Examples Of Maturity In The Secret Life Of Bees

Throughout the Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens becomes more mature as she lives in the pink house and learns that all people are equal. She also becomes more mature as she learns more about her mother's past, and learns to forgive herself for her death. In the beginning of the book, Lily is selfish and immature. She says that “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.” Through this, the reader sees how much Lily's life has been affected by her mother's death. She has grown up without a maternal figure and only a callous father who abuses her. Therefore, she has never grown up to be the woman she was meant to be. In the middle of Chapter One, Lily demonstrates her immaturity by needing to somehow prove that bees were in her room when T-Ray doesn’t believe her.

When Rosaleen, the African American worker in T-Ray’s house, is arrested because she stood up for herself when racist white men fought with her when she tried to vote. Lily returns home to take some things to Rosaleen when T-Ray informs her that her mother had left her as a child. Lily has worshipped her mother for her entire life, and she refuses to

August, one of the sisters living in the pink house, acts as a maternal figure for her, helping her come to peace with the death of her mother. When August tells Lily that “life gives way into death, and then death turns around and gives way into life,” Lily starts to realize that she has to continue living, despite her mother’s death. She learns that it was her mother's time to die, and that it’s her time to live. At the end of the novel, Lily asks T-Ray to tell her the truth about her mother's death, and he tells her “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.” Lily doesn’t know whether or not to believe him, but by this time, she has finally accepted her mother's death and has forgiven herself for