The Secret Life Of...

Sue Monk Kidd adopts many themes and uses many symbols throughout the book "The Secret Life of Bees." The book takes place in the 1960 's. During this time, the fight for Civil Rights was taking place, so racism played a role in the book. The main themes that developed were female power, prejudice, and forgiveness. The main symbols used were the bees, the black Mary, and the whale pin along with the photograph. During this time period, women did not have a say in much at all. Female power was…

“knife” and set herself free from her abusive past with her father, but Lily did not take the journey by herself. The honeybees of Tiburon, South Carolina showed Lily a new path to take. The bees have a great impact on Lily’s new life. In the novel, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the bees symbolize Lily in several ways. First, other worker bees do not know much about the queen; just as Lily does not know about her mother. The queen bee always stays in the hive and hides…

In James Thurber’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the author’s convulsive focus on the dynamic impacts of the abrupt settings, unreasonably complexes the fluidity of the story by misleading the reader on the current plot of Mitty’s life verses the settings conjured by his imagination in the story. Furthermore his use and examples of location, metaphors and imagery also leaves the description and development of the character to the reader’s imagination which while might make it easier to digest…

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 temperature and people were surrounded by oppression. During this humid summer a girl named Lily Owens runs away from her abusive father T. Ray, in search of her mother's past and the truth behind her death. After a…

Walter Mitty’s mindset “The secret life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber is a story about a man named Walter Mitty, who uses his creative imagination to fill colour in his dull life. In the world of his imagination, he is a hero, but in his real life, Mitty has low self-esteem. He wanted to be a heroic role-model because when he is driving a car, he thinks he is driving a navy hydroplane and gets back to real life when his wife says “Not so fast!”(Thurber 33). This exemplifies that he loves…

Area’s in the United States such as cities in South Carolina in the 1960’s during a time as the Civil Rights Movement had such an impact on some people and it being such a hard time with racism and lots of prejudice situations. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd shows Lily’s coming of age and how she grows up with all of the experiences she is faced with. Lily Owens had lived in Sylvan, South Carolina with her Father T Ray and caretaker Rosaleen. Lily’s upbringing was troubled her father…

In the article, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, by James Thurber, Walter Mitty’s daily life would be described as boring, yet, the dramatic and powerful scenarios in his mind made his life not that dull. Because of his constant zoning out and going into his little “world” in his mind, he tended to make many mistakes for not paying the greatest attention in daily life. His wife, Mrs. Mitty, tried to avoid him from doing anything too crazy out in society, but Walter Mitty still had 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…

Most people form impressions based on the race of a person. Do you? The Secret Life of Bees is a story of a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her mean and unloving father to find information about her mother's past. Lily and her housekeeper, Rosaleen, stay with the Boatwright sisters, three African American beekeepers. The setting takes place in South Carolina in 1964, a time when racism was provoked by the civil rights movement and often times turned violent. In the novel, Sue Monk Kidd…

Self-Reliance vs. Fellowship In the novels The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, main characters initially attempt to solve all of their problems on their own. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens attempts to start a new life by herself but soon begins to depend on the Boatwright sisters to help her escape her father and the torture of living with him. In The Hunger Games, Katniss attempts to survive on her own in the dangerous arena but decides…