”I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King Jr. (Reference). In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kidd, the protagonist of the story, Lily Owens narrates the novel in the first-person, describing events she experiences from her unique perspective and retelling the stories told by others in the same sort of manner. Throughout this novel, Lily witnesses a lot of violence, in the forms of Racism, Physical Abuse, and Emotional Harm towards other people in the novel, as well as herself. Firstly, when Lily and Rosaleen walk through the small town of Sylvan, Rosaleen gets an irrational amount of racist remarks from the towns three racist
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In the novel, T.Ray would make Lily sit on her knees, atop metal grits, which were like mini nails as a way of punishment. Lily states “He poured a mound of grits the size of an anthill onto the pine floor, and said “Get over here and kneel down." “(Pg. 40). And she also goes on to “I’d been kneeling on grits since I was six, but still I never got used to that powdered-glass feeling beneath my skin.” (Pg. 40), clearly revealing that this was not the first time her father has physically abused her in this type of way. T.Ray also attacks Lily emotionally by telling her very, arrogant things like “You think that god damn woman gave a shit about you?” (Pg. 60) and then goes a step further to hurt her even more by saying "The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd come back to get her things, that's 62 all. You can hate me all you want, but she's the one who left
In the novel, T.Ray would make Lily sit on her knees, atop metal grits, which were like mini nails as a way of punishment. Lily states “He poured a mound of grits the size of an anthill onto the pine floor, and said “Get over here and kneel down." “(Pg. 40). And she also goes on to “I’d been kneeling on grits since I was six, but still I never got used to that powdered-glass feeling beneath my skin.” (Pg. 40), clearly revealing that this was not the first time her father has physically abused her in this type of way. T.Ray also attacks Lily emotionally by telling her very, arrogant things like “You think that god damn woman gave a shit about you?” (Pg. 60) and then goes a step further to hurt her even more by saying "The truth is, your sorry mother ran off and left you. The day she died, she'd come back to get her things, that's 62 all. You can hate me all you want, but she's the one who left