Burt's Bees

August Boatwright and Rosaleen Daise To me the most admirable characters in The Secret Life of Bees are August Boatwright, the oldest sister and who collects the honey from the bee boxes, and Rosaleen Daise, Lily’s mother figure and who goes to Tiburon with her. I think that August is one of the most admirable characters because of how compassionate and caring she is. “Some things don't matter much. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life. But lifting a…

The Secret Life of Bees is a well-acclaimed bildungsroman and historic novel written by Sue Monk Kidd about the protagonist Lily Melissa Owens, and her growing personal independence, her expanding knowledge of the world, her revelation about the family in the past, and her spiritual journey. The entire novel was written in first-person angle about Lily’s experiences and thoughts, focusing largely on the spiritual aspect; nonetheless, Sue Monk Kidd did also elaborate her thoughts about the issue…

Growing Up Is Always Tough Growing up is rough on a lot of teenagers, boys andq girls. This idea is present in the story The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. The main Character Lily Owens lives in South Carolina on a peach farm with her father T. Ray who is angry at the world. Lily’s life takes a turn for the worst when her African-American nanny is imprisoned because she wanted to vote due to the signing of the Civil Rights Act. Lily and Rosaleen flee from the hospital in order to keep…

Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird and The Secret Life of Bees, Harper Lee and Sue Monk Kidd took deliberate time to portray the details of our protagonist’s relationships with their ‘Stand in Mothers’, and how said relationships were developed. Furthermore, for the entire duration of both novels, Rosaleen and Calpurnia alike provide some form of maternal support to Scout and Lily throughout the varied conflicts that both children were forced to deal with. The relationships between Scout and…

The Secret Life of Bees and The Fault in Our Stars are both “coming-of-age” novels. In the Secret Life of Bees, the main character Lily, a fourteen year old girl with a devastating past. In The Fault in Our Stars, the main character Hazel, a 16 year old girl fighting cancer. Lily and Hazel both share similar “coming-of-age” experiences. They both share innocence at the beginning and maturation by the end, face test and challenges throughout the novels, and have mentors that help and guide…

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees is an exemplary novel which reveals the racism, sexism, and overall discrimination that unfolded in the south. The Secret Life of Bees transports the reader to the year of 1964 in South Carolina, where racial tensions were almost as high as the temperatures and people were surrounded by oppression. During this humid summer a young girl named Lily Owens runs away from her abusive father T. Ray, in search of her mother's past and the truth behind her tragic…

In the novel, The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily Owens is a teenage girl that decides to run away from her abusive father and moves to Tiburon. She experiences a journey where she tries to learn her mother’s history and more about her mother’s death. South Carolina to search for someone who she believes to know her deceased mother. Lily learns to forgive others and herself in order to become independent and live her life the way she wants to live it. At the beginning of the novel,…

The Secret Life of Bees is set in a time zone. It’s set in 1924 in South Carolina. A lot of things happened in 1924, one of them is the Racial Integrity Act. No one likes black people in this book. I will prove it to you: So Rosaleen is Lily’s maid, she is black. Rosaleen was in jail because she spit at a group of white people while trying to get in to vote. On the way to jail, there was a green pickup that was following them and every time that they got close to the police car, they’d honk the…

The moon has always been a strong symbol throughout human culture, representing mystery and time and, throughout many cultures, femininity. In The Secret Life of Bees, the moon makes many appearances, from the space program to Lily’s dreams to it’s typical position in the sky. The author uses the moon to tie the whole story together through repeated symbolism and themes, serving as one of the many motifs of the book. One of the first major uses of the Moon comes from a dream Lily has after she…

Forgiveness does not always mean to forget. A traumatic event in someone’s life can often determine how they develop their relationships between the people around them. In the novel Secret Life of Bees written by Sue Monk Kid, the main character Lily and her father T-ray were both haunted by memories of her late mother. Being insecure and unassured, Lily had no friends, and the overbearing abuse from her farther lead her to run away to Tiburon with her housekeeper Rosaline. Towards the end of…