ipl-logo

The Secret Life Of Bees: Summary Of Chains

89 Words1 Page

As orated in the quotation above, by August to Lily the Mary of Chains serves as a great object of growth for Lily to find her own inner strength and to be her own mother. In The Secret Life of Bees Lily struggles to find and connect with her mother throughout the novel. Lily continues to look at her past and dwell upon the fact that she doesn’t have a mother, and because of that Lily goes to great lengths to find out whatever she can about her mother.

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Juxtaposition In The Secret Life Of Bees

    1542 Words  | 7 Pages

    In American writer Sue Monk Kidd's fiction novel The Secret Life of Bees, the reader is introduced to Lily Owens, a naive and unfortunate character longing for her mother's absence. Growing up with an abusive father, T Ray, Lily is kept miserable until a stroke of confidence allows her to run away with the only person on her side, Rosaleen. Through multiple influences and revelations of truth, she can develop individually with the help of her new family, the Boatwrights, transforming her into a profound and confident character. One of the major influences Lily undergoes throughout the book is the religious rituals August and the Boatwrigts assign her. An example of this is the observance of a religious statue, The Black Mary, worshiped by the

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing And Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

    441 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rosaleen, her caretaker, is arrested, which Lily responds to by breaking her out of jail. To avoid being caught or returning to home, Lily and Rosaleen leave town, escaping the ‘jar’. The symbol of the bees has a huge impact on the story and, in ways, foreshadows her capture, and guides Lily. Even though the Boatwright sisters are not family, they love Lily, and introduce her to the bees. The moment when Lily is introduced to beekeeping, “...you can help me and Zach with the bees.”

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd

    788 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Lily Owens's The Secret Life Of Bees

    181 Words  | 1 Pages

    On the first page of the novel, “The Secret Life of Bees” the Heroine of the book, Lily Owens, declared that, “my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit,” (page 1) we as readers have no clue whatsoever what she is talking about. Lily seems like a child with a normal life but that can easily be proven wrong; at the age of four she happen to kill her mother without knowing it and has a father in which can be a bit brutal at times. Despite everything, Lily is a lady who loved to learn things about her mother every chance she got, it was clear she had love for Deborah, no doubt, even if she didn’t have any memories of her. An example that perfectly demonstrates this is the argument Lily and T. Ray had: Lily declared that Deborah wouldn’t

    Read More

  • Nonviolent Direct Action In The Secret Life Of Bees

    552 Words  | 3 Pages

    I believe that it takes more courage to engage in nonviolent direct action, like Bayard Rustin did against Jim Crow laws, rather than being involved in physically fight back against oppression, like Rosaleen at the end of chapter one. I believe this primarily because if the oppressed side chooses to be violent, then it gives the other side a reason to discriminate against them even more and it will cause them to fight back even more. In The Secret Life of Bees, Rosaleen decides spill her snuff jar onto the men because they were using racial slurs and belittling her due to her skin color. Although she was rightfully defending herself, she was attacked by the men, and when the police came, she was the one to be blamed and arrested. Her actions

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Bees Movie And Book Comparison Essay

    511 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Secret Life Of Bees” is a story of a fourteen-year-old girl raised in South Carolina that has lived most of her life with the guilt of killing her own mother. Raised by an abusive father,Lily runs off with her friend Rosaleen to Tiburon,California. Lily and Rosaleen stay with the Boatwright sisters who Lily believes knew her mother. Lily later finds out that her mother did live with the boatwright sisters and also finds out that her mother left her with her father,T-ray. Feeling betrayed,Lily takes a time to cope with the fact that her mother had flaws and made mistakes that Lily had to learn to forgive.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

    646 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the second chapter of, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, the relationship between Lily and the people in her life, as well as, her understanding the society she lives in, becomes further explained. T-Ray brings Lily home from the police station, infuriated since Lily is questioning why they are not trying to save Rosaleen as well. T-Ray becomes worried that Lily will try and get Rosaleen out herself, so he tells her to stay at home and warns her not to leave the house. After seeing how Rosaleen stood up to the people who weren’t treating her fairly, Lily does the same, which leads to him trying to hurt her physically. Since he fails to hurt her physically, T-Ray tells her the reason as to why her mother was packing the day of her

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Moon In The Secret Life Of Bees

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    Around 100 different gods are related to the moon. Some live on it while others may only control it from somewhere else and few have no control over the moon at all. Another thing about these Moon gods is that most of them are actually women. In The Secret Life of Bees, author Sue Monk Kidd uses the symbolism of the moon to show a connection between femininity and divinity. Black Mary carries a crescent moon with her and has also been said to live on the moon.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

    1493 Words  | 6 Pages

    No matter where she is, or what happens in the future, she is able to adopt the idea that Mary is always with her, she does not have to “put [her] hand on Mary’s heart to find strength and consolation and rescue… “[she] can place it right here on [her] own heart” (Kidd 288). The repetition of “her heart” and “Mary’s heart” throughout the passage allows the two to become interchangeable. The connection of the symbol of the red heart painted over the statue of Mary to Lily’s own beating heart enforces the idea of Mary being a perpetual part of Lily’s daily life. Additionally, August says to Lily, “This Mary I’m talking about sits in your heart all day long, saying, ‘Lily, you are my everlasting home.”, and follows with Lily saying “I closed my eyes, and in the coolness of the morning, there among the bees, I felt for one clear instant what she was talking about” (Kidd 289). Lily’s sense of home has been unstable throughout her life, so August uses the metaphor of Lily being Mary’s “home” to make her feel stable and grounded, which is justified when Lily says she is able to close her eyes and

    Read More

  • Essay On The Secret Life Of Bees

    647 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Sue Monk Kidd, the author of “The Secret Life of Bees” wrote this book, you can tell she really put thought into creating all the characters and what their personalities would be like. Each and every one of the characters has an astonishing personality but out of all of them, I think my favorite would have to be August Boatwright. August Boatwright, carries so much knowledge around, she has an amazing personality, she’s kind caring, non-judgemental, and is so smart. In the time the story takes place, it was very rare that Women owned businesses, much less black women-

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In The Secret Life Of Bees

    400 Words  | 2 Pages

    The figurative language in the novel, The Secret Life Of Bees, defines the father, T. Ray, as controlling, because of his actions and emotions towards Lily. T. Ray is Lily’s father who punishes his child by making her kneel on Martha Whites, which are coarsely ground up corn flakes that feel like powdered glass, and dig into Lily’s knees as she kneels on them. After the hour that Lily kneels there, as Rosaleen takes a look at her knees and on page twenty six he marches in “despising” and “full of anger.” Lily thought that he could have still loved her after her mother’s death, but now he treats her as though he can control her into his will and doesn’t treat her as a father should. The words that are used to describe his emotions show just

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Bees Reflection Essay

    983 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love” (Connie May Fowler). This quote reflects the novel, The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd because the protagonist in the story, Lily Owens, her mother have died when she was four years old and she didn’t feel loved by her abusive father, T. Ray Owens, until she met the Boatwrights family with the housekeeper, Rosaleen, and stayed with them. The Boatwrights family are the three black sisters who are August, May, and June. This novel took place in Sylvan and Tiburon, South Carolina, where Lily grew up and where she found the answer to her questions.

    Read More

  • The Secret Life Of Bees Theme Essay

    1401 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Secret Lives of People The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, is an interesting story that connects human lives to bees. The story takes place in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement and fourteen year-old Lily Owens leaves her abusive father and her home in Sylvan, South Carolina to go to Tiburon with hopes to find information on her mother. Throughout the story, Lily struggles with many internal conflicts and also meets several mother figures along the way.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Secret Life Of Bees

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout The Secret Life of Bees bees play a recurring role in the novel, repeatably being mentioned during the novel in epigrams before the start of each chapter and within the story itself. Unfortunately, on certain occasions the reason why bees are included in a certain part of the story can be unclear and confusing to readers, causing them to occasionally misinterpret the importance of bees throughout the novel. Regardless, the bees throughout play a very important role in understanding many of the themes and symbolism that Kidd included within the novel. In The Secret Life of Bees Kidd symbolizes Lily’s experiences and situations through the bees frequently present in the novel to show that seemingly different things can function in the same way.

    Read More

  • Akeelah And The Bee Analysis

    740 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society, people often find difficulty setting and achieving goals due to setbacks and hardships. However, in Akeelah and the Bee, a young girl works toward her goal of winning the national spelling bee. Her persistence and heartwarming story entertain the audience while providing an inspiration for achieving goals.

    Read More

More about The Secret Life Of Bees: Summary Of Chains

Open Document