T. Ray and Deborah are the mother and father of Lily, who is the main character in The Secret Life of Bees. Deborah was forced to marry T. Ray because she was pregnant with Lily and had to move in with him. This forced marriage sparked the rocky relationship between Deborah and T. Ray . When Lily was 4 years old, her mother died. Lily had accidently shot her mother and killed her. This tragic event sent both Lily and T. Ray into an emotionally unstable frenzy. Throughout the story Lily is trying to find her place and the find her mother figure she’s been missing in her life. The metaphor of bees going into a frenzy when they lose their queen is used to describe Lily’s and especially T. Ray’s life without Deborah. Sue Monk Kidd specifically chose bees to represent Lily’s and T. Ray’s struggle without their “queen”.
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The epilogues are more like metaphors that tie in the relationship between the complexity of the lives of bees and people. One example is the epilogue before chapter one which states, “The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness. —Man and Insects.” When T. Ray loses Deborah, it sends him into an abusive rage where he takes his anger out on Lily because Lily reminds him of Deborah. Lily is the constant reminder to T. Ray that he is without his queen. The reminder he lost his wife in a freak accident. Kidd portrays T. Ray as an abusive and heartless man when deep down he just misses. The more you look into his motives as a character, the easier it is to feel the pain of his loss. Since bees are the metaphor used for humans throughout the story, T. Ray thus becomes lost and full of pain in life like a bee without its
The epilogues are more like metaphors that tie in the relationship between the complexity of the lives of bees and people. One example is the epilogue before chapter one which states, “The queen, for her part, is the unifying force of the community; if she is removed from the hive, the workers very quickly sense her absence. After a few hours, or even less, they show unmistakable signs of queenlessness. —Man and Insects.” When T. Ray loses Deborah, it sends him into an abusive rage where he takes his anger out on Lily because Lily reminds him of Deborah. Lily is the constant reminder to T. Ray that he is without his queen. The reminder he lost his wife in a freak accident. Kidd portrays T. Ray as an abusive and heartless man when deep down he just misses. The more you look into his motives as a character, the easier it is to feel the pain of his loss. Since bees are the metaphor used for humans throughout the story, T. Ray thus becomes lost and full of pain in life like a bee without its