The Secret Life of Bees
Setting
• SETTING
• The novel is set in South Carolina during
the turbulent time frame of 1964. The civil
rights movement is well underway. The
author draws from many of her own
memories of this time and the profound
emotional and political turmoil associated
with the civil rights movement and the
racial tension of the period.
Characters
• Lily Melissa Owens
• Fourteen-year-old Lily Owens is the main character and protagonist
of this novel. Lily has lived alone with her cruel father since her
mother’s mysterious death ten years ago. Lily’s black housekeeper
and mother-figure, Rosaleen, is unfairly jailed for defending herself
against racist, white men. Lily helps her escape and brings
Rosaleen on a journey, in which Lily tries to learn about her mother.
• Rosaleen
• Rosaleen becomes the Owens family’s housekeeper after Lily’s
mother dies. She is a large, African-American woman who is not
certain of her age. Rosaleen becomes like a mother to Lily.
Characters
•
•
August Boatwright
August is a beekeeper who lives in a bright pink house in Tiburon, SC. She
is an African-American woman and sells Black Madonna Honey. She and
her sisters, May and June, let Lily and Rosaleen stay with them.
•
•
May Boatwright
May is August’s very emotional sister. May’s twin sister, April, killed herself
when she was fifteen years old. Since then, May is prone to emotional
break-downs and spends a lot of time at her “wailing wall.” When May finds
out that Zach is in jail, she kills herself.
•
•
•
June Boatwright
June is August’s other sister, who is not happy to have Lily staying in their
house. June is rude to Lily until the day that Lily wets her with the sprinkler
that she, May, August and Rosaleen are playing in. June finally accepts Lily,
even though she is white.
What’s in a name?
• Why May, June and August?
• What are these names symbolic of?
•
•
Coming of age is a young person's transition from adolescence to
adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as
does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can
be part of a ritualistic cycle, similar to those once practiced by many
societies. In the past, and in some societies today, such a change is
associated with the age of sexual maturity (mid-adolescence); in others, it is
associated with an age of religious responsibility. Particularly in western
societies, modern legal conventions which stipulate points in late
adolescence or early adulthood (most commonly 18 and 21, at which time
adolescents are generally no longer considered minors and are granted the
full rights of an adult) are the focus of the transition. In either case, many
cultures retain ceremonies to confirm the coming of age, and significant
benefits come with the change.
The term coming of age is also used in reference to different media such as
stories, songs, movies, etc. that have a young character or characters who,
by the end of the story, have developed in some way, through the
undertaking of responsibility, or by learning a lesson.
The Importance of Storytelling
• Lily loves to read, and she recognizes the importance of storytelling
as a way to escape or transcend one’s circumstances. Early in the
novel, Lily recounts two memories relating to reading: in one, T. Ray
makes fun of her for reading, calling her “Julius Shakespeare.” In
another, a teacher praises Lily for being so intelligent and lends her
books. Lily recalls books that have meant something to her during
times of stress, as when she compares herself to Thoreau’s
experiences at Walden Pond on her way to Tiburon. She rightly
recognizes that books allow readers to escape into a fantasy world,
and she makes up stories about why she and Rosaleen have come
to Tiburon. More abstractly, Lily’s adventure with Rosaleen echoes
Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: like Huck,
Lily sneaks off with an African American friend into nature and to
unknown worlds. Lily longs to someday become a writer, and, to this
end, Zach gives Lily a notebook in which she can record her
thoughts and stories. August tells Lily stories to help her learn to
love and trust. Through books and stories, Lily sees the possibilities
for her own life.
I’m allergic to bees!
Bees serve as Lily’s unspoken guides throughout the novel. In the
beginning, they come to her room to relay the message that she should
head out on her own and leave T. Ray’s house. Likewise, Lily follows the
trail of the honey label to Tiburon—and to the truth about her mother. In
Tiburon, she lives in the honey house, and tending bees becomes her
occupation. Early on, when August asks Lily what she loves, she lists bees
near the top of her list. Bees suggest rebirth, exploration, sexual maturation,
and personal growth. They guide Lily, accompany her, and drive her
forward. For every important action Lily takes in the novel, bees and their
products play a role: from realizing she is in love with Zach (when she licks
honey off his finger) to realizing she loves August (when she lets the bees
rest on her body). Lily even finds the “secret life of bees” similar to her own
life. Their industrious care for their mother, their continuous ability to keep
going in work, and their ability to survive inspire Lily. Finally, their reliance on
an all-female community resembles her own reliance, and the bees’
community helps Lily understand the power of the human community. For
these reasons, bees are the central motif of The Secret Life of Bees.
Why the quote? Why at the
beginning of each chapter?
• An epigraph, or quotation, from a book about bees
precedes each of the novel’s fourteen chapters, thereby
stitching together the chapters of the novel and relating
them back to the overarching motif of bees. These
epigraphs give readers a preview of the chapter’s
contents. For example, the epigraph to chapter 1
describes the importance of a queen bee to a
community, and chapter 1 of the novel introduces
readers to Lily, a determined young girl in search of a
mother’s love. Similarly, the epigraph to chapter 7
wonders how bees became linked to sex, and chapter 7
of the novel deals with Lily’s burgeoning sexual desire
and relationship to Zach. Significantly, the novel contains
fourteen epigraphs and fourteen chapters; as the novel
opens, Lily has just turned fourteen.
“All I got is a photograph and I realize you ain’t
coming back anymore!”
•
Photographs symbolize the power of relationships in The Secret Life of
Bees. Lily only has one photograph of her mother, but when she looks at
this photograph she sees her mother’s lost potential and her own possible
potential, which may or may not be fulfilled over the course of her life. Lily
assumes that she will inherit the beauty of her mother. And when she looks
at the future, she also sees her beautiful future. In addition, she handles the
photograph carefully, as carefully as one would handle a baby; in this way,
the photograph represents the hope and desire that she might someday find
and feel maternal love. Lily also feels closer to Rosaleen when she
discovers that Rosaleen also has a single photograph of her mother. Later,
when August shows Lily other photographs of her mother, one of which is of
her mother and Lily as a baby, Lily struggles to forgive her mother for being
a flawed and complicated person. But, once again, seeing a photograph of
her mother makes Lily feel tangibly closer to the deceased woman. In many
ways, photographs are the only tangible manifestation of Lily’s powerful love
for her mother. Deborah died when Lily was too young to have formed many
memories of her, and thus the photograph stands as Lily’s only access to
the woman she will never know.
Can the Virgin Mary be black?
• The black Mary serves several functions in the novel. As the picture,
it symbolizes mothers and mother surrogates. Lily carries around a
wooden picture of the black Mary, which she found among some
objects that once belonged to her mother. This picture literally
symbolizes Deborah to Lily, and eventually the picture leads Lily to
August, a black woman who will become a surrogate mother.
Through August, Lily will learn about Mary, whom August considers
to be the mother of all of humanity. Significantly, Lily finds the
wooden statue of Mary just seconds before she meets August,
another instance of foreshadowing the relationship that will develop
between August and Lily. August, along with the members of her
group, the Daughters of Mary, worship at the statue every night. As
a statue, the black Mary symbolizes the importance of having faith
and believing in something larger than one’s self. The black Mary
statue also reinforces the importance of storytelling: before meeting
August, Lily learned stories from books. But August tells stories,
including stories about the origin of the black Mary, to teach Lily
important lessons about life.
“Real Black Madonnas”
The Black Madonna of
Częstochowa, Poland
The Black Virgin of
Montserrat: a copy at
Barcelona Cathedral
CONFLICT
• In The Secret Life of Bees Lily must learn
about her dead mother in order to
understand her own life.
Secret Lives
• The major theme of this novel is expressed in its
title, which comes from a statement made by
August: “Most people don’t have any idea about
all the complicated life going on inside a hive.
Bees have a secret life we don’t know anything
about” (148). Throughout the novel, the reader
learns how most characters are not what they
seem on the surface. People’s lives are usually
much more complex and complicated than they
appear.
The Irrationality of Racism
•
The Secret Life of Bees demonstrates the irrationality of racism by not only
portraying black and white characters with dignity and humanity but by also
demonstrating how Lily struggles with—and ultimately overcomes—her own
racism. Kidd moves beyond stereotypes to portray whites and blacks with
the multifaceted personalities that we find in real life. Lily is not a racist in
the same way that the group of men that harass Rosaleen are racist, but
she does evidence some prejudice and stereotypes at the start of the novel.
She assumes that all African Americans are like Rosaleen, an uneducated
laborer-turned-housekeeper. Lily imagines that all African Americans are
likewise coarse and uneducated. But when Lily encounters unique,
educated, thoughtful August Boatwright, she must change her assumptions
and combat her prejudice. At first, Lily feels shocked that a black person
could be as smart, sensitive, and creative as August. Recognizing and
combating her shock allows Lily to realize the truth about the arbitrariness
and irrationality of racism. Like Lily, June must also learn to overcome racial
stereotypes. As individuals, humans can display a complex array of
personality traits and characteristics, regardless of skin color or ethnicity.
The Power of Female Community
• Motherless Lily finds at the Boatwright house several surrogate
mothers and learns the power of female community. At the
beginning of The Secret Life of Bees, Lily longs for her mother and
cherishes the few possessions Deborah left behind. She
demonstrates an awareness of her femininity and laments that she
has missed out on certain female lessons because her mother is
dead. For example, she clings to a pair of white gloves that used to
belong to Deborah. But although Lily lacks a mother, she does have
female companionship. Rosaleen has raised Lily, and Lily looks to
Rosaleen for love and support. Rosaleen’s arrest serves as a
catalyst for Lily’s journey toward a much larger and more fulfilling
female community: the one she finds at the Boatwright house.
There, Lily sees how strong women support, tend to, comfort,
encourage, and love one another by witnessing the bonds between
the Daughters of Mary. Through their examples, and by being
included in their group, Lily begins to feel empowered as a woman.
Resolution-Sue Monk Kidd
• A few days ago a student interviewed me for her
high school newspaper. “Could you describe
The Secret Life of Bees in one word?” More
typically the question is worded: Could you
describe the novel in one sentence? Did she say
one word? As a rule I avoid trying to squeeze
into one sentence, much less one word, what
took me three and a half years to write, but I
surprised myself by answering “Homecoming”.