The secret life that bees have is similar to the secret life of Lily Owens. Lily learns about the bees’ secrets from August, while we learn about Lily’s secrets from her first-person narration.
This is an important quotation because it shows that Lily’s self-esteem is low from living with T. Ray and that believing in someone can be very powerful. After Mrs. Henry says this to Lily, Lily believes she can be a writer and practices whenever she can.
Tristan Mack WildsTristan Mack Wilds: Zach Taylor Jump to: Photos (1)
Rosaleen uses snuff throughout the novel, and Lily at one point steals a can of snuff for her. The spinner is a machine that separates out the good parts of the honey from the bad. August says she wishes such a machine could exist for people.
The next day, Zach brings Lily a notebook for her to use to work on her stories. He explains that society will never allow them to be together.
Lily and Rosaleen discover the story behind May's wall. May's problems began when her twin, April, died by suicide. August describes an event where racism caused April great sadness, and she began to become more and more depressed, eventually shooting herself with a shotgun.
Summary and Analysis Chapter 2. In this chapter, Lily's education in race relations really begins. Following Rosaleen's arrest, the policeman, Avery Gaston, drives Lily and Rosaleen to the jail with the three hollering men following them in a green pickup with a gun rack.
Lily and Zach return to the Boatwright house, where she finds that Rosaleen is moving from the honey house to May's room—she claims that the cot in the honey house is bad for her back. Lily is upset to be on her own in the honey house, and remembers how much she cares about Rosaleen.
He is the principal at June's school. Long ago, June was left at the altar by another man, so although she dates Neil, she refuses to marry him.
She feels she needs to touch Mary's heart, because she's afraid of coming clean without doing that. She also afraid August wouldn't have a clue who her mother was. What shocks lily when she's riding with Zach?
After May Boatwright commits suicide, August Boatwright takes Lily Owens and Zachary Taylor out to cover the hives with black cloth as a sign of mourning. August explains that she does this to help herself remember the truth of the interconnectedness of life and death: each springs forth from the other, and one cannot exist without the other.
Lily Owens, Chapter 8. The second time August Boatwright takes Lily Owens to the beehives, she begins to teach Lily about the intelligence of bees and about their social organization. August points out that bees are complicated creatures that have a "secret life" that humans know little about. She seems to be alluding to Lily's secrets, which she ...
When Lily Owens finally speaks with August Boatwright about her mother, she discovers that what her father has said is true: her mother did leave Lily. Lily had convinced herself that her father made this up to hurt her, but with August's confirmation, Lily has to abandon her mental image of her mother as the embodiment of perfection. She cannot yet accept the idea of her mother as an imperfect human being who loved her nonetheless.
Lily Owens and Rosaleen Daise argue after Lily breaks Rosaleen out of police custody and leads her to the outskirts of Tiburon. As Lily finally shares her reasons for leaving Sylvan, Rosaleen is offended because she, a mature black woman, is being led around by the young white girl she raised. Rosaleen feels insulted by Lily, who has behaved ...
August Boatwright, Chapter 8. When August Boatwright is telling Lily Owens a fantastic story about her grandmother hearing the beehives sing "the words of the Christmas story," Lily asks if August thinks this "really happened.". As August explains to Lily, there are different types of truths, and people are, by nature, mythmakers.
Zachary Taylor shares his fear that his race might prevent him from attaining success as a lawyer. Lily Owens says he could always play professional sports—the one professional arena Lily knows is open to black men. A tense moment ensues: Zach wants to be a lawyer, but Lily has never heard of a black lawyer. Zach's response gets to the heart of political and social change: one must look outside the status quo and have the courage to pursue one's goals, even if they don't seem possible in the present world.
Lily Owens, Chapter 3. Entering the general store in Tiburon, Lily sees a display of honey jars and realizes that the image reproduced on the labels is the very same one as the black Mary picture she is carrying with her, and that has, in fact, brought her to Tiburon. Lily contemplates that she barely understands the surface of life, ...
The secret life that bees have is similar to the secret life of Lily Owens. Lily learns about the bees’ secrets from August, while we learn about Lily’s secrets from her first-person narration. Just as the bees produce the sweet honey that August is so attached to, Lily creates a bittersweet coming-of-age story about a young girl who finds ...
As she explains the nature of spirituality as it relates to beehives, August speaks these words to Lily in chapter 8. August has taught Lily all about the communities bees keep inside their hives.
Amongst other things, Lily has learned of the importance of the female power structure in the bee community: how the queen bee is doted on by a whole team of companions, how she lays the eggs that become every single other bee in the hive, and how this queen bee is the mother of thousands. For Lily, who has lost her mother, this sounds incredibly ...
She relates it almost immediately to stories from the Bible, and Lily begins to think of the bees as part God and part Mary, whom August also explains as a spiritual essence that is present everywhere, in everything. Taking these two ideas together, Lily decides that the mother Mary is the mother of thousands, and also in many ways her mother as ...
In this way, the motherhood Lily believes Mary offers her is parallel to the support and love she gets from August and her community of women, a support that is secret to the world but that nourishes her and keeps her alive. The secret life that bees have is similar to the secret life of Lily Owens.
The Secret Life of Bees. “Hold on now, Franklin,” said Mr. Gaston, moving us toward the door. “Now’s not the time.”. Mr. Gaston, the policeman who arrests Lily and Rosaleen after their confrontation with a group of racist white men, tells Franklin, one of the white aggressors, that now is not the time, implying that he accepts Franklin’s behavior.
Rosaleen responds to Lily after Lily naively asks what the point of the Civil Rights Act is if black people are still discriminated against. Rosaleen explains that the Civil Rights Act might have passed, but that doesn’t mean people’s opinions have changed.
Lily successfully convinces Brother Gerald that Rosaleen acted out due to her love for Jesus.
While on their escape, Lily plans to rent a motel room for them, and Rosaleen stops her to explain why that might not be possible , since Rosaleen is black. Lily’s racial naiveté stems from her young age and lack of experience. Over the course of the novel, Lily’s experiences will deepen her understanding of race and develop her maturity as ...
Gaston’s comment demonstrates a sort of passive racism prevalent in the South during the civil rights era. Mr. Gaston represents one of the text’s more stereotypical racists, a character whose actions and words play against other characters who exhibit a more complex racism.
This quotation is significant because, developing the metaphor of society as hive and bee as human, it shows that people are typically much more complicated that then appear on the surface. 9. “Putting black cloths on the hives is for us.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES BY SUE MONK KIDD. 1. “People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life.”. Lily, p.2. Lily says this in the beginning of the novel during the exposition. This is an important quote because Lily’s life has been profoundly affected by her mother’s death. This statement suggests ...
The first instance is the way that May’s death propels June to marry Neil, thus establishing their new life together. The second time is when Lily finally reconciles with her mother’s death and is set free to truly begin her own life. 10. “It was you who did it, Lily. You didn’t mean it, but it was you.”.