The Secret Life of Bees and Treasure Island both have adolescent children, who go through their own adventures to mature and change. Lily and Jim both start out as young, innocent kids and soon become matured young adults that are able to make their own decisions and do what is best for others.
In these two novels both Jim and Lily starts out as very young kids that have a lot of change that has taken place in both of their lives. For example, Lily being there when Rosaleen was arrested and how Captain Flint arrived at Jim’s families Inn. Also, when Lily and Jim both had to leave their homes in search for something that they both wanted to know, Lily wanting to know more about
her mother and Jim wanting ever so eagerly to go after the treasure. Both of the characters did end up finding what they were looking for and had become more mature at the end of both books. Both Jim and Lily in a way were forced to grow up. For example, when Lily’s mother died no one really was a mother to her and after Captain Flint had died and he had talked to Dr. Livesey, he had to leave his mother and go on a treasure hunt with a bunch of unknown people. Lily and Jim had a time in their lives where they had to make tough decisions and this was all part of growing up. For example, when Lily eventually had to tell August the truth about why Rosaleen and herself were here staying at August’s house and if August knew anything about her beloved mother. Jim has been making tough decisions all throughout the book. One of the main decisions was either to kill Israel Hands or to let him live.
Both characters did become mature towards the end of the book and eventually knew that they had to make their own decision for themselves. In the Secret Life of Bees, Lily took a brave move in stepping forward and facing her father and telling him that she would rather stay with August and eventually August had asked him to let her stay. Another example would be when Lily had left her father in Sylvan and gone to Tiburon; Lily also had took the brave move to plan a scheme to break Rosaleen free from jail. Jim had also matured towards the end of the book by starting as the cabin boy but eventually naming himself the new captain after he reclaims the ship from the pirates. These characters also had some difficulties during their stories. An example from Secret Life of Bees was when Lily and the others had found out about May, this had delayed Lily telling the whole truth and knowing the whole truth about her mother. For Treasure Island when Jim was surprisingly stuck in the apple barell he had heard about Long John Silver planning an attack on the expedition.
At the end of both stories, Jim and lily both show maturity and coming of age in tough situations and important decisions. They had to overcome a lot while growing up and it all counted for it. Jim was very heroic and courageous when he needed to be and Lily made all her actions count. Overall, they have still not reached complete adulthood and still have time to grow up and go on amazing adventures.