THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Sue Monk Kidd
SUE MONK KIDD
 Raised in Rural Georgia
 Majored in nursing at Texas Christian
University and graduated in 1970 with a
B.S. degree.
 During her twenties she worked as a
registered nurse and as a nursing
instructor.
 Married with 2 children
 She began first with small publications
mostly non-fiction on spiritual topics.
 Secret Life of Bees was her first novel.
SUE MONK KIDD
 When her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, was published
by Viking in 2002, it became a genuine literary phenomenon,
spending more than 2½ years on the New York
Times bestseller list.
 It has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than
6 million copies in the U.S. and 8 million copies worldwide .
 Secret Life of Bees was named the Book Sense Paperback
Book of the Year in 2004, long -listed for the 2002 Orange
Prize in England, and won numerous awards.
 For over a decade, the novel has been produced on stage by
The American Place Theater, and in 2008 it was adapted into
a movie by Fox Searchlight, which won the People’s Choice
award for best movie and the NAACP Image award for best
picture.
 It is taught widely in middle school, high school, and college
SETTING
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Novel begins on July 1 , 1964.
1960’s is a time of upheaval and change in the United States.
Novel focuses on Civil Right movement
Story told from prospective of 14 year old Lily Owens.
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
 In 1954 the supreme court ruled that “separate, but equal”
was unconstitutional way to educate American students.
 10 years later the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to
bar people from voting, from, eating at the lunch counter,
and from going to state universities.
 Basics of Civil Rights Movement
 The Struggle
HOW WE WILL BE STUDYING
 Struggles of growing up.
 Multiple Critical Perspectives:
 1) Formalism
 2) Feminist Theory
 3) Mythological/Archetypal Approach
We will be examining these approaches AFTER reading the book in it’s
entirety.
We will also be looking at two critical analysis’s written on The Secret
Life of Bees.
* You will later establish a thesis and use the text and these critical
analysis’s to write your own critique of the novel.
CHAPTERS 6 & 7
 For each character listed below, clearly state what crimes he
or she has committed.
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Lily Owens
T. Ray Owens
Rosaleen Daise
Franklin Posey
Avery Gaston
 Come up with an argument about which character you believe
to be the most “criminal” be prepared to defend why your
group thinks this.
FORMALIST APPROACH
 Read Notes on Formalist Approach handout
 Concerned with form
 Do not see outside influences that affect the work (authors life,
culture it is created in etc.)
 Study recurrences, repetition, relationships, and motifs.
 Details are unimportant
FORMALIST APPROACH
 3 main areas of study
 Form
 Diction
 Unity
FORMALIST APPROACH : FORM
 Cadence: how the words sound
 When a character is speaking, the sound of what he or she is saying or
how he or she is saying it, can give clues as to who the character is
and why he or she is in the work.
 Repetition: saying the same word, phrase, or concept over and
over.
 Repetition= important
 Recurrences: when an event or theme happens more than
once.
 Recurrences = important
 Relationships: the connection between the characters.
 By looking at the connections among the people in the story, one can
understand the meaning of a work. Every character is in a work for a
reason, it is the readers job to determine why.
FORMALIST APPROACH: DICTION
 Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word.
 Understanding the meaning of words is vital to understanding a text.
 Connotation: the subtle, commonly accepted meanings of
words.
 Words can have a different “spin” based on what they mean and how
society uses them.
 EX: Condescension – the act of coming down voluntarily to equal terms
with a supposed inferior to do something.
 Condescends – now mean that he or she is acting superior to someone
else.
 Etymology: The study of the evolution of words or meaning
and use.
 This is when words literally mean something different today then
what they might have meant in previous times.
 Close study of words and why an author chose a particular word
instead of a synonym.
FORMALIST APPROACH: DICTION
CONTINUED
 Allusions: links from the text at hand to other works.
 Does reach outside of the meaning of text (can sway from formalist
approach), but the idea of linking a text to another and why the author
would choose to do that.
 Ambiguity: the use of an open-ended word or phrase that has
multiple meanings.
 The lack of form is a form.
 Ambiguity can connect lose ends in a work.
 Ambiguity can be used to reveal a meaning.
 Symbol: a concrete word or image used mainly to represent an
abstract concept.
 Understanding the use of a word or image to suggest deeper meanings
can help reader gain more from text.
FORMALIST APPROACH: UNIT Y
 The use of one symbol, image, figure of speech throughout a
work serves as a threat to connect one particular instance
with every other occurrence of that symbol.
 Shows the connection between earlier events of a story and
what is happening currently or in forthcoming events.
 Formalists do not look for perfect unity. They look for tension
and conflict. Do not look at irony or paradox (contradictory
truths) very closely.
FORMALISM ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
 In what manner is the story told? Chronologically? Via
flashbacks?
 Is there closure or is the reader left guessing?
 What is the point of view of the narrator? How does this af fect
the story being told?
 Examples of foreshadowing?
 Are there any patterns in the work?
 What details of the setting indicate meaning (season, day,
location, weather)?
EXAMINING SUBPLOT ACTIVIT Y 2
 We are looking at the formalist approach that specifically
addressed form through this activity.
EXAMINING NATURE IMAGERY ACTIVIT Y 3
 This activity addresses the formalist elements:
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Symbolism
Cadence
Repetition
Recurrence
FORMALIST APPROACH:
JOURNAL ENTRY
 Would Lily’s story have a dif ferent ef fect if the plot unfolded
chronologically? How does the flashback technique influence
how a reader thinks about the characters? How do the
flashbacks contribute to the novel’s meaning?
FEMINIST THEORY
 Read notes on the Feminist Theory
 1960’s the feminist movement began to form a new approach to
literary criticism.
 Works that females were writing was being studied critically in the
same way that the work written by men was studied.
 The portrayal of women in writing was being examined again in old
texts and also new works were developing with the concept of
“modern women”.
 The idea is to finding negative attitudes toward women.
 Masculine bias in literature that is harmful to the overall image of
women.
 They wanted works by women to be added to literary canon and read
form a feministic perspective.
FEMINIST THEORY: 3 AREAS OF STUDY
 1) Dif ferences between men and women
 2) Women in positions of power and power dynamics between
men and women
 3) The female experience
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND
WOMEN
 The basic assumption that gender determines everything,
including values and language.
 The canon must be expanded to include the study of genres in
which women “traditionally” write: journals, diaries, and
personal letters.
 Note the dif ferences in the topics or issues about which men
and women write and the perspectives from which they write
about them.
WOMEN IN POSITIONS OF POWER AND
POWER DYNAMICS BETWEEN MEN AND
WOMEN
 Note and confront the social, economic, and political
exploitation of women. Note whether women have any power
and of what variety it is.
 Society has not treated all of its constituencies fairly, and
literature is a mean by which inequities can be identified,
protested, and possibly rectified.
 Note the division of labor and economics between men and
women.
 Note how men and women interact with one another in a
variety of contexts (romantic, professional etc.)
 Are they subservient ?
 Treated as children ?
 Are they a political and economic equal ?
THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE
 A woman's’ experience of life is difference from a man’s on the
most basic level.
 POV male or female?
 How does the narrator treat the events?
 Reject the application of male standards to the female personality
 The idea that you cannot judge the female personality by the same
measures.
 Examine the creative life giving role of femininity.
 That women are treated as dependent on men.
 Men depend on women for the birthing of children.
 The concept of exploring men or women without each other is
incomplete.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR FEMINIST
READING
 Please complete worksheet
FEMINIST ACTIVIT Y ONE
 Complete Character Traits and Expectations Char t
 On the back write an explanation of the positive and negative
connotations of character traits as represented in the novel.
 Examine the following characters:
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Lily Owens
Rosaleen Daise
Deborah Owens
T.Ray Owens
Brother Gerald
Officer Avery Gaston
August Boatwright
June Boatwright
May Boatwright
Neil
Zachary Taylor
Clayton Forrest
FEMINIST ACTIVIT Y 2
 Complete Comparing The Owen and Boatwright Homes
worksheet
FEMINIST ACTIVIT Y 3
 Complete Inferring Male Characters’ Point of View
FEMINIST JOURNAL ENTRY
 Choose ONE:
 Is there a range of behavior for women and for men? Does one
gender have wider or narrower social norms? Have social
expectations changed since the period of the novel? Are there
consequences for deviating from gender expectations?
 Female stereotypes include a preoccupation with love. Is Lily’s
longing for love a stereotype? How does the novel treat the subject of
love?
MY THOLOGICAL/ARCHET YPAL APPROACH
 Texts examined from this perspective are looking for symbols.
 Carl Jung believed that humans were born with an innate
knowledge of certain archetypes and that is why certain
myths are repeated throughout history in cultures and eras
that could not have had contact with one another.
 Many stories in Greek and Roman mythology have counterparts in
Chinese and Celtic mythology.
 Many of these myths and symbols represent ideas that
humans could not otherwise explain.
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Creation story
A life after death belief
A reason for human failing
Many of these are similar
MY THOLOGICAL/ARCHET YPAL APPROACH
CONTINUED
 Critics of these approach take note of general themes,
characters, and situations that recur in literature and myth.
 Example: Jane Austen’s Emma was adapted into the popular
Hollywood film Clueless
 By drawing on feelings, thoughts, concerns, and issues that
have been part of the human condition in ever generation,
modern authors allow readers to feel that they know the
characters in a work with very little background information.
MY THOLOGICAL/ARCHET YPAL
PERSPECTIVE
 Three main points of study:
 Archetypal characters
 Archetypal images
 Archetypal situations
ARCHET YPAL CHARACTERS
 The Hero: larger than life. Search for identity/fulfillment results
in destruction. Results in furthering the ideal.
 Clark Kent: balance between super and mortal self
Variations of the Hero: include the orphaned prince or the lost son
raised ignorant of his heritage until he is rediscovered.
 The Scapegoat: an innocent character whom the situation is
blamed. Removing guilt from culprit and society
 Charles Darney: blamed for actions of father/uncle. Killing him rectifies
what they did in Madam Defarge’s eyes.
 The Loner or Outcast: character who seperates from society due
to impairment or an advantage that sets this character apart
from others.
 Victor Frankenstein travel to remove localed to avoid people when he
realizes that he ahs created a moster.
ARCHET YPAL CHARACTERS
 Variations of the Loner:
 The Underdog: smaller, weaker, less worldly wise character who
usually emerges victorious at the end of the story.
 The guilt ridden figure in search of redemption.
 The Villain: the male or female personification of evil. Not all
antagonists are villains. Villains truly personify evil. Malice is
often unmotivated or is motivated by a single grievance from
the past. The villains malice is often limitless and rarely is the
villain reformed within the story.
 Madame Defarge
ARCHET YPAL CHARACTERS
 Variations of the Villian:
 The “mad scientist”
 The bully
 The temptress: the female who possesses what he male desires and
uses his desire as a mean to his ultimate destructions:
 The earth mother/goddess: mother nature, mother earth, the
nurturing, life-giving aspect of femininity
 The spirit or intellect: the often unidentified feminine inspiration for
works of art and literature.
 The sage: largely of eastern origin, the sage is elderly wise man, the
teacher or mentor.
ARCHET YPAL CHARACTERS
 Variations of the sage:
 The wise woman, the witch. Sage’s wisdom is usually spiritual or
philosophical. Wisdome concerns the working of mother nature.
 The stern but loving authority figure
 The oracle: male or female prophet, fortune -teller, sooth-sayer
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Colors:
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Red as blood, anger, passion, violence
Gold as greatness, value, wealth
Green as fertility, luxury; growth
Blue as peace serenity
White as purity goodness
 Numbers:
 Three for the christian trinity
 Four for the four season, four elements (fire, water, air, earth)
 Twelve for the months of the solar year
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Water: The source of life and sustenance; cleansing and
purification; baptism.
 Fire: protective and destructive; can symbolize human
knowledge and industry
 Gardens: natural abundance; easy, beautiful life; new birth,
hope; Eden, the original Paradise which humankind was
expelled.
 Geometric shapes: a triangle for the Trinity; a circle for
perfection and eternity, wholeness, union.
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Celestial Bodies: the sun is both the giver and destroyer of
life; the moon marks the passage of time and control the
course of human events. Seedtime, harvest are all determine
by the phases of the moon than the progress of the sun.
 Masculine imagines: columns, towers, boats trees.
 Feminine images: bodies of water, caves, doorways, windows.
 Caves: ambiguously can represent the womb (source of life)
the grave, often represented the entrance to the underworld
or unexplored regions of the human soul.
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Yin and Yang: any scheme that suggests that each par of
opposites partakes of the other’s nature, complements the
other, and essentially completes the other, the idea that
without a balance of opposing forces, the world would erupt in
chaos.
ARCHET YPAL SITUATIONS
 The Quest: the hero’s endeavor to establish his or her identify
or fulfill his or her destiny.
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Variations on the quest:
 The Faustian bargain: selling of one’s soul to the devil
(metaphorically) in exchange for unlimited power, knowledge, wealth
 The pursuit of revenge for a wrong:
 The descent into the underworld
 The renewal of life: death and rebirth, resurrection as seen in the
cycle of the seasons, the phases of the day, sleeping and waking
 Initiation: coming of age, rites of passage
 Ex: first hunt, weddings, teenage angst films
 The fall: any event that marks loss of innocence, a devolution from a
paradisial life or viewpoint to a tainted one.
 Redemptive Sacrifice: any voluntary loss of life, that results in
another’s gaining or regaining a desired state.
ARCHET YPAL IMAGES
 Redemptive sacrifice: any voluntary loss, especially a loss of
life, that results in another’s gaining or regaining a desired
state.
 The catalog of dif ficult tasks: ex: Cinderella’s treatment by
her stepmother
 The end of the world: usually apocalyptic, involving warfare, a
huge battle, a metaphoric final battle between good and evil
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS FOR
MY THOLOGICAL/ARCHET YPAL READING
 Complete worksheet
IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS AS
ARCHET YPES
 Complete worksheet with group.
IDENTIFYING ARCHET YPAL SITUATIONS
 Complete worksheet with groups
INFERRING THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
OF ARCHET YPES
 Complete worksheet
MY THOLOGICAL/ARCHET YPAL
JOURNAL RESPONSE
 At the end of the novel, Lily Owens declares she has many
mothers. In a coherent essay, compare Lily’s ideas about
Motherhood in the beginning of the book with her observation
at the conclusion.
LITERARY CRITICISM
 We will be reading three literary criticisms of The Secret Life
of Bees.
 Charles Brower
 Anne-Janine Morey
 Anne Marie Hacht
 After reading these criticisms, you will come up with a topic
relating to the three approaches we have discussed:
 Formalist Approach
 Feminist Approach
 Mythological Archetypal Approach
LITERARY CRITICISM
 You will create a thesis statement (we will review this) and
will use the book and at least of the literary criticism given to
you, to argue your thesis statement regarding The Secret Life
of Bees.
 Due Date: