Violence In The Secret Life Of Bees

Although there are many repeated usage of violence, the novel The Secret Life of Bees should be included in all high school curriculums because it allows the students and teachers to throughly understand the historical and literary context of the society during the period in which the novel is set.
Sue Monk Lee included violence in her novel to weave the racial tensions of the 1960's into the voices of each lead characters. The actions, thoughts, and emotions of each characters helped captivate and draw the audience in by bringing the readers to understand the dangers of racial inequality, and the basic human elements that bind individuals together despite class or skin color. In order to guide the readers to fully understand the historical issues of the southern society, violence was necessary in the novel. The use of violence helped students and teachers throughly understand the racial southern history and issue by bringing out discussions about …show more content…
Talking and discussing about violence can help bring comfort to the victims of these violent acts. This can also help the readers visualize how brutal these violent actions were in the past. By visualizing this, the readers will have a better understanding and knowledge of the historical context. Therefore, having an open discussion can help bring awareness to this issue regarding racial violence while just staying silent will only make the problem worse. An example of violence in the novel is, "Last night the television had said a man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote.." (Lee 44). Racial violence was very common after the Civil War. Even though slavery was outlawed, there were several laws enacted to segregate and prevent African Americans from voting. African American's civil liberties were