Gender Roles In The Secret Life Of Bees

John Steinbeck’s short story, “Chrysanthemums”, was written in 1938. The story tells of a woman’s struggle to find self respect and worth from her male counterpart within a very patriarchal society. Throughout the story symbols are constantly used and Steinbeck specifically chooses symbolism in order to express the inequality of women during that time.

“The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us. This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away.”(Kidd 8) Lily has had a rough start to her life with her father being abusive and neglecting to her and not to mention her shooting and killing her mom on accident. Lily had lost so much, but gained a great deal of parental figures when she and Rosaleen escape off to Tiburon. There they find August Boatwright and Lily’s life changes. In the book “The Secret Life Of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd, the author establishes a theme of gain from loss when Lily suffers the loss her mom and   dealing with an abusive father that lead her to find a new family of  Rosaleen and the Boatwright family.

Mental Illness affects an immense amount of individuals no matter their race, culture or age. It is everywhere we go, yet still an issue some choose to ignore; whether it is the person facing the illness or those around them. People handle their sickness in a variety of ways. Some by using violence as their only answer, others run away from their issue and majority choose to accept and make the best of it. After reading the novel The Secret Life of Bees, it would be easy to think that the main theme is discrimination or family, but in reality it is actually focused on the toll that mental illness takes on a family. The protagonist of this novel, Lily Owens, has always had a troublesome life. Both her parents, Terrence Owens, also known as T. Ray, and Deborah Fontanel are ridden with illness, sadly caused from each other. Lily also meets a new family in this novel after running away from her cruel father who abuses her. This family is also dealing with mental illness. August Boatwright is a member of this family and has been surrounded by this sickness for more than half of her life. Two of her sisters have this problem and it has genuinely affected August for better or worse.

Through indirect characterization, Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, displays Rosaleen as an obstinate character in order to exhibit the southern racism at hand. For example, Rosaleen is indirectly characterized when she comes into contact with the town’s most notorious racist, Franklin Posey, and will not apologize for standing up for her beliefs. Recalling the event, she exclaims, “‘he hit me till the policeman said that was enough. They didn’t get no apology, though’” (46). Above all, Rosaleen is stuck living in the south during the 1960s; a time period full of extreme racial tension. She is facing ridicule and name-calling simply because of her skin color, but nonetheless stands up and fights back against this injustice.

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.

“But she’s white, August,” (Kidd, 87) and this quote sets the tone because the book was based in 1964, South Carolina when racism was a big thing towards blacks. Besides everything else that is going on in the world, a young girl named Lily is searching to see if her mother is still looking out for her in the world. In The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kid used tone, symbolism and foreshadowing through out the novel. The tone that the author uses through out the novel is sadness such as when she did not know that she killed her mother. Then she uses many examples of symbolism through out the story; consistently she searches for a mother in woman around her. The foreshadowing she uses is the relationship between August and Lily, by Lily finding

Rosaleen was an very strong role model in Lily’s life. The author Sue Monk Kidd portrays it in the novel in many ways. Lily’s mother passed away and left when Lilly was just a little girl sitting at only 4 years old. Since that day Rosaleen decided too stepped in and showed her all the steps in life, even if she was there housekeeper but they still created such a strong bond. Rosaleen was a African American so lily did experience the racial hatred Rosaleen received but Lily did not care what color she was all she cared was what the person she was in the inside. The author portrays their relationship as a family. Kidd showed how Lily and Rosaleen cared and loved each other more like a family would than a friend would since all they had were each other cause T-ray, ( Lily’s fathers ) who wasn’t all that such a father figure in her life. She showed them sticking through everything not giving up on each other. When Rosaleen got into the conflict with the white men lily was the one who helps her out of the hospital where the arresting officers had beaten her up.

The article addresses the changes of gender roles during World War One. Women support the war in different occupations at that time, such as drivers and factory workers; more job opportunities are open for women since the abled men were at war. That indicates a huge change in the patriarchal society. This can be related to some characters in the novel. Sally Seton is a rebellious and free-spirit woman, that is shown, “how they were to reform the world” (Woolf 33); she always tries to seek changes, specifically the changes of gender roles in the society. Doris Kilman is another female figure in the novel that expresses the rights of woman to be able to choose their occupation freely, “all professions are open to women of your generation” (Woolf

Within the novel, most female characters are designated into the class of typical, loving mother types, but they are each defined separately within their cohort. For example, Liza lives life as a devoted mother to her nine

In the story “Lily Daw and the Three Ladies”, we are introduced to our three ladies who are: Mrs. Carson, Mrs. Watts and Aimee. These three ladies speak about a young girl who seems to have some sort of disability or as mentioned in the story was “feebleminded”, this young girl goes by name of Lily Daw. I assume that Lily has a disability not only because the three ladies are trying to send her to this mental institute for the “feebleminded” but because the author portrays Lily’s character with a very special tone of voice and her character is also not able to make-out correct full sentences like the rest of the characters in the story. The author Eudora Welty introduces this story as, “a half-witted girl in the grip of social forces represented by a group of earnest ladies bent on doing the best thing for her, no matter what the consequences”

Rosa Parks was a woman with great confidence in what she believed in. She was a Civil Rights Activist who refused to give up her seat on the Alabama bus which started the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. It helped start a nationwide effort to end segregation of public facilities. Later she received the NAACP’s highest award. As she grew older she received over 10 awards for her great accomplishments

The character of Lily Owens evolves and changes as any young woman would throughout the course of her life. Lily begins the book as an insecure, detached, and unaware teenage girl. We see how Lily changed into a wise young woman as she solves the mystery of her mother’s life. Towards the end of the book Lily transforms into a young woman who is much more confident, happier, and vicarious. Lily has learned about love and biases. She learns that people are not always perfect and that love can be shaped by bonds rather than blood. Lily is more self-sufficient as the book progresses. Since Lily has accepted the truth, she has matured and become content with herself and her life.

One of the themes of “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is gender inequality. In this short story, the main character Elisa Allen was a strong, smart woman who was stuck being a common housewife. Elisa wishes she could go out and be like the tinker, sleeping under the stars and adventuring every day of her life. Elisa’s husband owns a ranch of some sorts, and when he tells Elisa of the business deal he’d just made he gave her an unspecific explanation, or a dumbed down one so he doesn’t “confuse her”.

In such a diverse world where different races come together and interact, the early 1960s reveal society’s surprised reaction to these relationships. Interracial relationships are strongly frowned upon during this time, almost as if they are illegal. Fortunately, over time, people begin to accept those with different backgrounds and can easily communicate with each other. Hardships are still present today, but society in moving in a better direction. Also, society is turning more towards religion as guidance and strength to move along in life. Sue Kidd Monk prove these views and incorporates her own perspective of society. In her novel, The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd reveals the complexity and

The story that I had presented for my oral presentation in Task 1 is ‘Boys and Girls’ is a by Alice Munro. This simple short story is about a young girl’s resistance to womanhood in a society infested with gender roles and stereotypes but have to accept the gender stereotyping in the end of the story. The story takes place in the 1940s on a fox farm outside of Jubilee, Ontario. The relevant theories of literary criticisms that can be applied to the ‘Boys and Girls’ short story are historical criticism and mostly feminism criticism.