The Secret Lives Of Bees Lily Character Analysis

In the novel, The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Lily, the main character and May, one of the Boatwright sisters are conflicted with many events. One of the life lessons that were in this novel was, family, is a big part of who you are or who you turn out to be. Lily and May are the characters whose family is a big factor in who they are. In the beginning, Lily is a very intelligent, mischievous, girl. This is caused by, her dad who she calls T.Ray making her kneel on grits (crushed corn) even if she really didn’t do anything. We first read this on page 24. Lily had been laying out in the peach orchard all night, which was unintentional, but she fell asleep and T.Ray found her in the morning. The author said in the words of T.Ray,”’Who

Lily was a white person. This time period made it difficult for black people to do many of the things that white people do. On page 121, Lily was surprised when Zach said,”’I wanna be a lawyer.’”Lily then said,”’That’s fine with me,’ I said, a little annoyed. ‘I’ve just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that’s all.’”In the beginning of The Secret Lives of Bees, there was a big event where Rosaleen, Lily 's stand-in mother that was a picker out in the orchard, went to register to vote and she didn’t like some white men that were harassing her so she dumped her snuff juice on their shoes. She wouldn’t apologize so they took her to jail. On the way to jail Rosaleen got beat up when the police officer was right there. Lily thought to herself, “Why couldn’t you just apologize?”On page 135, Zach gets Lily a notebook with rosebuds on the front. Zach said, “‘Lily, I like you better than any girl I’ve ever known, but you have to understand, there are people who would kill boys like me for even looking at girls like you.’”This means that bad things could happen if Zach and Lily had a relationship because he is black and she is

This was the big conflict in the story because Lily tried to keep it a secret from the Boatwright sisters. Lily was also afraid of what would happen if T.Ray found her and Rosaleen. This was later resolved on pages 290-298 when this thought came true. One day when Lily was staying at the Pink House she went with Zach to the lawyer’s office. She ended up calling T.Ray from there. At the end of that month, T.Ray got his phone bill and saw that his call with Lily came from a lawyer’s office in Tiburon. He traveled there, asked the secretary Miss Lacy, and found Lily and Rosaleen. He lashed out at Lily with a knife like she was her mother. After that August interfered and gave him an easy way out so that Lily could stay and go to school in Tiburon and T.Ray would leave her alone. All of these events put an imprint on who Lily became. T.Ray making her kneel on grits and being mean to her made her feel unloved. Her not having a mother because she killed her made Lily sad and angry. She was angry because she was mad that she ever picked up the gun when she was very young. May also changed when her sister died and it changed her life. May felt like she had to cry about all of the bad or little things in the world. She couldn’t handle it anymore so she ended her own life. Family played a big part in who Lily will be and who May