The Secret Lives Of Bees Lily Character Analysis

Almost every child has thought about running away from home at least once in their life, if not more. Although this usually is an empty threat, for Lily Owens, the protagonist in The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, it was a milestone. The summer of 1964 marked the year she finally realized there was nothing holding her back from escaping her abusive father. As she leaves home for her journey, she takes her African American, motherlike housekeeper with her, who was in jail for insulting some racists. Together, they find their way to three beekeeping sisters, one of which helps Lily to finally understand what happened to her late mother. Lily begins helpless and afraid, but as she makes her way through the segregated South, she finds self

She finds herself in a small town called Tiburon in South Carolina, living with August Boatwright who was once her mother’s maid. After staying in Tiburon for a while, Lily calls her father, curious if he knows what her favourite colour is. They only spoke for a short period of

In the story, Kidd’s use of characterization successfully reveals the theme that people's lives are more complex than they appear. Kidd demonstrates this theme using the characterization of Lily, T. Ray, May, and Deborah. One character that Sue Monk Kidd uses to portray the theme, is the main character Lily. In the beginning of the story, the author shows that Lily can be both mature and immature at times. An example of her maturity in the text is when she says, “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life” (Kidd 2).

Lily suffers from living with an abusive father. She also deals with the guilt of accidentally killing her mother, feeling unwanted, and not knowing the true reason her mother left. For example, “The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up.

Lily barely knew her own mother, and T. Ray, her father, abuses her and could care less. Lily gets to experience the parent-child love from Rosaleen. Kidd asserts that the interaction between different races can lead to loving

August and May welcome them with open arms while June takes more time to open up to them. August really shows her kindness when she allows Lily and Rosaleen to stay as long as they want and shows them how to take care of bees and gather the honey from them. Month pass by and the Boatwright sisters become almost like family to Lily and that is all she was really looking for. At the beginning of the novel, Lily was broken down and thought that life was going to always be bad. After meeting the calendar sisters and Zach, Lily was happy and now knows there’s more to life than sorrow and unhappiness.

Life is filled with challenges and conflict. However only a few can overcome and escape the confinements of their problems, others remain left behind to struggle. Sue Monk Kidd displays this with the imprisonment that Lily deals with throughout the book. While Lily does finds liberation at the end, she first had to break free from the imprisonments of her secrets, T-Ray, and the torment from killing her mother.

The conflict between Lily and the ladies started right off at the beginning of the story when they discuss the letter that Mrs. Carson received from the feeble-mined institution in Ellisville, where they want to send Lily.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”-Thomas Carlyle. In the novel Secret Life of Bees, Lily is a harmless, kind hearted girl who has experienced much in the short life she has lived. The last time Lily has felt kindness, gentleness, and love was when her mother was alive. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life (2).” Lily is lost in her head, she doesn't know how to stick up for herself. She takes in all the abuse, both mentally and physically from T.Ray and she blames everything on herself. Throughout the novel Lily gains her confidence, bravery and strength by standing up to the challenges she faces throughout experiencing new cultures and way of knowledge.

She cannot constrain herself to the artificial behavior of those part of it. After being disgraced from the social circle, Lily could’ve easily used the letters to expose Bertha and reclaim her name. However, even though Bertha has antagonizes her throughout the novel, she cannot compel herself to do such a thing and burns the letters in Seldon’s fireplace. Lily’s righteousness also prevents her from finding a suitable husband-- the only way in which she can rise to the upper class. She refuses to participate in a loveless marriage that only acts as a business relation.

“They were pure and innocent—something that wasn’t often found in this world of greed, disgrace, and self-gratification” (Preston 88). Clover often thought of the girls in his cellar as flowers; his mother taught him that flowers were pure and beautiful, and that is what he wanted his family to be similar too. One night, Summer Robinson is walking alone in the dark, something her crazy-hot-protective boyfriend ☺ always tells her not to do. She suddenly hears and sees a man walking toward her saying “Lily”, and he soon calls her Lily. Because of this, Summer feels uneasy and tries to find an escape route; the man kidnaps her and brings her to his cellar.

Unlike the three ladies we must think about the consequences of our actions, especially when we are making decisions for others. Lily no matter if she had a disability was still human and deserved to be happy and not sent off to a place where she would be lonely and possibly sad. Ellisville could have been a special institute to help these “feeble-minded” people but as it was mentioned in the story it had over crowding and it just seemed like it wouldn’t be the best place for young Lily to be at. The biggest significance of the story was that the ladies finally in the end realize the mistake they are making by sending Lily to Ellisville and that Lily received that happiness and got the chance to what she wanted to do with her life, which was getting

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

But then she thinks “What if my mother leaving wasn’t true? What if T. Ray had made it up to punish me? “ (Kidd 41) Lily feels that T. Ray is just punishing her for what she had said and has a fight in her brain. After this she decides that it is best for her to leave T. Ray and this starts her coming of age journey.

Lily is much more serious and lady-like. Lily explains that she has to make her own clothes and fend for herself because T. Ray didn’t care about her or what she wore. “He did not care that I wore clothes I made for myself in home economics class, cotton print shirtwaists with crooked zippers and skirts hanging below my knees…,” (Lee 8). This quotation proves that Lily cares about her looks and wants to dress nicely, but T. Ray won’t buy her any clothes so she has to make them for herself. Lily and Scout are alike in many ways, but there are obvious differences in their