Race-Based Prejudice In The Secret Life Of Bees

In the novel The Secret life of Bees there are many different themes in the novel but my two favorite ones are female power and race-based prejudice. In female power you see Rosaleen being lily mother even though she is not her mother but she does it because she loves lily and August giving her knowledge and helping her be strong so that she can be good in the world. Then another female power is lily asking for her mother forgiveness for killing her and remembering her mother. The other theme in the novel would be Race-based prejudice. On how Lily was growing up in the south where races were divided by the laws and how other people would have their attitude on different race.
In the novel The Secret life of Bees i feel that Rosaleen has
She is not like Rosaleen who cooks for her and cleans up for her but she is like a mother to lily. August is Lily's second surrogate mother, and she gives lily knowledge. She intuitively recognizes what lily needs and acknowledges immediately whose daughter lily is. She waits for her until she comes to tell August a story about her mother, and she holds lily while she lets out all her rage. August give lily the fearlessness to listen to herself and that a women could be strong and who does good in the world. Then is this quote it says,” There is nothing perfect,” August said from the doorway. “There is only life ( pg 256 ).” To me that quote is very strong and it would help Lily forget about her mother. To me i feel that August teacher's lily about life and that is why she has female
“I didn't know whether to be excited for her or worried. All people ever talked about after church were the Negroes and whether they'd get their civil rights. Who was winning—the white people's team or the colored people's team? Like it was a do-or-die contest. When that minister from Alabama, Reverend Martin Luther King, got arrested last month in Florida for wanting to eat in a restaurant, the men at church acted like the white people's team had won the pennant race. I knew they would not take this news lying down, not in one million years ( page 21 ).” Lily is talking about the Civil Rights Act, which she and Rosaleen were watching live on their T.V. Then Lily wasn’t as excited like Rosaleen because Lily isn’t really politically active. Rosaleen was so excited that when she was watching the T.V she sat there shaking her head and saying,”lord have mercy,” just looking so happy about the Civil Rights Act being signed. Then after it was signed many people were not happy about given African Americans the right to vote. “An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. Last night the television had said a man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote, and I myself had overheard Mr. Bussey, one of the deacons, say to T. Ray, 'Don't you worry, they're gonna make 'em write their names in perfect cursive and refuse them a card if they forget so much as to dot an I or make a