Lily's Absence In The Secret Life Of Bees

Absence in Secret Life of Bees

In the novel the Secret Life of Bees, Lily has always had some part of her absent. Whether it is her heart or her mother she has never been completely whole. Absence in her life started in her very first memory, where she made a devastating mistake and pulled the trigger on her mother. Throughout her life absence has always found her, until the very end of the book she has never felt whole. It is only in the first two chapters when you find out that Lily killed her mother, and that her father lost all feelings of love for her. Not a stranger to absence do her parents absences have a tie? Also, interestingly enough was her father’s departure more detrimental to her childhood then her mother’s absence?
Lily barely has lived before she felt her first taste of loneliness, after the horrific death of her mom comes awful depression, and sadness, along with the feeling of absence. A daughter always need a female presence in her life or something about her will feel alone. The mother provides a position for the daughter to look up to and respect. Even more important,
Being an striking theme in Secret Life of Bees, absence is shown through the novel in many different fashions. It is important to note that her mother's leaves her in a horrific manner, but her father leaves her in a more slow and painful way. Lily will never be completely alright after her terrible childhood, the absence of her mom will always carry a heavy burden on her back. Also, her father’s emotional cold heartedness and disappearance will forever leave her longing for parental love. Overall, her parents left Lily in a hole that she has amazingly dig herself out of with the help of many supporting actors. Abandoned by everyone that loved her at a young age Lily was certainly headed down the road of failure until she met the wonderful calendar sisters, and the Tiburon