Lily Owens Reflection

The main character of The Secret Life of Bees is Lily Melissa Owens, a 13-year-old girl (who turns 14-years-old later in the book on July 4) who lives with her father, Terrence Ray Owens (referred to as T. Ray), who is an abusive father. The year this novel is placed in is 1964, with all of the events occurring within a few months. Lily and her cruel father have lived on a peach farm alone since Lily’s mom, Deborah Fontanel, died when she was four-years-old. T. Ray informs Lily that she accidentally shot her when he and Deborah were fighting. The next day, Rosaleen, the black housekeeper, wants to go into town in order to register to vote, and Lily wants to go with her. While they are there, they meet some racists, and Rosaleen gets into some trouble when …show more content…
The two also meet Zach, who is a tall, handsome, intelligent Black high school student with intentions of becoming a lawyer. Lily develops feelings for Zach. At first, she does not know how to feel about having a crush on a Black man, but eventually she accepts it. Lily wants to figure out if and why her mom was in Tiburon, but she is too nervous to come clean with August. Throughout the rest of summer, Lily works as a beekeeper with August, and Lily realizes to overcome the prejudices she holds against black people. One day, Lily is with Zach, and they visit a lawyer’s office because Zach wanted to talk to him. While Lily is there, she calls T. Ray, who is extremely angry at her for running away; Lily realizes that was a bad decision. After Lily saw May lead roaches out of the house with graham crackers and marshmallows just how Deborah did, she breaks down and asks May if she knew a Deborah Fontanel. May says yes, and Lily now knows her mother has been in this house at some point. Lily goes to talk to August about this, but she decides to ride into town with Zach instead. While Lily and Zach are there, Zach and his group of friends get into trouble with some white men, and one of