Epigrams By Lily Owen Chapter Summary

Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father T-Ray, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping.

Bees operate on many levels in this story: The epigrams at the beginning of each chapter concern bees; the bees in Lily's room reach out to her and show her she must leave; and the bees at the Boatright house are instrumental in teaching about community, life, and death.

Each chapter begins with an epigram (short saying) from a book about bees, and each foreshadows what will happen in the chapter. Sometimes the quote is about Lily, sometimes about her mother, and other times about the community at the Boatright house. Despite the character described, the epigram gives the reader a feeling of whether the chapter

At the Boatright house, the bees and their hives are both a way of life and a means of sustenance for the family. But the Boatrights also respect the bees and care for them because they realize all of nature is in harmony with mankind when treated this way. August uses the bees and their hives to illustrate to Lily how societies operate, explaining that they are a powerful symbol of women as leaders of the village. August explains to Lily that bees have secret lives, so much so that humans seldom realize how complicated a beehive is. Lily sees the parallel between the bees and her own secret life. As the bees have a mother to care for them and provide sustenance, so Lily has a mother for whom she yearns. Each of the bees has a job to do, and Lily is learning her own job at the Boatright