Experiences change you Many teenagers feel that they know everything, but as time goes on, they grow, mature and develop. They start to realize that part of developing is: understanding how life is and how to handle challenges that life gives them. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, the protagonist Lily is presented as a dynamic character, she changes, matures and grows into a young woman. Lily explores and grows spiritually; she learns how to forgive and to be loved. Lily as a dynamic character changes a lot.
The fact that Rosaleen truly cared for and loved Lily is ironic because Rosaleen is African American while Lily is White. Throughout the book, Lily is desperate to find out about her mother, who she has little memory of. What I learned through this book is that every end is another beginning and also, no matter how much you feel abandoned and alone, there are people out there that love you. Lily leaves home with Rosaleen to Tiburon, South Carolina. As Lily spends time with the Boatwright sisters, she finds out about her mother.
The devastating loss of a mother at a young age can drastically affect a girl’s life; it can impact the way she interacts with others, the way she thinks, and how she handles herself emotionally. In The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character, Lily Owens, loses her mother at the age of four. She copes with the after effect: trying to grow up on her own, with little to no parental influence. During her journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, with her caregiver, Rosaleen, she finds comfort and support in the family of women she meets. Throughout the novel, Lily matures and adapts to her new life evidenced by the inspiration she receives from the Black Mary and Calendar Sisters.
One of the earliest examples of the separation of races in the book symbolizes the strict dichotomy of opportunity for black and white children. On the very second page, Maya explains how she wished that she would wake up in a white world, with blond hair, blue eyes, and she would shudder from the nightmare of being black. Later in the book she states, “I remember never believing that whites were really real,” which implies that she reveres whites because of her lack of real knowledge of them. Her only experience with whites so far in the novel is with the “powhitetrash” girls, who come to the store and treat her Momma disrespectfully. “And then if they were dirty, mean, and imprudent, why did Momma have to call them Miz?” she asked herself after seeing her Momma treat the young girls respectfully.
In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees, racism is portrayed in different ways from a varied range of characters. The main character, Lily discovers that before she starts to live with the Boatwright sisters, she is very racist toward black people. When first living with the Boatwright’s, one of the sisters June discriminates against Lily, which is what is called reverse racism. The churches, although were expected to be very accepting of everyone, were the worst people to discriminate against African Americans in The Secret Life of Bees. White people don’t like to believe that they practice identity politics.
As the book progresses further, we soon learn more and more why Irene’s feelings of resentment towards Clare are justifiable. Growing up, Clare had “never been exactly one of the group” (Larsen 20) and always wanted more out of life. Her desires and light skin eventually landed her in the “other world,” passing off as white. Irene finds especially shocking how Clare could just drop her entire heritage like a brick and live with someone who considers African-Americans “black scrimy devils” (Larsen 40). Here we see the first signs of racial and sexual tension that exists between the two women.
Travis Greenwell AP Literature Mr. Goodlett September 14, 2009 Lily Owens: girl to young woman During the time of the civil rights movement, racism was at its peak in America. However, the journey of a determined 14-year old girl named Lily Owens takes center stage in the novel The Secret Life of Bees when she escapes from her abusive father in search of what happened to her deceased mother. She ends up in the household of three African American women who teach her key principles that contribute to success in life. Throughout this novel, Lily’s determination drives her to discover the truth about her mother while maturing in the Boatwright household. In this story, the main focus is on Lily’s journey to find everything she can about her mother and her longing for motherly love.
The Secret Life of Bees is the story of Lily, a fourteen-year-old girl who runs away from her very unloving father, to look for the secrets of her dead mother's past. The setting of the book is in South Carolina in 1964, a time when racial tensions were inflamed by the civil rights movement and white racists' frequently had violent responses to it. Throughout all this, Lily and her house-keeper, Rosaleen, find shelter in the home of the Boatwright sisters, three African American beekeepers who worship before the statue of a Black Madonna they call "Our Lady of Chains." In the Boatwright household, Lily finds love and acceptance and begins to come to terms with the guilt she feels over her mother's death. As a result of the experiences in her life and the way she interprets them, Lily is able to mature and grow, placing her firmly on the road to adulthood.
She learns and very closely follows the norms, specific rules of behavior, such as using sister, m’am, miss, ect. in front of an adults name. Maya thinks she is ugly and feels that she doesn’t belong. She feels defined by her ascribed status (Ch 4, pg 90), being a black child and her role expectations (Ch 4, pg 76), what the rest of the black, as well as the white community, expects of her. De facto segregation, which our text defines on page 326 as segregation created and maintained by unwritten norms, is so dominate in Stamps, when Maya was young she felt white people couldn’t be real.
This is not an isolated situation, but a constant and recognizably unchanging event that was part of life for a black person during the 1950's. This kind of racism became such a common occurrence that soon the victims began to believe that the insults were true. Geraldine's family is an example of such hatred, as she shapes her life, family, and son to reject their heritage; the color of their skin and accept inferiority. Geraldine molds her son's views by telling him only to play with "White kids; his mother did not like him to play with niggers. She had explained to him the difference between colored people and niggers.