Analysis Of The Book ' The Secret Life Of Bees ' Essays

During the time period of the civil rights movement, there is a disagreement on what the American dream should be. The African Americans from “The Secret Life of Bees” seem to strongly agree with James Truslow Adams idea of the American Dream. Although most of the white people have a different perspective on the American dream, Zach, along with all of the other African Americans dream of equal opportunity for everyone, to be judged as a person and not their race or by how much money they have, and to be able to achieve their best.
While the white people believed that they were superior to the black and deserved more opportunities, the blacks were fighting for the ability to have the same opportunities that everyone else around them had. When Rosaleen ends up in an altercation with Franklin Posey, Franklin, being white, was able to get away with harming Rosaleen. Police Officer Gaston tells Lily, “’She took a fall and hit her head.’” Lily, knowing he was defending Franklin, thinks, “Took a fall, my rear end. I wanted to throw his boiled peanuts against the wall” (45). Knowing Gaston’s bias, Lily knows real well that Rosaleen was not given an equal opportunity to defend herself like Franklin, or no opportunity at all. If Rosaleen had the opportunity to tell the truth, Franklin would have been caught for hitting and concussing her, but if that would have happened the inferior black would have won. Even though Rosaleen knows she has to face adversity to achieve equality in…