The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

The book “The Secret Life Of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd expresses the power of women and the importance of a mother in life. Throughout the story, Lily was guided and protected by three black women , at the time period of when Civil Right Act was being passed. Racial interaction was yet to be common at the time and setting of the book but was no problem to Lily. Lily found her queen bee mother and felt at home there in her hive.

The inspiration of the first book “The Secret Life Of Bees” was by Kidd’s small hometown of Sylvester, Georgia during the Civil Right Movement. The book reflects the racism in the south during the 1960s. In the beginning of the story Roselean was on the way back from voting after the Civil Right Act had been passed and a group of white men begin to harass her and Lily. Roselean became indignant and she spat on one of the men shoe. The men “ grabbed and thrashing side to side” (Kidd, 32) Roselean and demand apologize. The whites in south were not in agreeing terms with the Act that was passed and still protest illegitimately towards the blacks. The reader can infer Kidd’s supporting statement of the

Lily was driven to August by her mother, “ They know the queen is their mother.” (Kidd, 149). The sense that she had to be there has always been in her heart. Lily found her through a jar of honey on the sale stand because the black Virgin Mary stood out to her. Ever since Lily had met August, She felt closer to her mother and to finding out what actually happened to her mother. It was not easy for Lily to live in the household of a father with no care for her. Everyday she felt as if she was never loved. Lily never had knowledge T. Ray as a father, “ because ‘Daddy’ never fit him-.”(Kidd, 2). T. Ray would never talk about Lily’s mother and had told her that her mother never wanted her. Lily was all alone to put the puzzle pieces