mother have died when she was four years old and she didn’t feel loved by her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, until she met the Boatwrights family with the housekeeper, Rosaleen, and stayed with them. The Boatwrights family are the three black sisters who are August, May, and June. This novel took place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily grew up and where she found the answer to her questions.

But, he then goes to show how her transformation came to be of a true mistress and how that kind of foolish power corrupted her. She was not a bad person, but being able to control over another human being transformed her from an angel into a demon. Douglass saw the change in her how “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (38). This just shows how slavery affects not just the slave but the slave owners as well. This vicious cycle desecrates and destroys everyone involved.

“The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted.

The Golden Rule found in Luke 6:31 says, “Do unto others as you have them do upon you”. During the early 1800’s humans were brutally abused by other humans. In 1844, Frederick Douglass illustrates his brutal time as a slave through his narrative The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass writes his story using rhetorical elements to convey that slavery should be abandoned because it takes a mental and physical toll on the slaves plus, that slaves need to try and escape from slavery. Douglass uses logos and a periodic sentence to apply logical details to show how worthless and what value the slaves were to the slaveholders.

Kidd uses the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah to demonstrate the theme that people’s lives are more complex than they appear. By using these characters, Kidd demonstrates how judgements are made about people based on their actions. People don’t always think about how a person really feels on the inside and they do not know about everything that goes on in their head. This is a theme that is significant to the world at any time period because everyone can relate to it. Therefore, the theme of this story is significant in people’s lives

Graphic histories allow once bland, and sometimes hard to comprehend text, to transform into a detailed account of history through colorful images. The illustrations in the graphic history give reality to the emotional pain and physical torture slaves endured on the slave trade, and give a better perspective and raw feeling than what a simple paragraph of text gives. These images allow the text to come to life, which can help with feeling the emotions, fears, etc. of those going through the hardships of the transatlantic slave trade. The story of Thomas George and his wife Sarah is told in the primary sources. It once again is told, but also shown in the graphic history portion of the book, and fully portrays the raw emotion of both Thomas and Sarah.

Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.