How To Write An Essay On The Secret Life Of Bees

‘’Knowing can be a curse on a person’s life.’’ In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd the main character, Lily, runs away from her abusive father (T. Ray) after they had a fight. Lily had one goal in mind; finding out the truth about her mother whom Lily had accidentally killed. Along the way she meets August, June and May. Three black women who decided that Lily could stay with them until her problems were resolved. When Lily decided to face the secrets around her she was only looking for answers, but she got more than that because the secrets were too much for her to handle at the time. As time progressed she could understand, and handle them better and make better decisions to not repeat the same mistakes. Facing her secrets made her …show more content…
After she found out the truth about her mother, Lily said ‘’… once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is now yours.’’ She had realized that even though she got what she had wanted. She thought that she could handle the truth but she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to face it, to learn from it or to accept it which she realized much later when thinking back at this event.
What Lily also realized was that she could be racist, she didn’t mean to be racist, but that’s just how things came out. ‘’… I thought they [colored people] could be smart, but not as smart as me, me being white.’’ Lily grew in a community where racism was acceptable, her views and reflections were ‘’altered’’ by the people around her. She only realized this much later when she understood more about racism. At the time, Lily didn’t know enough to know what she actually thought about colored people, she had just been badly influenced by those around her, such as her father.
Even though Lily had some racist thoughts, she later learned that it was wrong and she got to see it for herself when introduced to August, June and