Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

Lily Owens who is the main character in the book Secret life of bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd. Lily is a 14 year old girl who is figuring out her life while trying to uncover her deceased mothers. This book is about her coming of age story and her life and the struggles of living in a racist era in 1964 South Carolina, she is on a journey after escaping her abusive father, to find where her mother would run off to. Lily and June Boatwright are very complex characters, who hold a lot of hate and misjudgement for themselves for their past. Both characters are confronted by these feelings they wish to ignore and they have to learn to overcome them and deal with them to let themselves be happy.
Lily has been seeing these “bees’ ever since she

Especially as a woman she knew of the misogyny she was faced with when she lived with her father, doing chores, can't wear revealing clothes, etc. Through the events of the book she grows mature and is able to acknowledge the deeper effects of racism that has on her new family and friends. She just knows herself cannot defeat racism but she is able to work around the racist laws and events. “It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can’t ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”(Kidd 256). Lily is a very deep character who holds a lot of guilt, sadness, and hatred over herself for what happened to her and her mother. But as she grows more mature and finally learns the truth she knows she has to accept it for what it is. She's able to work it out herself and realize there is a place for her in the world. She never was able to accept who she was until

June is a young and intelligent black woman who works with her older and younger sister August and May Boatwright with the honey business. However no matter how cold and rude she acted towards these two newcomers, everything she does is out of protection and care of herself and her sisters. All she had ever experienced in life was heartbreak and Death, so she puts up these walls around herself to protect herself and her heart from ever getting hurt again, even if she has to push away family and her loving boyfriend who has genuine love for her. June lost a younger sister before due to racism and suicide, then her ex fiance left her at the altar. June is scared to let herself be that vulnerable with someone again after being hurt like that by the love of her life, now she has Neil but is scared that the same thing will happen again. But through loss and new relationships June is able to overcome a lot of her fears and